Do you feel more or less American? Which nationality do you identify and feel more closer to? Does it enhance and broaden your life experiences because you get to experience different world cultures easily? Does it have effects on your mentality (as Americans or otherwise, including native-born and naturalized citizens).
5 comments
>Do you feel more or less American?
I yee my haw every morning. (Albeit not a citizen yet. USCIS seems very…backed up lol. Tracker says 8mo).
>Which nationality do you identify and feel more closer to?
I immigrated here, so, here.
>you get to experience different world cultures easily?
I don’t miss much from my previous nation-states except a bit of historical buildings/artefacts and/or the food. The latter part is easily fixed.
>Does it have effects on your mentality?
Yes. Given how easily my past governments(Egypt, India) have taken advantages of citizens not wanting to exercise civil rights or putting clauses after clauses in the civil rights and using it to their advantages to arrest anyone they dislike (morality, insults, ‘hate’ etc), I am absurdly pro civil rights to the verge of *near* absolutism.
I was born in the United States. My parents are both Brazilian, and we moved to Brazil when I was 3. We never came back.
They absolutely love the US, they regret coming back to Brazil sometimes, but I understand their decision.
That being said, I am really curious to go one day to America and discover it for myself. Aside from American pop culture, I don’t share much with Americans aside from the language.
I am currently studying in France, and I have been here for almost two years. I am getting to a point where I am absorbing more of their lifestyle than the American one. I almost never speak English, except when I am in English classes (the last one I took about American culture was really nice). I renewed my US passport, and I have no idea when I am going to set foot in America.
So, most of the time, I don’t feel American at all, which is a shame, considering the love my parents have for the US. I just don’t have the contact with it, or the immersion. I want to change it though, since it is a part of me.
My wife was born in the US to her British citizen dad and American mom. She found out a few years ago that means she was also a British citizen (theyve changed the law in the 80s so that’s no longer the case I think). She got her British passport but hasn’t used it for anything yet. If anything we just look at it as giving us more options. We could go live in the UK for a few years for example. Beyond that it hasn’t changed anything about how we live or feel.
I’m a natural-born US citizen, as are my parents. In fact, on one side of my family, I can trace back to colonial ancestry in the 1620s, with ancestors who served in the Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, and World War II.
On the other side of my family, my grandparents fled the Nazi occupation of Austria. They became US citizens in the 1940s, and were very proud of their adopted country. Relatively recently, Austria enacted a law creating the option to restore citizenship to former citizens who fled, as well as their descendants two generations out. I was able to apply as an adult grandchild, but the only way my daughter would be able was for me to include her on my application before she turned 14.
For me, this was mainly just a way to feel connected with that side of my family’s heritage, and it didn’t cost that much in either money or time. For most practical purposes, I might as well not have that second citizenship. I considered a greater value getting it for my daughter. As she grows up, she now has the right to live, go to school, and work anywhere in the EU, and can pass her citizenship on to any children she eventually has.
I also view it as a long-term hedge against the unlikely event that the US somehow collapses; we’ve got a second place we could call “home” if we had to. It’s extremely unlikely in the short-term, but events that are unlikely in the short-term become probable given enough time, and again, I think of it as a generational hedge. ([Here’s some math](https://hwfo.substack.com/p/the-surprisingly-solid-mathematical) on the topic for your consideration.)
Came to US for college and been working here since. I still feel more Turkish then American but I don’t feel “less American” at all since I think you feel American as long as you’re in the US. I think it definitely broadens my experience more since I’m familiar with the cultures of two different places. It also makes it easier for me to be critical of both in certain aspects since I know an alternative.