On a sidenote, At her funeral a few years ago I found out that in 1908, at the age of 11, she was put on a train from Germany to Denmark with noone to pick her up at the other end. Her German family was in extreme poverty and gave her a one way ticket to another country, hoping that someone would pick her up and care for her when she arrived in Denmark.

Noone did, so for the first few years she took care of herself, and was eventually adopted by a farming family where she got work. She grew up, had lots of kids, was a great mother and granny and was always there for people in hardship. Guess she knew what real hardship was.

Stoic as she was she never told anyone aboout it, and it was only revealed at her funeral. She lived to be 93.

Tough lady.

My grandparents endured hardships I can't even imagine. They had nothing. Absolutely nothing. And they were 4 of the happiest people I ever met. Go figure.

We often forget how much we have, how safe our lives are and how little we have to fear. When you hear stories like these, and there are many if you ask old folks that have been through wars famines and worse, you realise that happiness and living a full life is a mental exercise that is not dependant upon material wealth. That's why I wrote the post - I think it's worth saying.

My grandmother was as happy an caring as one could possibly be, and it seems that your experience is the same. And they went through stuff we couldn't even dream of.

My point is, vote! It's an interesting poll.

The thinking in the USA seems to be that either you're an immigrant or you're not, with no distinction between the variation of cultures. To a western European this kind of thinking seems very parochial.

The very idea of asking this kind of question makes it seems USA-centric, because the USA has such a strong self-identification as the land of opportunity for immigrants. The discussions about H1-B visas indicates the schizoid nature of that identity.

I've heard it said that the difference between Britain and the USA is that the British think 100 miles is a long way, while Americans think 100 years is a long time.

Again, all of this is my impression, but you did ask.

That's the ideal in some of the USA, but it's by no means the historical norm. The traditional thinking in the USA has always been that either you're an immigrant from Awesome Culture X or Y, and therefore the salt of the earth, or you're from Despised Culture Z or Q, and therefore a dangerous foreign influence that needs to be controlled.

The darkly amusing feature of our culture is the routine reshuffling of the categories.