[dominotw]

>This really makes me consider moving my family to Zurich.

If you immigrate to America you can become an American. You can shop till you drop, eat mc donlads, celebrate 4th of july and call yourself an american.

This can not be said for any other country. In Germany you will always be an "immigrant", maybe if your kids are white and young enough to pick up the language maybe they can become invisible. But for anyone else it impossible to become german, dutch ect. I don't mean any of it in a negative way, btw.

[jpatokal]

"Any"? Try telling that to (say) Canadians, Australians, South Africans, Singaporeans...

[dang]

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11915218 and marked it off-topic.

[dominotw]

sorry about offtopic comment. I just love America too much, hehe. I'll make sure to be more mindful going forward.

[ulfw]

Completely disagree on that.

Lived ten years in California. Studies, Green Card etc. Could have gone for citizenship, but didn't. I was never seen as an American. Ever. Not even a little bit. I was always 'the German'.

Almost every coffee shop, restaurant, super market, you name it I got asked where I am from or where my accent is from.

No. It is not cute. It reminds you you are NOT one of them.

[bostonpete]

> you name it I got asked where I am from or where my accent is from.

Your interpretation of these sorts of questions may have been influenced by your German upbringing.

There's a wide variety of accents even by Americans who were born and raised here. Add in the fact that we're all pretty much only a generation or two removed from at least one immigrant, and discussion about where people are from, etc. is typically just a way for people to make conversation and attempt to connect with one another.

There are probably nationalities which would make certain people uncomfortable and treat you differently, but I don't think Germany is one of those.

[dominotw]

>Almost every coffee shop, restaurant, super market, you name it I got asked where I am from or where my accent is from.

Yea we have people here from all over the world. Why is that question offensive? You seem to be assuming that that question is being asked to point out that you don't belong here.

I love asking people where are they originally from and try to impress them with trivia about their country that I know , being a world history enthusiast.

[blue11]

"Could have gone for citizenship, but didn't. I was never seen as an American."

Perhaps you were not seen as an American because you yourself didn't feel that way? I would think that someone who feels American would apply for citizenship given the opportunity. American citizenship does not bring many additional advantages compared to the green card, in fact, there are some downsides (jury duty, potentially having to pay US taxes even if you leave the country). So, most immigrants apply for US citizenship only if they feel that they belong.

I agree that people asking where your accent is from is really annoying, however, that question doesn't have the same implications as in, say, Germany.

[jsprogrammer]

I live in California, was born in California, and just yesterday, people claiming to live in New York, but having "come from" Kenya and Israel, knocked on my door and in the course of our conversation, demanded to know where I was "from".

Edit: I guess people don't like reading descriptions of fact?

People from every where seem to exhibit the behavior; I don't think it is specific to California and I'm not sure that it occurs more in California than any where else.

[SmellTheGlove]

Very good point. I'm born in the US from an immigrant family, grew up here and all, but have US and Italian citizenship. I go to Italy pretty regularly and it's debatable whether most there actually consider me Italian, because I grew up in a different culture. That view might not even change if I were to go live there indefinitely. And to some extent I agree, or at least can see where that comes from. And I look like anyone else over there, speak a couple of dialects in addition to standard italian, etc. Now it doesn't mean you're necessarily treated poorly, but your cultural identity will always be something else. It's not as though no one will talk to you or be your friend. but it's different than the US where you can show up, declare yourself American, and pretty much have it stick.

[namelezz]

> call yourself an american.

Sure you can call yourself whatever you want but whether or not you being treated as an american is a different story. I know several immigrants who get yelled by the local people to "go back to your country." US immigrants still suffer from loneliness like other immigrants too.