Ramsden is the child of an government employee serving on a diplomatic mission. This is highly different than being the child of an ex-pat or having parents/grandparents that make someone eligible for multiple citizenships. In the US, the only children born in the US that are not eligible for birthright citizenship are the children of active foreign diplomats. If parents are tourists or just temporarily in the US for business, their children are eligible for citizenship. It differs in every country, but Ramsden being the child of someone working on a diplomatic mission makes her as kiwi as it gets regardless of where she was born or lived.
Children with multiple citizenship options are typically only lucky if they are elite enough athletes to benefit from competing internationally. For most people, it just means you are a first or second generation immigrant and you may have to deal with the prejudice of being an "outsider" as a kid. It might be a better situation than where your parents immigrated from, but it doesn't mean kids from multigenerational families in the new country will accept you.
No, American is not an ethnicity, except native people. As for Maori in NZ. I mentioned it because a nationality is not passed from parent to child the same way an ethnicity is. But she is studying the Pacific, so she is owning it.
It is not for me to say where she's from. Objectively, she is from New Zealand. And also other places.
Alright, delete this thread mods. It's stupid, I admit. Although so are countries on some level.
It is moreso odd that you get this much irritation from a complete stranger simply living their life. Weird.
Ramsden is the child of an government employee serving on a diplomatic mission. This is highly different than being the child of an ex-pat or having parents/grandparents that make someone eligible for multiple citizenships. In the US, the only children born in the US that are not eligible for birthright citizenship are the children of active foreign diplomats. If parents are tourists or just temporarily in the US for business, their children are eligible for citizenship. It differs in every country, but Ramsden being the child of someone working on a diplomatic mission makes her as kiwi as it gets regardless of where she was born or lived.
Children with multiple citizenship options are typically only lucky if they are elite enough athletes to benefit from competing internationally. For most people, it just means you are a first or second generation immigrant and you may have to deal with the prejudice of being an "outsider" as a kid. It might be a better situation than where your parents immigrated from, but it doesn't mean kids from multigenerational families in the new country will accept you.
Ramsden's mother is from Connecticut. Her father is from New Zealand.
Her parents are Kiwis though she was born and mostly grew up outside of NZ. As far as I'm concerned, that makes her a Kiwi. It's amusing to hear her totally American accent, but it is what it is.
Charles Hicks is the one that irks me. He was born in London to American parents and has lived most of his life in the US, returning for middle school. He is American through and through and it looks like representing the UK is just about the ease of making teams.
Define "most of his life".
I could see how a kid born somewhere and then lived there during formative years might take the allegiance of that country but I don't know in this case the particulars.
Christian Pulisic for Germany where he went to a soccer academy?
Grant Fisher Canada?
There are rules with the IAAF in place, people are run who the qualify to run for. Not that big of a deal. Yea the US team is competitive to make, a lot of people live here.
Nothing here really. Dual citizen born to American parents, who worked in foreign service in NZ. She even went to hs in NZ and was NZ U20 champ at 800 and 1500. Dad was also a Harvard grad.
In post-NCAA interviews, both she and Kimberly May talked about racing each other as teenagers. Seems like Maia actually spent a lot of formative years there. She'd also lived in many countries around the world, and I think her parents are Kiwis as well.
That is a good point. Ethnicity and nationality used to line up in most places. That is no longer the case. It has also never been the case in the USA (a nation of random people from all over the place).
Yet it is weird to say the fastest Dane (at 800m) of all time is a Kenyan with Danish citizenship. Being a "Dane" is an ethnicity, right? You can't move to Kenya and become Kalenjin, can you? You can get Kenyan citizenship but that is only part of what it means to "be from somewhere."
So people correctly see that the two terms - ethnicity and nationality - don't overlap nicely in many cases these days. I don't see why that bothers you so much though...
But yes, it creates confusion for people who find statements like this somehow off: "Paul Chelimo is one of the best American distance runner to ever come out of the US system..." That isn't really accurate, is it?
Maia is similar in that she is an American who livedin New Zealand. If the other country had been Japan, would you have said she's Japanese?
p.s. I like Paul Chelimo; his racing style is exciting to watch. I just don't think he is the product of "growing up as runner in America."
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If it means the U.S. can keep getting European based soccer players who have barely been to the U.S. but can’t make the German, French, or English national teams, I’m all for it.
Her parents are Kiwis though she was born and mostly grew up outside of NZ. As far as I'm concerned, that makes her a Kiwi. It's amusing to hear her totally American accent, but it is what it is.
Charles Hicks is the one that irks me. He was born in London to American parents and has lived most of his life in the US, returning for middle school. He is American through and through and it looks like representing the UK is just about the ease of making teams.
Define "most of his life".
I could see how a kid born somewhere and then lived there during formative years might take the allegiance of that country but I don't know in this case the particulars.
My understanding is that before he projected to be an NCAA championship caliber guy (but was still a solid runner), he was asked to run for the UK in the Euro XC champs when he was 18. My sense is it wasn't a calculated decision but he saw it as a cool opportunity.
(His background is that his father worked in finance in London and his American parents decided to move back to America when he was 12.)
This post was edited 7 minutes after it was posted.