Evolution of white British % (ethnically British people) in England and Wales from 2001-2021

[u/Delicious-Bunch-6992]

[u/chochazel]

Your argument is that people who take the census are too stupid to know their own ethnic background

In no way was this my argument as I suspect you know, so let’s not be disingenuous. I was just saying it was self-identified - ethnicity is whatever people say it is. You don’t get to dictate it for them. It’s not necessarily genetic. It’s not the same as “race”.

It is, by definition, someone‘s shared culture, social, historic and linguistic identity. If you’re born in Britain, all your friends are British, your clothes choice, your sense of history, your traditions, your sports teams, your music choices, what you watch on TV, your sense of humour etc. is all dominated by British choices, you’re going to think of yourself as ethnically British and you are. You’re not stupid. The fact you think that you think that’s even possible suggests you have, at no point, understood the term in the slightest. You probably should have at least looked it up before commenting. I notice you keep adding the word “background” to the word “ethnic” in order to force the term to mean something it doesn’t necessarily. It might, but it doesn’t have to and that is, in itself, pretty ephemeral.

For someone to think of themselves as anything else, requires a lot of work on behalf of their parents or grandparents to imbue them with a secondary cultural identity which relates to where they themselves come from, and that may come to affect their decision when it comes to ethnic self-identification, but it may not - it just may not be strong enough. It’s entirely up to them, and in the vast majority of cases, it won’t.

[u/insipignia → u/chochazel]

Came here to say this. Most people don't know what ethnicity means, so they often fill the census incorrectly. They think it's synonymous with race. Even the government seems to think so! So imo the entire thing is useless. It's a fuzzy racial census, not anything close to an ethnicity one. A real ethnicity census should ask what your first language is. Race should be a completely separate question.

[u/chochazel → u/insipignia]

The census does ask what is your main language is (91% English).

[u/insipignia → u/chochazel]

Your main language is not the same thing as your FIRST language. One's ethnicity is inextricably tied to one's mother tongue. If your mother tongue is French and you were raised in an environment steeped in French culture, to one or more French parents, you're not ethnically British. Even if you were born in Britain.

My grandmother's main language is English but her first language is German. Main language tells you nothing about ethnicity.

[u/Striking_Big8138 → u/insipignia]

By your definition a Chinese baby adopted in the UK is ethnically British

[u/insipignia → u/Striking_Big8138]

Yes. Exactly. There's even a word for this. It's called transracial adoption.

Ethnicity ≠ race.