Do you think being born and raised in your country of origin can be considered a privilege ?

[maggiecian]

Just that really.

How do you figure out your ‘country of origin’ if you don’t mean country of birth?

@Neome to me it's the country your parents/ parent was / were born in and are originally from.

[quote maggiecian]@Neome to me it's the country your parents/ parent was / were born in and are originally from. [/quote]
That's not your country of origin imho.
I take country of origin as a country where you personally are from. Then you have heritage of country where your parents are from.

to me it's the country your parents/ parent was / were born in and are originally from.

to me it's the country your parents/ parent was / were born in and are originally from

Well my kids are screwed then with parents from different continents….

It's a tough one isn't it. It's definitely subjective clearly.

It also depends very much how you were raised.

I was raised in a different country to my parents country of birth and was very much treated by others as being ' from that country '.. also I wasn't raised to believe I'm from the country I was born in.

So I guess that does change how you could view yourself then. Other immigrants raise their kids to believe they're from the country they've emigrated to and really want them to slot into local culture/ get them a passport of that country as soon as possible.

I was born in my parents immigration country, but never even got the passport of that country. I don't think that's right really and I wouldn't choose to do it that way with my children. But my country of birth ( my parents immigration country ) doesn't allow dual citizenship.

So to sum up... it's probably best to present it to children that their roots are from the parents country of origin, but that the children are actually from the immigration country.

So, I'm Spanish and from Spain but with French roots, as my parents are French.

I’m an immigrant, left the Uk 30 years ago, I don’t fit in where I live now although I thought it would be an easy transition. I think it’s the way human are - I joined a new tribe but will never quite ‘be one of them’ and my old tribe has all changed now and I barely recognise the place. So I sit with a foot in both camps. I don’t think any country is any more or less welcoming I just think you become more aware of your ‘difference’ as an immigrant.
I’ve got some great friends here in my adopted country so maybe the feeling of not belonging is just coming from me. People are the same everywhere - generally good, I think. I’ve also met some serious see you next tuesdays here too tho

I don’t know if privileged is the right word, but I certainly get a sense that I am lucky to have a sense of place and belonging. To be frank it’s because of this that I’ve never been tempted to live abroad. I do feel lucky that I’ve never been forced to leave my country of origin.

I think it probably depends very much on which countries - i.e. what general attitude there is to foreigners/incomers and specifically how people of your country of origin are perceived in the country where you are brought up. And also depends on whether you 'look foreign'. Which is awful.

I guess there can be some advantages too though, if you genuinely feel part of both cultures and are bilingual etc.

I don’t know if privileged is the right word, but I certainly get a sense that I am lucky to have a sense of place and belonging. To be frank it’s because of this that I’ve never been tempted to live abroad. I do feel lucky that I’ve never been forced to leave my country of origin.

I feel like that too. People are often surprised if I say it, because I speak 4 languages and could therefore easily have decided to live and work in a number of other countries. Dh would still like us to go and live abroad for a few years, but I'm not keen tbh.

My DP immigrated here as a child, he said he found it hellish at first. 6 years old, no English, behind in school because of later start in his country. Went through a stage of Anglicising his name, denying his birth culture. Only child so very lonely as well.

So he can ‘pass’ as local as has the accent, but he still feels ‘other’ because he went home to a different language, customs, cuisine, every night. Doesn’t know if he thinks in his first language and translates subconsciously or if he now thinks in English. I’ve noticed he swears in his first language if he eg bangs his head and if you wake him in the night he’ll speak in it first. So still ‘other’.

He thinks on balance he’s benefited by belonging neither here nor there, but a lot to both. He also thinks he’s benefited because he’s a white well educated man. He has EU citizenship as well as UK, he has a second culture that British people are interested in and aren’t suspicious of, he’s a success here and clearly a net contributor, he’s an “acceptable” immigrant in other words. Sad but probably true.

He also pointed out he’s been a further ‘immigrant’ when he moved to another of the 4 countries in the UK. Had exactly the same dislocation and sense of not belonging. Wrong accent (uk one), cultural holes, assumptions made about him. So you don’t need to go far to be foreign.

So a few generations along from a brown person who married a white person who had been born on different continents from each other does my brown cousin with three white grandparents have the same country of origin as her brown parent or her three white grandparents?

Her brother’s children have seven out of eight great grandparents who are white and all born the same country. I’d be pretty surprised if no one has ever asked them if they’re ever ‘going back’ as I was asked by ex BIL.

I did once read somewhere that "true privilege is never having to leave the place where you were born". I do think there is some truth in that - and I say that as someone who has lived in multiple different countries and loved being able to do so. It is a different thing to needing to leave because you fear for your safety, your children's future, or your ability to earn enough.
But other than that, I wonder if it is therefore a little bit selfish for parents (who have moved through choice) to decide to have children in another country - if they are effectively dooming those children to a sense of dislocation/loss of privilege. I hope not...

Yes, in my mind it is a privilege but I'm biased by my life experience.

Yes of course it is. If you happen to be a different colour to the bulk of the population life is very different.

No, I do not think it is a privilege. Privilege means an advantage that only one person or group of people has, and I don’t see how being born and raised in one country of origin is an advantage at all? Because this literally applies to the majority of people on the planet.

It also seems to be a disadvantage compared to people who are multi-national (have multiple citizenships) and have had the privilege to be able to immigrate as children to another country for better life/opportunities.

I see my DCs as privileged for having lived in US and U.K. despite being French. And also have privilege to be able to visit family still in China for months at a time. Being international is a privilege, being born and raised in one country is average.

@TakeMe2Insanity

Yes of course it is. If you happen to be a different colour to the bulk of the population life is very different.

Yes, but that is a different thing though. You could be from a different country of origin but still the same colour/race/ethnicity as the bulk of population in the country you are in. Alternatively you could be born and bred British (for example) with families going back generations and be a different race/ethnicity to the majority of the population.

I think the OPs question was purely focused on the being "from" a different country to where you were raised.