Nationality - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The nationality of a person is that person's legal relationship with a state, for example a Swedish person's legal relationship with the kingdom of Sweden.^[1] Nationality is not identical to citizenship but in the majority of states most of the population are both citizens and nationals. Dual nationality means that the person has a legal relationship with two different states at the same time, for example with the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The rights and duties of individual people and the states they belong to vary from country to country.^[2]

"Nationality" can take on different meanings depending on the country, language and culture in question. For example, someone of Italian descent may be called "Italian" even if the individual, a member of the Italian diaspora, has no right to an Italian passport and citizenship. In past centuries, the usual meaning of "nationality" was not political, but rather meant membership in an ethnic group. In modern cases such as in airports, when officials ask your "nationality," they are asking to see the passport you use for travel to foreign countries.

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