First, let me say that I realize that versions of this topic have been done before, but I want to know if this lingering feeling of nostalgia is prevalent across other immigrant groups as a whole.

I am not Desi. My family is Vietnamese. I am a second generation Canadian, born and bred.

I was compelled to post here because I did a Google search on second generation immigrants \"returning home\" and it took me here.

Anyway, what got the ball rolling on this train of thought was when I hung out with my friend the other week who originally came from Bosnia to escape its turmoil. We were watching Titanic together and had a few drinks in us, and in the last scene where Rose dies and dreams of her past, my friend said she also dreamt of her hometown, Sarajevo, every night.

She made no attempt to hide her tears and I started to cry too.

Here was a person who was working towards a Masters Degree, seemed to have a very fulfilling and productive life, and yet I never imagined a part of her had an element of painful yearning.

I was sad for her, and I was also sad that I never felt that way about a certain place. I didn't have a \"hometown\" that I really cared for.

Suffice to say, it opened up a can of worms.

Can anyone relate?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw5zaIHtfCs

I am much further than second generation, I have one grandparent who was a newcomer and otherwise it's a lot more complicated and my family has been here for a long time. I feel like I have less of a cultural identity than most people. I have ties to my hometown where I was born and my dad's family were there a long time, but Canada is a cultural mosaic now and since my family came at a time when people were encouraged by internal and external forces to abandon their old identity my ancestors did. Now I am mostly amongst people who consider themselves something else more than Canadian and I can completely understand the benefit of that because people cannot and should not have to shrug off who they are, but I can't get back the identity that my ancestors gave up. It's not mine anymore.

It may not be the same thing you are struggling with but in some ways its similar. It's like missing something you never had. I can't easily identify as just Canadian since what it means to be Canadian has changed and now it usually means to have two or more identities. I don't consider McDonalds and shopping my culture but I don't have another cultural or ethnic identity to cling to, although my Dad tries to reclaim our Irish heritage...he even got us Irish citizenship.

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My prayer to you
Is that you do all the things you set out to do
And live your life the way you love

Thurston Moore, Psychic Hearts