Do you look at citizenship in the Americas differently than other countries?

Asked by JLeslie (65464) January 16th, 2019 from iPhone

I hope I can explain this well.

The Americas are the New World and the countries on the continent(s) of America developed with a lot of diversity among the citizenry. Being American, whether it be North or Latin America, for most people also means your ancestry goes back to another country.

What about Europe? Would it be very odd for a Chinese person to say they are German? For a Mexican to say they are German? For an Italian to call themselves Japanese. These two countries in particular have put up a lot of obstacles for immigrants to become citizens.

Yesterday, I was talking to German friends (both were born and raised in Chile, but live in Germany now, and their parents were German) and I asked them about the Syrian refugees and if they can be German eventually. Their response was basically in the tone of no way, they aren’t German. They were complaining about how many immigrants Germany has been taking in, not just the Syrians, but in general, and even complaining about people coming from other Western European countries, or more specifically southwestern Europe that are part of the European Union.