Question that came up at Book Club

I almost always say American since my heritage is a wide mix of other nationalities. I don't identify as XYZ-American.

I think you'd say you were a French citizen.

America is filled with so many other nationalities that people just tend to do what they want with what they call themselves. I guess in the end, it doesn't matter.

I have never referred to myself as anything but American. I actually don’t think I’ve heard anyone use any type of XXX-American to describe themselves in the past 15 or 20 years.

My black friends refer to themselves as black (race) or American (nationality) but not really as African-American. (Does anyone even use that term anymore?) My best friend from HS refers to herself as indigenous or native, but doesn’t usually say Native American.

I'm complicated as I'm a dual national from birth and hyphenating my nationalities probably WOULD make sense but I don't. My mum always considered herself to be Irish-American - she was born in the States as were her parents. But 3/4 of her grandparents were Irish immigrants and the 4th was the US born child of Irish immigrants - they also lived in a community where there was an Irish ward (neighbourhood/voting precinct) and a lot of Irish/Irish-American pride. And I suspect that's quite a similar situation to what shescrafty is referring to.

Personally when I was in the UK recently - most people assumed I was American (or Canadian) - and here in the States, most people think I'm an immigrant although identifying from where is...often...a funny conversation. I've had people guess Australian, Irish, and (correctly) British/English but also Polish....which seems a bit weird to me. And at least once I was told I spoke quite good English for being a foreigner, lol.

I hear xxx-American commonly from people whose parents immigrated here and were raised with a strong cultural identity from their parents’ heritage. I don’t hear “Asian-American” anymore, but Japanese-American, Chinese-American, etc. Most of the immigrant parents I know don’t adopt the “-American” and just stick with their birth nationality.

Im sure it’s a lot more common if you live in an ethnically-diverse place!

I dont think "we" become Americans after any particular amount of time. I think that is a personal decision driven by many factors.

I think of it as a choice everyone makes for themselves. Like you, I never call myself by any hyphenated label. Only in my case, because I am 2 generations removed from even my most recent immigrant ancestor, even t cultural events I will say things like "My grandfather was born in____. Rather than say anything to describe myself.

My grandfather was born in Italy and came to America as a baby. Despite growing up with Italian born parents, one of which never learned to speak English, in an Italian neighborhood, he only ever called himself "American". He never even mentioned being Italian at all. So despite his children technically being first generation Americans, they never called themselves anything but American, either.

Likewise, DH's grandfather, who came to the US as a young man, never referred to himself by anything other than American. And his children, again, first generation Americans, always called themselves simply "American". Their parents were very tight-lipped about their pre-American years, so their children didn't even really know where their families had been prior to arriving here. One said they were Russian, another said they were Austrian, another Poland. Another Ukraine. And with no consensus about their background, it's no wonder they didn't opt to label themselves as anything beyond that of their birthplace.

I wonder if that was because of all the border changes in that region? They may have identified as one nationality but their home town/village may have moved between different countries at different times (similar to a cousin-in-law of mine who sometimes said France and sometimes said Germany for her birthplace...she was from Alsace-Lorraine which was sometimes French and sometimes German)

When we lived in Belgium, I held a Belgian resident card stating that I lived in Belgium. Because I lived in a NATO community, we were often asked what was our nationality. I'd say American because that's where my citizenship was held. But if we were traveling outside of Belgium and someone asked where we were from, I'd often say Belgium. It was easier and often times, it was embarrassing to be an American within the Trump Regime.

I think the US is weird in that we hold on to our ancestry long after our family has left the country. I know a couple of Irish people that have told me they are really irritated by American people saying they are Irish when there family hasn't been to Ireland in 4 generations.

I'm just American. I can trace most lines of my family back to the 1700s and we were in the US then. Heck, My families have been in the same place for over 150 years and it is only 2 counties away from where I live now. We don't get around much.

Quite a few of my lines go back to Switzerland, so that is probably what I'm most of (haven't done a DNA test yet). There is a smattering of people from a bunch of different Western European countries, though, so I'm definitely a mutt.

I think if I was culturally connected to a specific country (language, location, religion, food, etc.) I would consider myself a hyphenated American. I am not.

I just call myself an American. My kids might call themselves Mexican-American and my grandson definitely identifies as Asian-American, although he’s also 1/4 Mexican and 1/4 German-Jewish.

And now for an important PSA: the generation that migrates here is officially the first generation. If they bring their children along, the children are also first generation. The children who are born here of immigrant parents are the second generation.

That is how historians classify the generations, and it always confuses me (with my degree in history) when I hear people refer to the children born here as first-generation Americans. Nope, that’s their parents.

So I am asking that you try to keep that in mind and use the correct terminology when you talk about the generations. Soon you will be thinking in the same terms, too. 

Thank you. It helps when we’re all on the same page, language-wise. 

I'm a mutt - a little of this and a little of that. I'm a bit envious of people who have family customs from their heritage. I identify most strongly as Scottish because my maiden name is Scottish. Also, I'm a 5th generation Floridian and I think that is special.

Cindy

ETA:  I went back and looked at my DNA results and I am 60% Scottish.  I wish I liked their food!  LOL!