Husband (34M) got into an absolutely massive argument with my family over whether they are really Italian or not because they were born in America. He said to them that they are just American, and that Italian-Americans don't exist. I am upset with him, how do I resolve this problem between them?

But they didn't call themselves 'Turkish-Ferman', or 'Pakistani-British', because those constructions don't exist here. I'm am immigrant to the UK myself and I call myself British, an immigrant, or [birth country anonymised] depending on the context. But there is no such thing as the hybrid diaspora identity here, by that type of name, and we lack the analogy to 'African-Brits'.

What your husband has is a failure of imagination to see how things are different in this new country. It's a culture shock thing. He needs to understand that even if it's foreign to him or even bordering on offensive, it's still a phenomenon which exists in this country, which is meaningful to people, and which he needs to get used to and get to know not shout at.

/r/relationships Thread Parent