There is often talk about heritage and background from time to time at work, and people will travel to their country or state of birth or of parentage every now and then. Is this a common thing to do? It’s known to be the “land of immigrants,” so I suppose it makes sense. I guess I’m wondering if this is a universal thing or not. I was born in Minnesota but live in AZ and visit MN every now and then. Heritage: Swedish and Finnish ancestry
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I genuinely don’t understand the question. Are the Americans calling the nation they visited their “home country”?
Can’t we love more than one country?
I was born in the US so I would say that is my home country, even if my parents are not from here.
Yeah, it’s pretty common for us to want to see the place our ancestors lived and emigrated from. I’m a typical American “mutt”, if you will, meaning my ethnic heritage is very mixed (all Northern European though). The two biggest chunks of my ethnic heritage, however, are German and British, and yeah, I’d really like to travel to both places.
Culturally, yes, I absolutely identify as American. But I am curious to learn more about the places my family came from.
There are a lot of people who immigrated to the US as adults, so I think it’s pretty reasonable to still consider the country you grew up in as your “home” country. If I moved to Canada right now, I’d still consider the US my home country.
I’ve never heard any American outside of 1st and maybe 2nd gen immigrants and/or refugees claim to “love” their home countries – unless they have another close connection there for whatever reason.
I would say many Americans have some respect/fondness for the country their family most recently immigrated from. Many Americans still claim heritage from that country (or countries), which I know many Europeans can’t seem to comprehend and actively denigrate.
But, if a 3rd+ generation immigrant said they “love” that country, I think many other Americans might think they are a bit odd in that opinion.
One of my coworkers is currently in the Philippines for an entire month. She is naturalized. A lot of my Filipino coworkers are naturalized and they try to go back home to the Philippines for an extended visit. My other coworker co-purchased a truck with his sister to keep in the Philippines at their parent’s house. This way when either him or his sister go back home to visit they have a vehicle at their disposal.
I think you mean heritage country and not home country. Most people in the US are from here, but with heritage from somewhere else.
It’s just part and parcel with being a 2nd generation American. You inherit some cultural affection from a parent or parents. I feel very at home in the small European nation my dad grew up in, and think of it as home in a sense even though I’ve spent less than six months there total. It’s a very common phenomenon.
I have not traveled to the countries my ancestors came from. It might be interesting to see the places they used to live but I don’t consider them my home country. I have at least 5 countries my ancestors came from. My home country is the US where I was born.
My grandfather came from Scotland in 1920. He never went back. I think one of my uncle’s went on a trip to Scotland but no one else did. I don’t think my parent or their siblings referred to Scotland as their home country.
I think they just like the heritage and connection they have with the culture. Like as an Italian-American my family has different customs around Christmas time than my Scandinavian-American wife’s family does.
Americans never say we love our “home” country, we just say we love our country!
Saying, you love your home country would sort of imply you’re maybe not originally from the US .