Immigrant Patriotism

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When a character makes a point to express a great deal of love and patriotism for their homeland, despite not being from their homeland. They loved the place so much, they decided to move there from where they originally lived. This could be for a variety of reasons. They may have come for work, or moved with their family when they were a child, or they might simply have arrived there in the course of escaping whatever hardships they suffered in their native land.

This is not about immigrants in general, but rather specifically about those who are particularly enthused about their new home.

Examples of Immigrant Patriotism include:

Film

• The Presidio: Presumably added in to justify Sean Connery Not Even Bothering with the Accent, Lieutenant Colonel Caldwell (while quite sloshed), talks about how he moved to America with his father when he was ten, and fell in love with the country from the moment he saw the Statue of Liberty. He loved his new homeland so much, he joined the Army in order to protect her.
• Charlie Wilson's War.

Gust: But let me ask you. The 3,000 agents Turner fired, was that because they lacked diplomatic skills as well? Cravely: You're referring to Admiral Stansfield Turner? Gust: Yeah, the 3,000 agents. Each and every goddamn one of them first or second generation Americans. Is that because they lacked the proper diplomatic skills? Or did Turner not think it was a good idea to have spies who could speak the same language as the people they're f--king spying on? Cravely: Well, I'm sorry, but you can hardly blame the Director for questioning the loyalty to America of people that are just barely Americans. Gust: My loyalty! For twenty four years people have been trying to kill me! People who know how. Now do you think that's because my dad was a Greek soda pop maker? Or do you think that's because I'm an American spy?

Literature

• The Carol Plum-Ucci novel, Streams of Babel makes a serious point about this.

Live-Action TV

• Taxi: Latka Gravis (played by Andy Kaufman)
• Worf on Deep Space Nine is both straight and an inversion. He is straight in the sense that loyal to the Federation to the point of fighting against the Klingon Empire. At the same time he is obsessed with Klingon tradition - more even then most Klingons are.

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy

• This, combined with many cultural misunderstandings (Played for Laughs) makes up much of Yakov Smirnoff's comedy routine.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons did it! In one episode, Apu studies to become a naturalized American citizen when a new Springfield ordinance threatens to have him deported. He passes the citizenship exam when he gives a detailed explanation of the causes of the Civil War (when he could have just said 'slavery'), showing his devotion to becoming a citizen. After the ordinance passes...

Homer: That just goes to show, democracy doesn't work. Apu: Hey, don't knock the land that I love. (opens a piece of mail, then gasps) Jury duty! I am truly an American citizen now! (tosses it in the trash)

Real Life

• Walter Krueger, George Kenney, and John Shalikashvili (born in Germany, Canada, and Poland, respectively), all rose to be four-star Generals in the American army. Similarly, Hyman G. Rickover, born in Russian-controlled Poland, became a four-star Admiral in the US Navy (becoming known as the "father of the nuclear navy" for his campaign to bring nuclear naval propulsion to the fore).
  • Krueger, the German, is notable for being promoted to that rank during World War II, while the United States was fighting Germany.
  • Shalikashvili was ethnically Georgian—i.e., from a country part of the Soviet Union at the time of his birth (his parents were nobility exiled from the country by the Red October). He eventually became the chief military commander of NATO shortly after The Great Politics Mess-Up, and was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—the highest-ranking member of the US military—from 1993 to 1997.
  • Rickover is something of a borderline case, as he fled with his family to the US at the age of five. You see, the Rickovers were Jewish, and there were a lot of pogroms in those days, so perhaps it's no surprise that Rickover never felt much sympathy for the Russians.
• A similar eastern example is Konstantin Rokossovsky, Red Army commander in the World War II and twice-awarded Hero of the USSR. Rokossovsky was a 'technically' born in the Russian Empire (which is not to say it was the same country as the USSR), since Poland was under the Tsar's rule. Poland became independent early in his career, and he was, through no small display of his own tenacity and brilliance, held the highest military rank in the Soviet Union, that of Marshal—all after having been a target of the purge of the 1930s. In modern Russia, he is famously remembered for never having lost a battle he fought, was compared to Georgian war hero Bagration by Stalin himself, held the post of Defense Minister after the much more famous Zhukov, and was buried next to the walls of the Kremlin.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• The annual Nathan's hotdog-eating competition was started by three immigrants to America arguing over who was most patriotic.
• Christopher Hitchens was an English immigrant to America, and was very fond of the foundational principles of the nation, most notably freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
• Practically any of the original Zionists. That was after all kind of the point.
• Truth in Television, at least in Canada. A 2012 poll found that 88% of immigrants considered themselves "very proud" to be Canadian, compared to 81% of Canadians who were born there.