xxx

In the U.S. we are proud to say we are American. In Europe - the same.<BR>However, many times that I have travelled to Canada I have noticed that the Canadians actually still say they are from wherever their ancestors are from. I have a Canadian friend in Toronto who actually claims to be Italian though she has never been to Italy, let alone Europe and she is 33 years old. I am sure it does not apply to all Canadians and us Americans probably do the same to a lesser extent, but would you recognize these people as your own citizens, or are they truly Canadian if that is where they were born and raised?

Snorkelman

I don't know how accuate your comments are. Many Americans also relate to their ancesters. This is because our countries are relatively young.<BR><BR>My great-grandparents were born in italy and moved to USA. I say that I am Italian and everyone knows that i mean of Italian ancestry. Of course I am proud to be an American, but when an American asks another American what s/he is, it is usually understood to mean ancestry.<BR><BR>I assume that is what the Canadians do also.<BR>

canuck

I'm proudly Canadian with Scottish ancestry.

Maria

I have to agree with Snorkel. I am Canadian but my parents are from Sicily. When a Canadian asks me what nationality I am I say Sicillian...I think the Canadian part is pretty much understood. However if I was in Europe and some asked me what nationality I was I would say Canadian.<BR>But yes if your parents were Caker and thier parents were Caker then you probably wouldn't (shouldn't) be reaching that far to find some sort of European or Non-North American ancestry.

wch

I'm curious. When you are traveling outside the US and someone asks you what you are, do you say Italian?<BR><BR>My grandfather on my mother's side is Greek but I've never told anyone that I am Greek-American. I also have a lot of Irish and English on my father's side but I've never told anyone that I'm Greek-Irish-English American. <BR><BR>My husband's mother is Vietnamese. Does that mean when someone asks my future child "what are you," he/she will need to reply Vietnamese-Greek-Irish-English American?<BR><BR>At some point, the "what are you" discussion becomes a moot point. Unless you continue to intermarry within your own ethnic group, then you become further removed from that group until you, realistically, can't claim any one ancestry.<BR><BR>Why do so many people want to avoid only being called American? Why does there seem to be so much shame attached to that? You can call yourself Irish or Italian or Swedish but if you were born and raised in the US by parents and grandparents who were also born and raised in the US, your thoughts and ideas and feelings are really formed by your American environment and you are, for all intents and purposes, solely American.<BR><BR>Windy

Maria

Like I said...if your parents are Caker and their parents are Caker then you shouldn't be claiming that you are 7/8ths Irish or 5/8 English...you are a Caker...

italo

To answer the question. No, Europeans would not consider that Canadian or American a European. They weren't socialized in Europe. They would consider that person a Canadian whose grandparents or parents were from Italy. And anyway, Europeans all came from somewhere else too, even if it was 1000 years ago.

Mavis

I'm not sure that this is true of all Canadians - I would guess it might be more prevalent fr. Canadians in the west which is the 'newer' part of Canada. This is where I live and, for example, my husband's grandparents were born in Ireland, my grandparents in France and Scotland - so a connection to Europe is not that distant. Also, and it's been said before, unlike Americans who are proud of the melting pot where everyone subsumes their ethnicity to being an American, Canadians, for whatever reason, recognize and usually celebrate our ethnic differences - although that can get us into our own kind of trouble at times. Also, I believe, although I don't have the numbers to back me up, Canada continues to let in large numbers of immigrants into our country, where the United States makes it much more difficult. All that being said however I've run across many, many Americans who are desperate to find the piece of ground where an ancestor might have stood in Ireland. In fact the Irish have a lot of fun at their expense.

Liam

Yeah, well, when I moved to this country and first heard the term, "Afro- American," I though I was going to meet someone who'd immigrated from Africa. Was I surprised. However, a month or so ago I had a meeting with a real African-American, a blue-eyed, blond-haired fellow who had been born and raised in S. Africa. He said he had great fun telling people over the phone, via computer, etc. whom he was later going to meet that he was African=American.<BR><BR>I think if you were born in the country where you still reside you are definately of that country. I don't go to great lengths to explain my country of origin and frankly find the business of Italian-American, Mexican American, Afro-American and the rest pretentious if not silly.

tania

There are possibly two reasons some Canadians refer to themselves as Italian, etc.<BR><BR>1) They are second generation Canadians, i.e. their parents were born in the "old country" and still keep many homeland traditions. As children, they were socialized in these traditions and until they become independent thinking adults, they will indeed refer to themselves as other than Canadians.<BR><BR>2) This second generation of Canadians have grown up in a time where pride in one's origins is deemed acceptable. Expo 67 in Montreal brought on the advent of Multiculturalism in Canada. Ethnic groups received government funding to keep old traditions such as dance and music alive. And this in direct contrast to the "melting pot" mentality in the States.<BR><BR>Been there, done that. Today, I refer to myself as Canadian but will always maintain pride in my Slovak origins. Our home is full of Slovak ceramics, woodwork crafted by my uncle, and Bohemian crystal and porcelain. Despite the Velvet divorce with the Czech republic, Bohemian art still very cool! My husband, a French-Canadian, insists upon regular Slovak cooking in our house; we all do ! LOL!<BR><BR>

Canadian

It is usually said that the U.S. is a melting pot and that Canada is a mosaic. We live in a big, multicultural city. Most ethnic groups live in "pockets". Their communities are very close knit. People don't assimilate here to the extent that they do in the U.S. Many children go to private day schools (or after-school classes-) to learn about their heritage. That is not to say that they are not proud to be Canadians. They are proud of both.

Skippy

If you go back far enough, we're all Africans.