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My mom first immigrated from Korea to Bolivia with when she was 10 years old, and then to Canada by herself at 21. My father immigrated to Canada to marry my mom when he was 32.

I was born in Canada, so i didn't have to go through the experience, but i still felt it through the struggles my parents went through. I think my parents were fortunate to immigrate to Canada during the late 70s when there weren't many immigrants. i think it would have been difficult for them to succeed the way they did had they come to Canada in the late 90s.

I was born in the US, but my parents were not. Now, my son's an AMCIT but he was born abroad and my husband is a resident alient. I love it!

@Mrs. Jacks: why not?
It's SO important to me that M identifies with the cultural background of her parents? I fully intend to immerse her into the Chinese culture and as much as possible of her German/Irish side. We plan to take family vacations to China, Germany & Ireland. Maybe it is because I'm an immigrant but I want her to know where her family came from; what her roots are.

I want her to be proud to say she's Chinese/German/Irish. So many of my cousins have this distaste in their mouth to say they are Chinese and would rather say they are "American" and it leaves a horrible taste in my mouth when they do that.

My parents immigrated right after they got married. In fact, they got married because my dad was coming to America to go to college here, and if she wanted to come along on his student visa they had to be married. Haha.

They totally immersed themselves into American culture, living in the suburbs with no other Asians around (although they did attend a Korean church so their friends were all Korean) and both worked full time all the time. My other 2nd generation friends are always shocked at how little accent my parents both have, especially my dad since he's been working in a corporate setting for over 30 years.

They have been back to Korea twice-- once when my older brother was born (and I was in utero) and once a couple of years ago. I have never been anywhere in Asia (except that time as a fetus!).

I married another Korean American and most of my close friends are Asian in ethnicity. We live in a suburb that was a lot like mine growing up-- not too many Asians.

So I don't feel very close to the immigrant experience!

@regberadaisy: Sad, isn't it?! My grandparents who all spoke their native languages have all passed away. There were really the keepers of our deep family traditions. They also moved away from the East Coast to follow my mom and dad, and I only have a few cousins left in New York who we visit rarely.

Of course, all the traditions I can keep will be kept, but some of it you really can't replicate, like your grandmother not letting you go outside and play until you ask properly in her native language!

My dad's parents both arrived in the states in their teens but returned to South America, had my dad, then returned to the states when he was three. I immigrated to canada to marry DH.
My grandmother, father, and myself have all had our children in a country other than our own birth country. I wonder if L will continue our tradition.
Neither side of my family had Americans until the late 1930s. I'd say the immigrant experience is very important and close to me.

My dad is really into genealogy and traced his side of the family back to when the came over from Germany in the 1850's. Like @Mrs. Jacks: they settled in NYC-- Lower East Side/ East Village, then Brooklyn.

Not sure about my mom's side, but it's been several generations.

DH's dad moved here from England as a toddler, though. His grandmother still has a lovely English accent, and his uncle moved back to England post college and is still there (uncle was a baby when they came over)

My mom's parents came to the US separately from Russia and Poland in the early 1900s. I believe they met in Vancouver and then immigrated to Seattle. Not sure when my dad's grandparents came over, but they were also from Russia and Poland. One of my Dad's cousins wrote a book about escaping from the Nazis in Poland as a child, and he eventually made his way to the US as well. As far as I know, the rest of my family escaped before the war.

As for DH, he came to the US for grad school, got a job, met me and decided to stay

My family and I were very fortunately to immigrate together to the US in the 1980's. I was four at the time didn't speak a lick of English. I remember very clearly how hard my parents worked, how my childhood was different from other kids because I had to go to the DMV and bank to translate, signed my own school forms because my parents didn't understand what they said. This experience really instilled a strong sense of responsibility and pushed me to "grow-up" faster, if you will.

Mostly early 1900s. My great grandparents on my mom's side came from Eastern Europe and on my dad's side my great grandparents came from Ireland and Canada.

My parents got married in '82, so I think they immigrated to the U.S. shortly before that. I was born and raised here. My dad is a BRILLIANT man and you wouldn't have guessed he immigrated here.

Ummm I think in the early 1800s, from Ireland, at least on my dad's side. My mom's side I'm not sure...

My dads family came over in the early 1900s-10s. My moms family were German immigrants who came over before the revolutionary war.

I have some ancestors that came over in the 1600s from England and their descendants fought in the Revolution and Civil War. I don't know much about the Civil War stuff, but the role they played in the Revolution is fascinating to me. When Paul Revere made his famous ride to warn the colonists that the troops were coming, my ancestors went out to fight the coming troops and were instrumental in holding them off. Their family house is even a part of the Minuteman National Park in Mass.

The other side of my family came over from Russia and Poland in the early 19th century.

So I don't have much of the "immigrant experience" in my immediate family. I consider myself pretty much an American amalgamation.

For Korean parents, my parents immigrated to the states fairly early. My dad came in 1969 and began high school in the states and my mom came in 1974 and started college here. They met in the mid-70s as college students in Philadelphia. Because of this, I feel like our extended family (both sides) feel a little in limbo as to being 1st generation or 1.5 generation or even 2nd generation.

My dad has absolutely no accent (neither do any of his siblings) when he speaks English and in fact, his English skills in reading and writing are better than those skills in Korean. My mom and her younger brother have a slight accent and her youngest brother does not. My Korean-American friends were always amazed at my dad's English and would be flustered at first not knowing whether they should bow and speak to him in honorific Korean or be all, "What's up?"

On one hand, it was great that my dad understood my American teenage experience, but on the other, it was hard because he still had first-generation Korean parent expectations and there was no pulling the wool over my parents eyes because they could read and write English and communicate very well with my teachers! Ha!

My dad immigrated to Canada in 1972 when he was 24 years old...My mom immigrated in 1975 when SHE was 24 years old.

I have such a deep respect for my parents for starting new lives in Canada...

Love reading these!

I dont know very much about my Dad's side, but my Mom's side has been traced back really far by my Aunt and Gpa. They immigrated in the late 1800's from Ireland, more than likely bc of the Potato Famine. They moved to upstate NY and the land was in our family until a few years ago when we sold it to the neighbors. Ive loved looking at the genealogy!

my moms family has been farming in the same county since they immigrated in the 1800's. Whats mind blowing to me is that they managed to stay completely Irish until my moms generation.

Dad's not sure about but I'm pretty sure it was pretty much the same time period.

I feel like I'm as Canadian as they come.

My Dad's side came about 200 years ago, from Scotland. Half of my mom's side was in Newfoundland before that, and the other half came in the early 1900s from Wales!