First Generation American
 

I am proud to be a First Generation American -- son of a German and an American, brought to the US as a child. Would like to meet others with like family history -- and not just German-American. Maybe we can meet to talk about our individual experiences.

Um, if your father's American, how do you become first generation? I always thought first generation meant your parents (both of 'em) were not Americans.

My dad married a German war bride and I've never thought of myself as first generation. I'm American but was German first (German was my native language; American was my fifth -- given dual citizenship at birth).

My grandparents came from Europe as did many here.

Some of our neighbors were born in other countries as well. The Villages is full of people who found this land one of opportunity and promise.

There are all kinds of clubs here; There are THREE German clubs. I don't know how many Italian ones. There is a Canadian Club and I think a British Club. We have clubs for many cities as well. There is a couple of Pittsburgh clubs and a Cincinnati club and three Ohio clubs. (Two are round on the end and one is high in the middle.) ;)

Most of us think of ourselves as plain ole' Americans.

I am 1st generation because: I was born in Germany in a non-US facility, and lived with my single mother and her family for 3 years before coming to the US; and, I had to be recognized as an American by both after a odious legal proceeding 4 years after my birth and 1 year after my mother brought me to the United States as a single mother. Probably like you German was my 1st language -- and it wasn't until I had been in a DODDS school in Japan that English became my primary young. Like you I learned several languages and traveled the world; had my citizenship questioned on several occasions, and even had the government spend more than 2 years getting a security clearance because of the 'dual nature' of my birth.

It's great that The Villages has many clubs recognizing customs of the many countries that sent immigrants to the US over the centuries. They focus on celebrating the cultural heritages of those countries.

I was inquiring about a discussion group of those who -- because of the ever changing nature of child citizenship rules -- are considered (or consider themselves) 1st generation Americans. I consider myself 1st -generation because a) I experienced the separateness of being 'a foreigner' by school and employers during my pre-college school years; b) the citizenship rules for 'natural birth' and 'foreign birth' has had many changes since WW II; and c) even the federal government struggled with my citizenship status decades after the Federal court ruled on the question in my case. It was not until 1966 (13 years after my birth) that only 1 parent had to be of US citizenship if a child was born outside the borders of the USA; and then only if serving honorably for the US Armed Forces, a US government agency, or certain international organizations; and the birth was was reported/claimed to the appropriate embassy/consulate.

OBTW: Unless our parentage is of "Native American' bloodlines, we all are descendants of 'immigrants'.

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.