I don’t really consider nationality to be part of my self identity—I’m not sure how unusual I am in this regard. I’d suggest changing next year’s survey to include “what country are you in right now” (unambiguous so hopefully less noisy) plus another question about national identity which would permit non-state or non-officially recognized nations as answers and also permit none/not sure. Essentially giving nationality the same treatment already given to sex/gender.
Disagree. “What country do you most identify with” covers people who care about nationality, immigrants who care about the land they live in even if they aren’t citizens, children of immigrants who identify most with their parents’ origin country even if they don’t live there and aren’t citizens, expats who reject cultural assimilation, would-be immigrants that can’t permanently live in their country of choice but have assimilated, angsty movie characters who are torn between two or more countries and make compromises, people who don’t give a hoot but can’t ignore where their culture comes from, or where they have ties, or where they were raised, or where they pay taxes. “What country are you in” covers native or assimilated members of a culture who are not vacationing abroad, expats visiting their home country, and you.
I’m starting to think that different people interpret “identify” in different ways, also from discussion in the Call For Critiques/Questions thread.
If I’m asked whether I’m male or female, I answer I’m male, with no hesitation whatsoever. This is what I’d call “identifying as male”. OTOH this doesn’t mean that I’m proud of being male, that I endorse maleness (whatever that would mean), that I think males are more awesome than females¹ or even that I try to conform to any cultural stereotype of maleness solely because it’s a cultural stereotype of maleness.² ISTM that certain people understand “identify” this latter way.
“what country are you in right now”
“What country do you currently live in” would be better IMO; with your version, someone who happens to be on holiday abroad when taking the test would have to give a somewhat irrelevant answer, whereas “currently” could be interpreted more broadly as I did for the employment question. Or if you really want to operationalize it, “in what country would it be the most convenient for you to attend a LW meetup in the next few months”.
In fact, I find the majority of males to be pretty boring.
Indeed, my latest Facebook status was “I wish Facebook had a way to automatically hide all posts about football (soccer)” (but in Italian), and it has been liked by 11 females and 3 males so far.
I see what you’re saying, but I don’t really identify with any country.
My country of birth was an accident & the country I live in now is governed by Communists.
If you do identify with a country, you might want to take a close look at that. Are you cheering for that team just because of an accident of birth, or because it is really worth cheering for?
I don’t cheer for it. I identify with it because I’ve spent most of my life in it, natively speak its language, am more intimately familiar with its culture than with that of any other country, and so are most of my friends. But it’s not like I’m proud of being from here or anything like that. See my reply to Giles.
I understand that & I agree. I saw your reply, I just wanted to clarify, not necessarily for you, but for any other people who happened to be reading the thread.
Yes. Using “identify” in a survey would be no improvement, if so many people would interpret it the wrong way. Maybe it should use “consider yourself to be” or something like that.
It says,
That should coincide with the country you’re a citizen of except in exceptional circumstances.
I don’t really consider nationality to be part of my self identity—I’m not sure how unusual I am in this regard. I’d suggest changing next year’s survey to include “what country are you in right now” (unambiguous so hopefully less noisy) plus another question about national identity which would permit non-state or non-officially recognized nations as answers and also permit none/not sure. Essentially giving nationality the same treatment already given to sex/gender.
Disagree. “What country do you most identify with” covers people who care about nationality, immigrants who care about the land they live in even if they aren’t citizens, children of immigrants who identify most with their parents’ origin country even if they don’t live there and aren’t citizens, expats who reject cultural assimilation, would-be immigrants that can’t permanently live in their country of choice but have assimilated, angsty movie characters who are torn between two or more countries and make compromises, people who don’t give a hoot but can’t ignore where their culture comes from, or where they have ties, or where they were raised, or where they pay taxes. “What country are you in” covers native or assimilated members of a culture who are not vacationing abroad, expats visiting their home country, and you.
I’m starting to think that different people interpret “identify” in different ways, also from discussion in the Call For Critiques/Questions thread.
If I’m asked whether I’m male or female, I answer I’m male, with no hesitation whatsoever. This is what I’d call “identifying as male”. OTOH this doesn’t mean that I’m proud of being male, that I endorse maleness (whatever that would mean), that I think males are more awesome than females¹ or even that I try to conform to any cultural stereotype of maleness solely because it’s a cultural stereotype of maleness.² ISTM that certain people understand “identify” this latter way.
“What country do you currently live in” would be better IMO; with your version, someone who happens to be on holiday abroad when taking the test would have to give a somewhat irrelevant answer, whereas “currently” could be interpreted more broadly as I did for the employment question. Or if you really want to operationalize it, “in what country would it be the most convenient for you to attend a LW meetup in the next few months”.
In fact, I find the majority of males to be pretty boring.
Indeed, my latest Facebook status was “I wish Facebook had a way to automatically hide all posts about football (soccer)” (but in Italian), and it has been liked by 11 females and 3 males so far.
I see what you’re saying, but I don’t really identify with any country.
My country of birth was an accident & the country I live in now is governed by Communists.
If you do identify with a country, you might want to take a close look at that. Are you cheering for that team just because of an accident of birth, or because it is really worth cheering for?
I don’t cheer for it. I identify with it because I’ve spent most of my life in it, natively speak its language, am more intimately familiar with its culture than with that of any other country, and so are most of my friends. But it’s not like I’m proud of being from here or anything like that. See my reply to Giles.
I understand that & I agree. I saw your reply, I just wanted to clarify, not necessarily for you, but for any other people who happened to be reading the thread.
Yes. Using “identify” in a survey would be no improvement, if so many people would interpret it the wrong way. Maybe it should use “consider yourself to be” or something like that.