If someone asks me which country I come from I always reply England. If I have to think about my passport I realise it’s a British one and I know what that means but when I start to think about my identity it becomes more complex especially now in the wake of Brexit.
Am I British? No, not in any meaningful way. After all I have lived the vast majority of my life in England and more in the South than the north. After that, the country I have spent most time in is the Netherlands.
The amount of time I have spent in either Wales is two or three months in total and in Scotland a matter of weeks. I’ve never been to Ireland, north or south. I don’t speak Welsh or Gaelic but I do speak Dutch, French and German and in reality the Netherlands is a country I feel at home in while in Wales and Scotland I am a stranger.
So once again, as far as I am concerned I am an English European, but British? No, only on paper.
At the time of writing I am currently registered as a resident in the Netherlands while I go through the process of applying for Dutch citizenship and achieving my goal of getting a European passport.
Thinking Aloud 