Where am I from?
It’s not straightforward
I took cultural intelligence training yesterday. One of the videos shared tackled an age-old question: “where are you from?” It got me thinking about my own answers to this question, but I’m not sure what it really means anymore¹.
As in the video, I’m a white guy in a country where I don’t need to consider this question much at all (in this case the UK). Recent debates around nationalism and identity have made me think about it more.
I consider myself from England, specifically from the Westcountry, but according to my DNA, none of me is “English”. I lean into the Celtic side (about 80 % Irish, Welsh and Scots), which is understandable given the influence of the Irish side of my family², but I also have Sardinian, Norwegian and Baltic in my DNA. If anyone in my family knew of these components no one’s ever mentioned it.
So what does it matter if I, or my child, or any potential grandchildren, claim the English part of our heritage? How far do we look back when, say, deciding who to support at a sporting event? For the Olympics, the decision was easy (team GB), but an event like the Six Nations is more challenging: do I cheer the country of my birth, the country of my surname, or the country of some of my ancestors? (England, Wales, or Ireland)
