Should ethnic heritage be a factor in deciding if someone is ethnically English?
English identity is debated as both a civic and cultural concept tied to birthplace, upbringing and values, and an ethnic one linked to ancestral family heritage. Recent YouGov polling shows 32% of adults in England say family heritage is required to be considered English compared with 21% for British identity, while only 11% overall say someone must be white with English heritage. Prominent figures including Rishi Sunak and Kemi Badenoch have rejected defining Englishness solely by ethnicity or skin colour.
7 Opinions
Nationality/citizenship are different from Ethnicity/Ethnic heritage, it’s not racist nor far-right to state this reality.
Ethnically English implies native ancestry, Culturally English implies you act like the native population, share in their cultural traits, and Civic English means the government handed you a piece of paper. If I migrate to china, never become ethnically Han Chinese, neither are my kids, neither are their descendents. Its strange how many people here are intentionally confused about this concept, because it aligns with their open-borders dogma.
i flip flopped between yes & no. It's more complex. How far back do you go? How many generations? I know plenty whose ethnicity wouldn't be considered to be English, but who are far more patriotic and have a greater allegiance to the country than a lot who would be considered English if ethnicity alone was the defining factor. How many who appear ethnically English have DNA that is not native Celt, or even of the Germanic tribes that intermingled with the celts.
The answer is in the question, ethnically English can be only someone with English ethnic heritage. Nobody sane will ask similar question about Polish, Russians, Japanese, Koreans or Hausa ethnicity.
Terriibly worded question. Of course ethnicity is a factor in deciding if someone is ethnically English.