Would you consider me American?

32 comments

1. Yes.

2. So you’re a citizen?

   Then sure, you’re American.

   Generally citizenship is how we define “American.” Though I would say there are some non-citizen permanent residents that would also qualify as American even though they technically aren’t citizens (yet).

3. I consider you whatever you want to be.

4. You’re all good in my book

5. Sounds like you’re a citizen, so yes.

6. If you’re a citizen then you’re an American!

7. So American’s don’t care about loyalty or amount of time. Like your heritage is American so you are American. No one can take that away from you, it’s by birthright. In America one of the main ideas was that you don’t need to give up your heritage to be American. So there are many German Americans who’ve never been to Germany, never spoke German, but are Germans. Because they still are German by birthright. So you are American by birthright.

8. Obviously you are American in terms of citizenship, as you stated. But my typical colloquial definition of an “American” would be someone who has lived in the US for some significant amount of time and is generally socialized to American culture. So since it sounds like you have never lived in the US I would not consider you American.

   Unlike most of the other responses I’m seeing (which I’m honestly very surprised by) I would consider someone who has lived in the US for a while but isn’t a citizen to be American. Maybe it’s just from growing up around a lot of immigrants and children of immigrants, some of whom were and weren’t citizens, and seeing that whether not someone is a citizen often has more to do with arbitrary legal circumstances than whether or not someone is truly culturally American. Plenty of people who aren’t citizens still have lived in America almost all of their lives and are really only from here, so they’re certainly more American than they are anything else.

9. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but do you want to be?

   If you do, you’re in.

10. Parent is American so you’re an American citizen.

    Whether you consider yourself American is up to you.

11. It sounds like you may have “acquired” citizenship through your father (as opposed to birthright citizenship), so yes, you legal qualify as an American citizen. As for cultural identity/nationalism, that is more a matter of how you perceive yourself, as an individual shaped by your cultural environment. If you were raised abroad, you may have trouble “feeling American” or whatever that means these days.

12. Hello fellow American citizen!

13. You were born to an American dad, so legally speaking, yes you can claim American citizenship. Personally speaking? No.

14. No, I wouldn’t.

15. Legally yes, culturally no.

16. Frankly, no.

    You are American on paper, but you are culturally and politically German.

17. This is off topic I realize, but as U.S. citizen, you have a responsibility to pay U.S. taxes. I’m American and have lived abroad most of my adult life and I recently heard about a woman who is friends with my British in-laws who was born in the US, but never lived there. So, she is a US citizen, of course, but it never occurred to her that she had US tax liability. In her fifties, her bank accounts were frozen because it had never crossed her mind that she needed to report to Uncle Sam. So I’d advise you to look into that so you’re not caught out one day.

18. Do you consider yourself an American?

    I was born in Romanian but my family is Hungarian and I grew up in America. I had a Romanian passport. I speak a few languages.

    I’m an American.

19. With an American passport, the IRS considers you a citizen (no matter where you live), and expects you to submit their tax forms every year, so yes. Don’t forget the FBAR.

20. American as fuck. We define our culture in part by the multitudes of cultures that reside within and theres like 250-ish years of history of immigration between the US, Germany and England. Welcome to the party bud.

21. You can legally become President.

22. No. There are some unsaid ‘qualifications’ that you’d need to pass to be a American. You’ve either lived here a significant amount of time (5-10 years), worked for citizenship and moved here the legal way or even if they illegally live here tbh, or you were born here. Visiting the USA doesn’t make you a American sadly or we’d have a lot more citizens. Ancestors or even parents don’t really count here.

    To be a American you’ve got to have actually lived here as a American. At that point doest matter what ethnicity you are, you could be full Japanese, German, Spanish, or French and if you’ve lived the American life with us on American soil then you now are also a American. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

    So sorry but definitely no in my book.

23. Honest answer, nobody really gives a shit. Wether you’re 90 yrs old and born here and never left or arrived yesterday. Being American is more a state of mind. The whole citizenship thing ppl are yapping about in this sub, again, nobody gives two shits about and will not care about your status and will not ask.

    You’d be amazed at how open and disinterested the average American is about certain things. It’s almost to the point of being offensive at our level of indifference. If you got something cool to add, we perk up and wonder about your accent and where you’re from etc. Beyond that, most Americans are accustomed to different ppl from all over. This is all true except for small rural communities that are insulated and have extremely limited exposure to novelty.

24. Legally, yes. Culturally, probably not.

25. I would consider you an expat. You are basically the same as an American kid who’s parent or parents moved overseas with them when they were a young child.

    If you choose to move to the US and make it your home you would definitely be an American.

26. No

27. I think you all, especially those in Europe, think that we as Americans care about stuff like that a lot more than we actually do. Sure, there is a fair amount of xenophobic idiots who love to show their ass on FoxNews or whatever, but the vast majority of Americans aren’t walking around asking to see your passport or driver’s license.

28. You are of American descent and have a passport, but I don’t think you would define yourself as an American citizen. The country you’re living in is probably more close to how you identify yourself. But it’s all up to you.

29. No I don’t because culturally you’re European.

30. People keep touting the legal definition of being an American, but would an immigrant in the country illegal for 20 years still not be considered American? You can’t have it both ways. American is a state of mind.

    You’re German.

31. Legally, yes. Culturally, no. However, if you wish to identify yourself that way, it’s your own business.

32. Draw a football as quickly as you can. If it’s shaped like a double sided bullet, you’re American. If it’s shaped like a circle, you’re not.