Self-identifying as British (was: UKer)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/8/2011 06:58 PM, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>A student of mine last year did her undergrad dissertation on the word
>'British' among 20-something UK-born Indian and white/English folk, and as
>I remember, the Indians (who were mostly children of people who'd emigrated
>from East Africa) self-ID'd as 'British' (often hyphenated) but the white
>kids not so much.

This might fit my notion -- the Indian immigrants had left behind
their local concentric circles of identification/loyalty, and
"British" was perhaps the narrowest they could pick up with
comfort.  (Would such a youngster decide to identify him- or herself
as a "Glaswegian"?)

Joel

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