Naturalization: benefits and limitations

[alex2122 0]

I was googling random stuff about U.S citizenship and came across this interesting article...

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/4818

[NickD 202]

I was googling random stuff about U.S citizenship and came across this interesting article...

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/4818

Sounds like David Kessel has a problem that we don't share and is associating immigrants into the same catagory as the racial prejudice that still exists in this country. (USA).

My wife still has her own unique accent, I hope she never loses it but has made many new friends here, is well respected by her co-workers and my family loves her. Her daughter had prejudice problems in high school, we all know you can meet the worse most arrogant jerks in high school, entirely a different world. But she overcame that, in college now where are the misfits won't attend, learned how to speak perfect English, and has made many new friends. She finally got an opportunity to return to her home country last year with comments that her grade school friends she grew up with were wasting their lives. Thought she was going to stay there, she was glad to be back to her new home again, and is awaiting to become a USC next year. When my wife got her USC, she feels now she is a part of this country and has taken a great interest in our political system. She keeps track of how once a free country like Venezuela really has gone to hell with poor leadership.

[Otto 83]

And the point is....?

[NickD 202]

And the point is....?

Guess you should be white, speak perfect English, and be born here so people do not ask you where you are from.

[Otto 83]

And the point is....?

Guess you should be white, speak perfect English, and be born here so people do not ask you where you are from.

Or something like that. Based on the OP's previous (and only other) post;

Correct me if I'm wrong but... can anyone from another country really become an American?. Your U.S passport will always say where you are from, so you will always be Canadian, Colombian, etc. I think you can only be an American if you are born in America. When you naturalize you become a U.S citizen, but you're still from that other country, whether you hold its citizenship or not.

[onuche 0]

You have got to put things in perspective, most people asking where you were "born" are just inquisitive to know where you were born than anything else. I mean, imagine seeing an indian or Chinesse looking person and asking where are you from and he saying Texas, ofcourse thats not where he is "from" (depending on the context of the question anyway) am more interested in knowing if he is from China, Japan or south korea and for the case of the indian guy, if he is from Indian, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Besides, i dont mind telling anyone who cares to know where i was born, i mean, am i embarrased by it or what? am not a "natural born" American, and so what? I would only have a problem when i become naturalised and am not treated as a citizen.

[Papuo 0]

You have got to put things in perspective, most people asking where you were "born" are just inquisitive to know where you were born than anything else. I mean, imagine seeing an indian or Chinesse looking person and asking where are you from and he saying Texas, ofcourse thats not where he is "from" (depending on the context of the question anyway) am more interested in knowing if he is from China, Japan or south korea and for the case of the indian guy, if he is from Indian, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Besides, i dont mind telling anyone who cares to know where i was born, i mean, am i embarrased by it or what? am not a "natural born" American, and so what? I would only have a problem when i become naturalised and am not treated as a citizen.

I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean. If a person is born and raised somewhere (in your example Texas) then isn't that where the person is from irrespective of what the person's heritage is?

[onuche 0]

You have got to put things in perspective, most people asking where you were "born" are just inquisitive to know where you were born than anything else. I mean, imagine seeing an indian or Chinesse looking person and asking where are you from and he saying Texas, ofcourse thats not where he is "from" (depending on the context of the question anyway) am more interested in knowing if he is from China, Japan or south korea and for the case of the indian guy, if he is from Indian, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Besides, i dont mind telling anyone who cares to know where i was born, i mean, am i embarrased by it or what? am not a "natural born" American, and so what? I would only have a problem when i become naturalised and am not treated as a citizen.

I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean. If a person is born and raised somewhere (in your example Texas) then isn't that where the person is from irrespective of what the person's heritage is?

Am sure you didnt read the part i just higlighted, it all depends on the context of the question. If someone sees me and i looked Indian, and asks me where am from, if i was born and raised in Texas, "most likely" i would say Texas, he could say noo, " i meant where your parents or grand parents were from originally". Is that a bad question to ask? i dont think so.

[alex2122 0]

I got married 3 years after coming to the U.S. My wife is American, and that's what I used to tell everyone who would ask me “where’s is your wife from?” One day a coworker told me that it doesn’t make sense to say that. The right thing to say would be “she’s a white girl from Missouri”

In another conversation I said this to a white coworker, we were talking about race:

Well it doesn’t make sense to say that someone is American, it goes further than that. You have to say if you are white, black , hispanic etc. To which he replied: “Well I’m an American” Then I said: what if I become an American?

Another coworker (not from the U.S) asked HOW THE HELL ARE YOU GONNA DO THAT?. My answer: I’ll get naturalized in a few months! They said: you’ll still be from you country, a U.S citizen, but not really an American.

I ended the conversation saying: well at least my kids will be Americans!

I’m proud of where I am, I don’t have a problem with that. Somehow I thought that getting naturalized would make me an American, but this is not 100% true. My grandfather was from Spain, and he was naturalized in my country, but “he was always from Spain”.

[onuche 0]

I got married 3 years after coming to the U.S. My wife is American, and that's what I used to tell everyone who would ask me “where’s is your wife from?” One day a coworker told me that it doesn’t make sense to say that. The right thing to say would be “she’s a white girl from Missouri”

In another conversation I said this to a white coworker, we were talking about race:

Well it doesn’t make sense to say that someone is American, it goes further than that. You have to say if you are white, black , hispanic etc. To which he replied: “Well I’m an American” Then I said: what if I become an American?

Another coworker (not from the U.S) asked HOW THE HELL ARE YOU GONNA DO THAT?. My answer: I’ll get naturalized in a few months! They said: you’ll still be from you country, a U.S citizen, but not really an American.

I ended the conversation saying: well at least my kids will be Americans!

I’m proud of where I am, I don’t have a problem with that. Somehow I thought that getting naturalized would make me an American, but this is not 100% true. My grandfather was from Spain, and he was naturalized in my country, but “he was always from Spain”.

Its all so funny and confusing at the same time, when you get naturalized you become a "Citizen", Citizen of where? America ofcourse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Now whats the difference between an "American" and an "American Citizen", on paper, absolutely no difference.

But in our everyday lives we know thats not the case, we now talk of natural born Americans, Naturalized Americans and all kinds of definitions of Americans, which, under the constitution all have the same rights and priviledges (except if you want to go into politics ofcourse and thats for the presidency).

[NickD 202]

Wife was told at her oath ceremony, and I am a witness to this, "she is now a United States of America citizen exactly the same as she was born here." But that isn't 100% true, wife cannot run for our presidency as the constitution states, must be a natural born citizen of the USA to run. But when you think about our history, there was no immigration here back then, people from Europe were arriving all the time. Founders wanted somebody like they that were born here, you would think they would have changed that once this laborious immigration procedure started.

In tracing my wife's roots, her grandparents lived only 500 miles from my grandparents in Europe, but mine left for North America instead of South America like hers did. Maybe they didn't know the difference, isn't America, America? Guess not. Well we found each other, that is all that counts.

One thing about this country we call America, sure have a bunch of ignorant people living here, and 99% of them couldn't pass the civics test.

Where did I come from? My mothers womb, where else? But at times, I feel I am an alien from outer space.

[beinha 0]

And the point is....?

Guess you should be white, speak perfect English, and be born here so people do not ask you where you are from.

Or something like that. Based on the OP's previous (and only other) post;

Correct me if I'm wrong but... can anyone from another country really become an American?. Your U.S passport will always say where you are from, so you will always be Canadian, Colombian, etc. I think you can only be an American if you are born in America. When you naturalize you become a U.S citizen, but you're still from that other country, whether you hold its citizenship or not.

I second that.

I'm Brazilian. I can become a U.S Citizen and it means I'll still be... Brazilian! My family is from Europe, but I'm still Brazilian. I'm from Brazil, nothing can change your roots and nothing should change. We can choose to be U.S Citizen, with much respect and gratitude, be very proud of it but we will never be American. And it's okay

P.S. What's about being white? I'm dam white and sure people would ask me where I am from, don't look like American at all.

[Itzhak101 0]

Very good discussion.

How about the fact that the founding fathers were immigrants themselves? They took over the land from Native Indians...So, technically, Native Indians are the real Americans...They ancestors were born here not the European settlers'.

[bayojona3231 4]

I was googling random stuff about U.S citizenship and came across this interesting article...

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/4818

It is a great article. Thank you for sharing.

[NickD 202]

Very good discussion.

How about the fact that the founding fathers were immigrants themselves? They took over the land from Native Indians...So, technically, Native Indians are the real Americans...They ancestors were born here not the European settlers'.

Scientist traced the American Indians, both North and South America that immigrated from Asia some 12,000 years ago, they are also immigrants. While I may think that I own a piece of the USA, a very tiny piece of it, that ownership is only as good as our government. Nobody gave us a choice as to whom our parents would be, if we were born or not, or when we would be born, just kind of thrown here. DNA testing as proved all of us originated in North Central Africa. We are all related. Most of us have a head, a body, two arms and two legs with minor differences in color and physical shape. It's ironic in Africa you have one black person killing another because their noses are a tad bit squared, this is prejudice to the most minor extreme.

Was ironic when I was stationed down south was picked on whenever I opened my mouth with my clear speaking voice, if I kept my mouth shut, they wouldn't have known the difference. Adapted by putting a load of ####### in my mouth so I could speak like them, then no longer was tagged as a Yankee. This whole subject is weird. My best buddy was black and we couldn't do anything together off base, that isn't right.