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Sobekhotep · **Posted:** Sat 17 Oct 2009 12:41 am

linguoboy wrote:

Sobekhotep wrote:

I assumed that when formiko mentioned Russian immigrants he was talking about Russian nationals and not Russophones or ethnic Russians, especially since he added that many of them are Jews.

So you assumed wrongly.

No, I didn't. In an earlier post formiko answered my question saying the people are Russians & not Ukrainians. But you did assume wrongly. You assumed I knew nothing about Ukrainian and/or Latvian demographics. :roll:

Talib wrote:

Sobekhotep wrote:

Look, if a person is from Ukraine, that makes their nationality Ukrainian, regardless of what language they speak natively.

What about ethnic Russians in Ukraine?

It doesn't change their nationality. You live in Canada & speak (Canadian) English natively. If you were to emigrate to another country you wouldn't refer to yourself as an "English immigrant", right? No, because you're Canadian.

linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1001

Sobekhotep wrote:

Talib wrote:

Sobekhotep wrote:

Look, if a person is from Ukraine, that makes their nationality Ukrainian, regardless of what language they speak natively.

What about ethnic Russians in Ukraine?

It doesn't change their nationality. You live in Canada & speak (Canadian) English natively. If you were to emigrate to another country you wouldn't refer to yourself as an "English immigrant", right? No, because you're Canadian.

Okay, what about Russians in Ukraine holding Russian passports? The Russian government has been handing them out like party favours to ethnic Russians in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine.

Talib · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 8:22 am Posts:768 Location: Canada

Sobekhotep wrote:

It doesn't change their nationality. You live in Canada & speak (Canadian) English natively. If you were to emigrate to another country you wouldn't refer to yourself as an "English immigrant", right? No, because you're Canadian.

That might change if I were a first-generation Chinese immigrant.

Sobekhotep · **Posted:** Sun 18 Oct 2009 12:38 am

linguoboy wrote:

Okay, what about Russians in Ukraine holding Russian passports?

That would make them Russian nationals also. And since Ukrainian law does not permit multiple nationalities they would not have Ukrainian nationality.
In that case, yes, I think it's only fair to consider them Russians.