'AITA for saying I'm not an immigrant when my friends called me one in conversation?'
"AITA for saying I'm not an immigrant?"
Some friends and I were having a conversation about current events and one of my friends said to me "well you're an immigrant. What do you think?" I told my friend that I'm not an immigrant but would be happy to share my opinion. He insisted I was an immigrant because I was born overseas. While it's true that I was born overseas, my mother was an American citizen.
I have always been an American citizen with dual citizenship. I explained that when my family moved to the US my mother and I didn't "immigrate" because we were both already citizens. My father immigrated, but I did not. My friend didn't accept my explanation. He asked me if I thought I was better than other immigrants who don't have relatives who are US citizens.
I said I'm not better or worse than anyone, just that the term "immigrant" doesn't apply to me. Basically this friend and one other think I'm an arrogant AH who thinks I'm better than "regular immigrants" (whatever that means). I don't think that. I just factually am not one. Am I being a pedantic AH, or am I just correct?
The internet did not hold back one bit.
PassFit3375 wrote:
You need smarter friends.
OP responded:
He's actually a really smart guy. He's a chemistry major. He just sunk all his skill points into STEM, I guess.
Flaky-Apartment-3640 wrote:
You are not an immigrant, you just can't be elected President.
OP responded:
You know, I've never wanted to be president until someone told me I couldn't, and now I want to be. 😂
tiredg0th wrote:
"My friend didn't accept my explanation. He asked me if I thought I was better than other immigrants who don't have relatives who are US citizens." You never said anything about being better than anyone so your friend is telling on himself. He's projecting an 'othering' of immigrants and viewing them as lesser-than, onto you.
And it seems on some level that applies to how he views you too since he doesn't believe you qualify as a true citizen. It is likely his intentions are good, this feels a lot like a case of trying so hard to be progressive that they overcompensate and loop back around to being bigoted in some way.
Twenty_twenty4 wrote:
NTA. Your friends are dumb and they’re probably young and trying to have an “adult” conversation with you without a basic understanding of the topic. They’re also doing that... thing.
Idk if other marginalized or minority groups know what I mean but it’s that thing where people with good intentions try too hard to be “an ally” or progressive and then just say or do the dumbest and/or ignorant, borderline offensive, s#$t a person can do. It’s not from a place of bigotry or disdain, necessarily, it’s mostly just trying too hard.
They’re doing that thing. I’m a first generation immigrant. My brother is an immigrant. You are not an immigrant. You are an American citizen that was born abroad. Just like army kids.
They’re 100% wrong and they’re trying waaaaay too hard to be progressive or whatever by then attacking you - the closest thing to an immigrant - in the group because you don’t agree with their perceptions/beliefs or opinion about you and “people like you” (not really though, which is the funniest part).
I’ve both seen that a lot, and also had the blessing of experiencing it because I’m hispanic, black and first-gen immigrant.
No-Function233 wrote:
NTA but your friend is technically correct by definition. “A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country” if you were born in another country and lived there for a time, then technically you immigrated to a country not of your origin that you had never been to, or in other words a foreign country.
In this case your citizenship is irrelevant. You don’t sound arrogant in your post imo, just using a looser definition of the word.
Vivid-Awareness191 wrote:
NTA. You told them that you aren't an immigrant, that isn't saying anything negative about immigrants. You may have a different perspective that would be valuable in the conversation, but that's because you are related to someone who immigrated.
I imagine they just didn't like being proven wrong. Either way, if you aren't an immigrant, that's just it you aren't. I don't know why someone would be so hung up on it.
GalianoGirl wrote:
Interesting, I have always considered an immigrant as a person who moves from their country of birth to another country. I did not link it to citizenship. Migration is the movement from one place to another. A family member has both German and Canadian citizenship from birth. She was born in Germany and immigrated to Canada as a child on her Canadian passport.
Realistic_ad1058 wrote:
I don't think there's an AH here, but you did in fact move, or "migrate" inwards into the country. Inward migration is immigration. Outward migration is emigration. The word doesn't indicate citizenship, it indicates movement. I'm a UK-born UK-German dual citizen. I'm an immigrant to Germany and an emigrant from the UK.
If I move back there, I'll be emigrating from Germany and immigrating to the UK. When you total up the number of people going to live in a country and the total number leaving it to go live in a different country, those numbers can be used to tell you the country's net migration numbers.
People can have positive and negative feelings about different kinds of migration, but we still have, and need, words that just tell us about the movement of people, without folding citizenship into it.
clarkcox3 wrote:
NAH. But both definitions of “immigrant” are possible. If you go by the legal definition, you are correct, according to the US government, you are not an immigrant. However, the simple dictionary definition is literally just someone who migrated into a country and took up residence. You’re both right.
JustMonika96 wrote:
Based on the comments it seems that your perception is cultural, that if you're a citizen you're not an immigrant. But the fact of the matter is that you were born in a different country and then immigrated to another one. You are an immigrant. You may not have all the experiences associated with it, but you have plenty to qualify.
This is the exact same thing as Americans calling their diaspora "expats" instead of "immigrants," as if it's a dirty word. You're not an AH cause it does seem as the general perception based on the comments but based on what the actual word means, your friend was right. NAH.