Well, everybody born in the american continent is technically “american” too, including Central and South America. Is there a specific term in english for these people?

Edit: Thanks for all your answers, especially the wholesome ones and those patient enough to explain it thoroughly. Since we (South Americans) and you (North Americans) use different models/conventions of continent boundaries, it makes sense for you to go by “Americans”, while it doesn’t for us.

  • nixcamic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Not everyone who identifies as American has citizenship, and not everyone with citizenship identifies as American. It’s not synonymous.

          • nixcamic@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yes, not everyone born in the US identifies as American. I’ve had friends who were born there while their parents were traveling and while they are technically US citizens they wouldn’t consider themselves American as they’ve never lived there and aren’t culturally American at all. I’ve also known people who were born outside the US and brought there at an early age who definitely consider themselves American even though their legal status is a mess. It’s the only country they’ve ever known.

            • havokdj@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I understand what you are saying, but it doesn’t relate to the question.

              The question is asking what do you call someone born in the US besides “American”, no matter what way you spin it, they are a US Citizen until they decide to get citizenship in another country. This is also obviously different from being born on US soil, which implies your parents were not citizens themselves.

              • nixcamic@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I’m not really getting how born in the US and born on US soil have different meanings in the context of this conversation.

                A completely different tangent: lots of Americans aren’t born in the US. Which kinda messes up OPs question also. Like, yes, technically you can call most people born in the US a US citizen, but you can also call lots of people not born in the US that.

    • Rolando_Cueva@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      US residents are not Americans. They can identify all they want but it doesn’t make it true.

      I might relate to Americans on many things but unless I move there and become a citizen I’ll never be American.

      I don’t disagree with your second sentence though. Considering that some US citizens inherited their citizenship from their parents but never lived there for prolonged periods of time. For them, being a US citizen is just a technicality.