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Brown in America

Immigrants: First generation or not

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America, Immigration, Opinion
On: ⋅ March 25, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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I often refer to myself and my fellow FOBs^* as “first generation” invariably leading to emails and passing remarks from friends and acquaintances questioning the validity of the term “first generation“. The other side of the aisle invariably argues that first generation refers to the first generation of children of immigrants. This is my opinion on who is a “first generation” immigrant and who isn’t and I partially use Wikipedia since I’ve not been able to find any solid references in either side of the argument.

There seems to be consensus on what a “1.5 generation” is - someone who was born elsewhere but immigrated before they turned adults. Assuming that a 1.5 genner is someone in between, 1st generation must be someone who immigrated as adults and 2nd generation, someone who was born in that land. Still assuming that a 1.5 genner is someone in between ,the converse, 1st generation is someone who was born here and 1.5 generation is someone who immigrated as a kid, makes no sense, because going by that logic, a 2nd genner would be someone who immigrated as an adult.

There I said it. If I (or you) moved here (US, in this case) as an adult, I’m first generation. If you moved here as a kid, you’re 1.5. If you were born here and you’re parents moved here, you’re 2nd generation. Just something I had to get off my chest.

* FOB, in this case, is strictly used for clarity in this argument.

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