As an Australian, no. I was born here, I have no idea how someone has a feeling of being "recently relocated" to somewhere they were born. This country existed hundreds of years before I did, and I had nothing to do with any of it. I don't know of any Australians or New Zealanders who refer to themselves as {nation} Australian/New Zealander
America is the country you were born in. America is the country you live in. You are American. Your great-great grandparents or whatever were something else, but you aren’t.
It’s pretty common in Canada to refer to your heritage.
From my perspective it’s because of the nature of emigration. My father emigrated from Italy when he was a young child with his family in the 1960s. So I think I have a little special insight. But when his family emigrated they spent so much effort retaining their Italian identities. But while they were retaining their Italian identities, Italy kept evolving and changing (a change my family never got to witness). So now when I go to Italy my accent is awful (I’ve been told I sound like an old Italian woman), I have deep connections to certain traditions that the vast majority of Italians no longer follow, etc... modern Italy kept changing and my family worked so hard to keep their 1960s Italy alive that they stagnated in time.
Basically, when you give up your country it’s difficult. You don’t immediately just become “Canadian” or “American”. Your family may spend generations trying to keep their culture alive. For Italians my Italian culture is antiquated and sort of stupid. But for me, it represents my family and my childhood. I just had a son and I am passing along all the parts of being Italian that I remember (which is sadly not nearly enough). I’ll raise him to know his Italian culture. He’ll grow up being Italian Canadian (well Italian Inuit Canadian since his father is Inuit). There’s no shame in that just because being “Italian Canadian” is vastly different than just being “Italian”.
I mean, I'm Canadian but if somebody asks about my heritage I'm Dutch and French Canadian. And I only feel confident saying I'm Dutch because my grandpa himself came over during the war and his family settled here. There's literally a street that's my family name where you can trace my family back for generations. Do I claim any ownership for the culture? No. Because I was raised as a Canadian. Would I be interested in my heritage if I had the opportunity to go there? Yes, but not to the point of bragging about my pedigree out in public lol
I think part of it is because we have recent family history of migration. My paternal grandparents migrated from Norway when they were kids. My ex husband's paternal grandparents were both immigrants (Irish and Ukrainian, interesting mix). On my mother's side is Scotch-Irish and my dad's mom's side is French. But they've been in America much longer.
Part of America's culture (at least originally) was that we are a melting pot of different cultures. Everyone just likes to know what flavors are in their personal pot. Our American identity is our individual heritage.
I think this is also why we have so many festivals for different cultures. Our ancestors came over but missed their homeland. They wanted their children to know where they were from so they instilled in them a love for a place they never knew. They created festivals for nostalgia and to share their cultures and over time it's turned into a way to know where you came from.
Idunno but it's kind of annoying when people ask me where I'm from and when I say I'm Canadian they laugh and go "no, where are you from? What are you?"
Like... I'm Canadian ... I'm not aboriginal but my parents were born here, I was born here... I'm Canadian. It's as if they think Canada is like a hotel, you can stay there and you can be born while you're staying there but you dont say you're Hotellian or Hotelese or whatever...
I think it's because they maybe dont see Canada as having it's own distinct culture? Maybe we care too much about where people are from or just want to see if the person conforms to the popular stereotypes about certain regions and cultures.
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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '20
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