The Difference Between National Identity And Nationalism

Psychological accounts of nationalism and national identity can differ dependent on a nation, Nations being a community of people that are made on the basis of a common language, region, ethnicity or psychological make-up established in a common culture. A nation is different from a person, and is more abstract, and more visibly political than an ethnic group. It is a cultural-political community that has become conscious of its independence, agreement, and particular thoughts and feelings. Borders are geographic boundaries of political individuals or legal authorities. Cultural Heritage is an expression of the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation. As part of human activity, Cultural Heritage produces tangible images of the value systems, beliefs, traditions and lifestyles. As an essential part of culture as a whole, Cultural Heritage, contains these visible and tangible traces form antiquity to the recent past.

Nationalism defines the characteristics that make-up, particular nations, ethnic groups or people, it brings forward the idea of being passionate and having positive attachments to their nation similarly to nationalism that seems to be regularly seen as a negative emotional attachment towards another nation, which then can lead to violence and intolerance towards other nations. Comparatively the latter is defined in a more positive way, in terms of pride and loyalty towards their own nation. On the other hand, nationalism or blind patriotism (a rigid attachment to a country, usually involving an unquestioning allegiance and positive evaluation, as well as intolerance to negative comments about the country), is defined more negatively, as a rigid and uncritical attachment to one’s nation. One that it is often related to ethnocentrism (belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group or culture) and xenophobia (Fear of people from other countries). This is a ‘hot’ type of nationalism as it is associated with extreme emotions and negative behaviours towards others.

National identity definition is an identity or sense of belonging to their state or to the nation they live in. A nation is a sense of a solid whole, which is represented by people’s natural traditions which is their upbringing or were they are born, ethos, language. National identity often refers to an individual’s feeling which they share with a group of people with in the nation, regardless of their legal citizenship status. The hypothesis identified of national identity is people living in a national territory with different ethnic groups, which are differentiated and characterized by an individual’s 'mix' of human attitudes, standards, feelings, stimuluses and talents which is culturally reinforced often by their language, the family upbringing and backgrounds, schooling, the public and the media. The appearance of one's national identity can often be seen in a positive light and this shows loyalty which is often characterized by general self-importance and constructive passion for their own country. The extreme expression of national identity is being prejudice, which refers to the firm belief in the country's advantage and extreme passion towards their own nation.

There are many different psychological accounts of nationalism and national identity which can be similarly or comparatively different in many ways, nationalism is part of everyday life’s and a negative view on this is it appears to most people that xenophobia (fear of people from other countries), intolerance and Ethnocentrism (A tendency to judge others cultures, ethnic groups and standards of own countries). This can be shown by having an attachment to their nations. Nationalism is often associated with threats, aggression and this is closely associated with WW1 and WW2 which was associated with violence and conflict. An attachment to their nation on the other hand can be the place in which they originate from can bring them positive emotions and be very privileged to be part of their nation, Nationalism is almost a mirror image of national identity which is associated with fear or judge.

In comparison to the nationalism and everyday life is a well-known psychologist, Billig (1995) argues that the banal framework is not extremist behaviours but more common sense, as it is natural for people to belong to a nation. Billig (1995) refers to nationalism as ‘banal’ when the world is divide into nations, a tradition to this is people who see themselves as part of a unique nation having their own traditions and history from past family members, and these people see other people out of their nation, another nation’s member. Billig (1995) suggests that it is hard to challenge nationalist and the way it is thought about because nationalism is repeated from routine and habits that happen in everyday life. When people think about the world they look at a map which is divided into nation states without borders, the constructionist approach that Billig (1995) outlined looked at how nations are reproduced focusing on media, looking at how the weather is mapped out and shown daily on the TV, Billig (1995) suggests that national identity is common sense and it is part of everyday life including languages spoken and currency used in in their nation but goes largely un noted and without question. Billig (1995) cited that the banal nationalism is the ‘nationalistic’ use of language. This does not mean the use of words that are xenophobic, but using language in a way that reproduces the world of nations as a natural state of affairs and ‘our’ nation as a unique and homogeneous entity within the world. The weather phrase refers to the weather of ‘our’ specific national territory in one such example. When looking into Immigration and asylum seekers there are two categorises which are members and non-members that relates mainly to the nation-state, the organisation of citizens and non-citizens, the difference between residents and fully liberated nationals.

Migrants are tended to be treated as outsiders even after staying for long periods of time some people portray them in a negative way for example taking all the jobs, taking over the country in contrast to this even though many become citizens they are at the same time expected to share a sense of belonging and identity, to learn the language and to respect and embrace the values of the country they wish to stay in, all of which are considered to indicate their willing to make changes to stay, the positive side is that some come for a better way of life and are willing to work and pay taxes and contribute to public benefits. A word used for migrants is ‘othering’ which means a group or community of people is ‘othering’ its members are seen as ‘not one of us’ it’s a way of drawing boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Asylum seekers and refugees are the most stigmatised when it comes to immigration. Asylum seekers are portrayed as ‘uninvited guests who shouldn’t be in this country’.

Media perception can be very negative about asylum seekers and refugees coverage regularly seen is unfairly stigmatises to individuals and demoralises asylum seekers is negative it is often seen as in need but not wanted by other nations, there are questions out there about sincerity or are economic tourists just out there for all they can get. Green and Staerkle (2013) state that migrants are seen as being a threat to national societies. Their arrival into a nation is seen as a new group stigmatised as poor economic migrants or refugees which can put increased pressure on the nation in comparison to newspaper headlines were they are extreme cases of language of threat for example bombers are all sponging asylum seekers.

To summarise I have compared and contrasted alternative psychological accounts of nationalism and national identity looking how they look comparatively or similarity in comparison to each other to certain nations, looking at exploring relationships throughout and how it has been looked at how it differs in different contexts, despite looking at social constructionism approach most people perceive their thoughts on their nations as natural. National identities are shown in various ways in the media and in everyday life to people so it seems to become to ‘Norm’ to people.