What a debate we had going last night…i don’t know how it started but it did and it just couldn’t stop. If my parents are from lets say Russia and my mom goes on vacations to Dominican Republic, what does that make me as a race and citizenship? Is it possible to be Russian -Dominican? Do i become a Dominican citizen? let’s change the scenario. If you are Italian-French, and you are born in the US, are you Italian-French-American or are you Italian-French but American citizen? I told them race is one thing and citizenship something else.
Forgot to say but im sure you understood that gives birth there.
Thank you but you answered me only the American one how about the other one?
I would like to point out that i was the one telling them right but they were so retarded on saying the way i posted that question here. In my case my kids are half Puerto Rican and half Dominican. They said that because they were born in the US they are PRican-Dominican-American. I said no! They are PRican-Dominican but they are American citizens which is another ball game.
Russian. America is one of the few countries that has a birthright citizenship. Most countries do not.
home alone.
Where your Mom vacations has nothing to do with citizenship. If you were born here, you are an American by American law, regardless of where your parents came from.
Race doesn’t even enter into the equation.
People use too many hyphens today. You are either American or you are NOT. Forget the other part of the hyphen. You don’t have to forget your heritage, just BE AN American!
Generally with citizenship is that you qualify for whatever your parents had at the time of your birth. For example if your parents were French/Italian and you were born in the USA because the USA allows citizenship via birth (one of the few countries that do) you would entitled to American citizenship and French and Italian (I believe Italian can go back to the great grandparents although French is slightly more complicated). However, if your French/Italian parent/s renounced their French/Italian Citizenship in order to become American (there was a time when dual citizenship was frowned upon) then any descendants would not be entitled to this through them (it could come from the other parent if they had it though).
Where your parents take their vacations has no bearing on citizenship (otherwise several of us here, myself included, would be holding at least 10 different kinds of citizenship *I can hear the screaming over the ocean if I was entitled to US citizenship after my 3 day vacation there when I was 9*). This is usually because there is a residency component in naturalization (eg you must live in the country for 5 years and not be out of the country for more than 90 days per year). With the Dominican Republic (and so many other countries) in order to naturalize you must hold Permanent Residence for a certain period of time because you can naturalize and become a citizen.
For your scenario I would say that you’re just Russian.
How would going on vacation anywhere change your race or citizenship, your family needs to get cable, you all have way to much time on your hands
Here’s the way I approach it: My ethnicity is German/Norwegian/Danish. My husband’s ethnicity is Puerto Rican. My race is Caucasian, my husband’s is Hispanic, (DNA-wise, technically, Puerto-Ricans are a blend of three races, African, Caucasian, and Native American). Our children will be American citizens who will grow up to learn their deep ethnic and cultural roots. What they will check on a census box is a completely different story.
So what we are really talking about here are three different things: ethnicity/cultural heritage, DNA/race, and citizenship. You can define yourself by any of those labels, but you need to be conscious of all of them.
i dont think you are dominican because your mom likes to go on vacation there.