[redwitch]

Had many of your experiences but still don't consider myself first-generation. My father refused to let his wife (married in Germany but not recognized by U.S. government for several years) and children travel until citizenship issues were resolved. Don't even want to remotely remember the security clearance issues, which Dad needed because of his MOS. Being born in post-war Europe with an American father had some interesting issues.

I think first-generation Americans had it different from us -- we had an American father to help us assimilate, learn the mores of this culture. Kids whose parents were both from another country, didn't have that -- they had to learn through trial and error. While we may not have spoken English, we could at least have the "rules" explained to us by our father. If we military brats lived overseas, we could usually live on a military base or embassy (not often an option for my brother and I -- Dad believed the best way to learn a nation was to live with the people and respect their ways of living). Regardless, we military/traveling brats had distinct advantages that first generation Americans did not have.