Why are you being confrontational about this? Italian Americans aren’t claiming to have Italian citizenship. Their cultural identity has more to do with their cuisine and values passed down the family. It’s more than just a piece of land that’s shaped like a boot.

As an American it’s frustrating to me as well

The amount of people I know who have no attachment to their so called “homeland” is pretty much most of them. And usually due to their families they basically just pick one family to associate with.

I know people who say “I’m Irish” while their siblings say “I’m Finnish.” Simply because of which grandparent they more closely associated with.

Of course normally when I ask people where they’re from it’s usually in the context of which state.

Edit: By attachment I mean no other attachments than genetics. They don’t take part in the culture, they don’t visit, they don’t stay in contact with their relatives over there, hell most don’t even know any of their relatives over there.

I don’t understand that too! I have some Italian ancestors on my mom’s side of the family. But I’m brazilian and I refuse to call myself “Italian”.