National origin is the

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by th ...

where a person was born, or where that person's

ancestors An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from w ...

came from. It also includes the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

of multi-ethnic states and societies that have a shared sense of common identity identical to that of a nation while being made up of several component ethnic groups. National origin can be the same, different from, or a combination of a person's national identity, which is the nation with which a person subjectively identifies with; in some cases, such as children born to expatriates, temporary residents or diplomatic and consular staff, a person may not identify with the nation in which they were born. National origin and national identity which can be tied to each other should also be distinguished from a person's

nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of t ...

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

which is a legal status in which a sovereign state recognizes someone as belonging to their country.

Discrimination

In Europe, discrimination against a person on the basis of national origin is considered a type of racial discrimination. The UK's

Race Relations Act 1976 The Race Relations Act 1976 was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. The scope of the legislation included discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and n ...

names discrimination on the basis of national origin as discrimination on racial grounds. The European Union's Racial Equality Directive prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin. In the US, it is illegal to discriminate against a person on the basis of national origin in education, employment,

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether ...

, lending, or other specified areas. For example, employers cannot refuse to hire job applicants or treat employees differently because of where they were born, their ancestry, their

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

, the languages they speak, or speaking with an accent. Workplace rules that require employees in the US to speak only English on the job can be a form of discrimination on the basis of national origin, but employers may have a legitimate business need for employees to speak English at work, such as to provide adequate supervision or to prevent the isolation and alienation of employees and customers that do not speak the same non-English language. Under Australian law, discrimination on the basis of national origin is illegal, whereas discrimination on the basis of

is not; national origin is determined only by the situation at an individual's time of birth (their birthplace or the national origin of their parents), not by factors subsequent to their birth (such as naturalisation or

Renunciation of citizenship Renunciation (or renouncing) is the act of rejecting something, especially if it is something that the renunciant has previously enjoyed or endorsed. In religion, renunciation often indicates an abandonment of pursuit of material comforts, in t ...

References

{{Ethnicity Racism National identity Employment discrimination Ethnology Ethnicity