Okay hi I want to clear something up.
This is aimed mostly toward Americans because you do it the most, but really is for anyone who does this.
When a survey or a person or whatever asks what your nationality is, you do not go listing every country your ancestors are from.
That is not your nationality. Your nationality is American (or wherever you are from), like it or not.
Let's say your great grandparents are from Germany. They are German.
You are not German. You are American.
Unless you are a citizen of that country, you do not belong to that country. So if you do not hold citizenship in Italy, you are not Italian.
The only exception there really is to this is if one or more of your parents are from that country because in that case you more than likely are eligble to be a citizen if you aren't already.
Where your ancestors come from is your ethnicity, not your nationality.
If someone asks what your ethnicity is, that's different, go ahead and list all the different places your family is from, but please stop saying "well I'm 1/4 German and 1/16 Japanese" when people ask your nationality.
You have no idea how much it annoys other people.
TheCovertComic
rebecca*