Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!

[surrealestate]

I've been thinking recently about various issues and the assorted ways in which the population with which I spend most of my time nowadays differs from that from my childhood and adolescence. Though it also made me realize that in many cases, I have no idea one way or the other, beyond the default assumptions, which seem to be very different where I am now from where I grew up.

So, a poll!

Note the use of "raised" rather than "born". And you can decide for yourself where the line is between "raised" and "adult" if it applies to you. For the language question, I know some people may have multiple "first" languages, so I tried to clarify what I meant. [ETA on Q1: Your parents, grandparents, etc, all count as part of your lineage. As per the wording, your answer should refer to the one that goes furthest back, not the most recent.]

[Poll #1346353]

(One thing I hate about LJ polls is how they expand in vertical space after you answer them. I wish they didn't do that. Or didn't show the response stats until you hit the "expand" or something.)

Comments

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

The first one needs to be checkboxes...

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

How do you mean? There's always "None of these apply." if you feel choosing one would be misleading.

[blk]

But two of them can! My grandparent on my dad's side was from a family of first generation Irish immigrants. My grandparent on my mom's side can trace ancestry back to the Pilgrims.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Or another example would be someone whose grandparents were Americans (for whatever that means in this context) but whose parents emigrated, and who have now returned.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Exactly! My father's grand parents (my great grand parents) came over, and my mother's parents came over.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Which still means only one of the choices applies.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

oh, so you mean the first on ANY side, ok. I changed my answers.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Which means you can trace ancestry back to the Pilgrims, so "further back than that" applies.

I did consider the situation of someone who had US lineage way back but they ALL left and then returned generations later, but decided that was unlikely to apply to many people and they could just comment about it.

[blk]

Oh! I didn't realize you were going for the single maximum, as opposed to considering each branch separately. That makes sense.

[moechus.livejournal.com]

Lucky you! I think you're eligible to get an Irish passport (and with it, the right to work anywhere in the European Union).

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

And unlucky me, who can't seem to get any despite two parents and four grandparents born & raised elsewhere.

Why the heck are countries like Ireland (and Italy) so damn easy about it, anyway, whereas others are hard-assed?

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

Because they are keen to attract competent workers. Ireland in particular has always had a really small population, losing even more after the potato famine. They have more relaxed policies about a lot of things in order to attract people and money. It has worked, and the natives must surely be outnumbered now. I want to say also--but have no statistics to back this up--that that Italy and Ireland have a bigger history than other european countries of their people leaving in droves to start new lives, so they're more likely to have those who have Irish or Italian heritage who are keen to come back to the motherland.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

There is no residency requirement, though, and the citizenship lets them work ANYWHERE in the EU, so there's really no reason for the countries in questions to believe it'd be useful for them that way at all. How easy it is for immigrants to work and become citizens is a whole 'nother thing.