Quote Originally Posted by SlackerDrummer View Post
No one who crossed into this country through Ellis Island (some 12 million people) shared any of that heritage. It didn't even open until 1892.
Brilliant point!

My family history, from several branches, goes back to pre-Revolutionary times here in America. But for those families who came here recently, say, within the last 100 years, may not feel any ties whatsoever to historical American culture. It is not the culture of their ancestors.

In such cases, it is common to fall back on what they know. Which is the culture of the place from which they came. Despite many success stories of new immigrants whole-heartedly adopting their new culture as their own, it's not always easy for new immigrants to do that. Especially when the culture they are trying to adopt is still trying to figure out who or what it is! Talk about "playing at" being something... which is worse? For an immigrant to continue to be who he has always been and raise his children with the culture and values he knows, or to suddenly switch over to a new foreign (and even alien) culture?

We see this very strongly with immigrants from Asia, for example. Even after several hundred years, there are strong cultural influences from their native homelands (such as pockets like "Chinatown"). Are they "playing at being Chinese"? Or is it simply a matter of these people choosing to retain the culture they know and love?

There's a reason that Scottish immigrants kept strong ties to their native culture. And whilst it may be easy for those who are still in Scotland to flippantly say that those people should adopt their new culture once a generation has passed, I daresay that it could indeed be a case of them just "not getting it".

It's something to consider, anyway.