# How do ex-pats usually refer to themselves if their home country no longer exists? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 2, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167 "2019-10-02T18:54:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/21 "2019-10-04T23:11:44Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Tiganans [Tigana - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigana) > > "Only those born in Tigana before the invasion can hear or speak its name, or remember it as it was; as far as everyone else is concerned, that area of the country has always been an insignificant part of a neighbouring province, hence the rebels are battling for the very soul of their country. " [Raises glass of blue wine] Let my memory of you be like a blade in my soul. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/22 "2019-10-05T08:06:49Z")
Some coworkers will answer Yugoslavian when asked about their origins. When they left, that was the name of the country. Others may mention their hometown, if it’s big enough, such as Sarajevo. When asked about my heritage, I will mention Prussia, as my ancestors left Prussia, not Germany/Poland. I would have to look up the actual town they came from to figure out if it still exists, has the same name, and to which country it belongs to. But its not that important. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/23 "2019-10-05T09:00:51Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Their immigration paperwork even listed their nationality as “Austrian”. As far as I know they always considered themselves Czech. Nearly every person in the Austro-Hungarian Empire would have considered themselves something else at the time. The people from the current Austrian state saw themselves as German. That only started to change after 1945. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/24 "2019-10-05T12:59:20Z")
> [@polar\_bear](#): > > Interesting. All the people I know that once came from Yugoslavia, now consider themselves to be from the “new” country. > > Off course these countries used to be the republics that made up Yugoslavia, so people identified as being from that region even when Yugoslavia existed. Even the ones who would be an ethnic minority in the new country? ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/25 "2019-10-06T01:07:49Z")
I’ve known a Rhodesian after the fall of Rhodesia, and he didn’t refer to himself as anything other than a resident of South Africa. I’m not sure of his citizenship, but he was a proud Rhodesian as of 2012. He was white. I’ve also known a white Zimbabwean (does that term apply to whites, as my friend is?), who is too young to be Rhodesian. His parents, though, I need to ask about. I think as far as the OP, my anecdotal contribution is that they don’t acknowledge that their country no longer exists. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/26 "2019-10-06T03:41:40Z")
A country isn’t a colored blob on the map, it’s a culture and a people and a land. A state is a colored blob on the map (it can also be the name given to an administrative subdivision thereof). A nation-state is a colored blob on the map that’s supposed to correspond to a country. Different concepts. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/27 "2019-10-06T03:53:37Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > My great-grandparents emigrated from what today would be the Czech Republic or Czechia. At the time they emigrated it was part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Their immigration paperwork even listed their nationality as “Austrian”. As far as I know they always considered themselves Czech. Exactly the same for my 5-greats. Except their immigration paperwork described them as “Austro-Bohemian”. They were Czech- (and English-) speakers, so I presume they thought of themselves as Czechs, or possibly Bohemians. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/28 "2019-10-06T07:48:02Z")
> [@polar\_bear](#): > > Interesting. All the people I know that once came from Yugoslavia, now consider themselves to be from the “new” country. > > Off course these countries used to be the republics that made up Yugoslavia, so people identified as being from that region even when Yugoslavia existed. > > Verstuurd vanaf mijn moto g(6) met Tapatalk There are hard-core, older true believers of the Yugoslav vision, and they seem to be mostly Serbs. I worked with a Croat and another guy who was all in on Yugoslavia. Any time my Croatian friend called himself a Croat, the other guy would “correct” him that he was Yugoslavian. It got ugly. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/29 "2019-10-06T07:52:33Z")
Missed the edit, but I also know people who refer to themselves as Soviets, rather than Russian. Some people bought into the identity and they’re too old to change. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/30 "2019-10-06T09:18:55Z")
I know a few people who call themselves Yugoslavians because they’re of mixed ancestry, as in Serbian father and Croatian mother or similar. Yugoslavian covers the whole family, Serbian or Croatian doesn’t, and Serbo-Croatian “sounds like some kind of task force or whatever, man…”. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/31 "2019-10-06T13:56:56Z")
I am of Ashkenazi mutt heritage, and once had a long discussion with the census enumerator about it when I got picked for the American Community Survey. One of the questions was “what is your ethnicity?” to which there is a pretty darn clear answer. Except, amazingly, that answer wasn’t on the list of possible choices. So she started asking where my grandparents were from (they are from places that are now in Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus). Well, what country is it now? What country was it when they were born? What country was it at the time they left? So the most straightforward example was my paternal grandfather, who was born in Riga, Latvia. “So you’re Latvian!” she exclaimed. Ummm, nope. And what does that mean for the other 75% of me, anyway? 3 of my great-grandparents were from towns that were in the Austrian Partition of Poland. While doing genealogical research, I found documents where my mother’s mother’s father listed his country of birth as Austria or Galicia, IIRC. Oh, and the grandfather born in Riga? Never call him Soviet (he was born in 1904 anyway), or even worse, Russian - he would totally blow his stack. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167/32 "2019-10-06T16:58:44Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > How is Frank most likely to describe his origin? Do people in this situation typically still call themselves Foobari? In my experience, questions along those lines usually break down into one of two possible categories: “Where were you born?/Where did you grow up?” or “What is your ethnic background?” So I generally hear one of two possible answers: “I was born in city X (in the former country of Foobaria)” or “My mother is ethnicity Y and/or my father is ethnicity Z”. I’m not sure if Foobarian is an ethnicity in your example or not (e.g. I’ve heard lots of people describe themselves as ethnically Persian and nobody describe themselves as ethnically Yugoslavian). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-ex-pats-usually-refer-to-themselves-if-their-home-country-no-longer-exists/841167.md?page=1)