what determines identity?

This thought was posted on Thinkaloo on 27 March 2008 by member kirool

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In a recent thought I posted I received an interesting from another user " Gaea " .

I'm pasting Gaea's comment:

" So, I guess my question now is: what determines identity? Is it the fact that you have a passport of that country? Or that your parents are from that country? Or that you were born in that country? Or simply that you’ve lived for several years in that country? "

I'm also including the link of the topic which initiated the conversation and the comment.
Title: Do you call yourself European?
http://thinkaloo.com/ideas/view/view_idea.php?id=326

To those who want to express their opinion they can do it here.

** I'm editing my thought here ***

To answer the question what determines identity I believe there are two types of identities. The one that's related to how we feel and the one which is linked to our passport.

Legally speaking the passport is the paper which defines our identity. But as a human being I'm more defined than just a paper. And this is my culture, my believes, my heritage, my history and most of all my feeling.

So coming to the second identity, it's the one that's linked to how we feel about a place and where our heart belongs.

When I travel in Europe and I'm in Paris for example I claim that I'm from Norway. But when I am somewhere far away (for example the US, or somewhere in Asia; never been there ) I personally feel as much European as someone who's from Norway.

There are differences between the European countries, but being in the US to me everything in Europe looks and feels the same. So I believe it's safe to claim that I'm European.

Have you ever traveled from the US back to Europe. Wherever you land you get the same feeling. Back in Europe.

I don't know if that's only me but that's how I feel.