my mother's people came from russia and poland. they spoke and wrote and read russian, polish, hebrew and yiddish. they also read hebrew, the prayer language. they came legally to canada, where they learned french. all their kids were born there, spoke french, polish, yiddish and russian. when they legally came to the usa, they added english. they all became citizens, except my own mother, who filed green card papers every year of her life. she married a citizen and was allowed to stay. she paid taxes and bought insurance.
i was born here and lived with my parents and grandparents. the house language was yiddish and that's what i spoke. when i was 4.5 yrs old i started kindergarten and learned english then. when my parents moved away, english was the house language. i am still mostly bi-lingual.
my father's people came from russia and spain. his father spoke polosh, russian, yiddish and hebrew. his mother spoke spanish, yiddish and hebrew.
they came here legally, learned english and became citizens. my father was born in the usa. he married my mother, and gave her immigration status.
my family, collectively, spoke russian, polish, french, spanish, yiddish (and thereby german), hebrew and english. wherever they lived they learned to read and write in that language, and become part of that community. that's why they came, after all.
what does that make me? american.