[ferrierd@shaw.ca]

In reply to Batfink, who said "I am not Chinese because I live and work here": rephrased , "Living and working in China does not make me Chinese." That is true, but being born in China does make one Chinese.

There seems to be a confusion between a person's statutory citizenship and the person's ethnicity. A person whose ethnic backgrounnd is Irish can be by birth a citizen of China. Likewise, a person whose ethnic background is Chinese can be by birth or naturalization a citizen of the UK.

I was born in Canada, so I was and am a Canadian citizen, but my own ethnic background is mixed. My mother's Mennonite forebears emigrated to the United States to escape religiious persecution in Europe. Later, they moved to Ontario, Canada with a group of United Empire Loyalists. Later, Mother's parents moved to Alberta, where my mother was born and later I was born. My father was born in Scotland, then emigrated to Canada, where he met and married my mother.

I have lived in Canada, the U.S., the UK, and New Zealand. I had emigrant status in New Zealand. When I was asked where I was from, I said "New Zealand," but nobody paid any attention to that.