Your comparison between "European vs Dutch" and "American vs Irish-American" is fundamentally flawed.

Nationality vs ancestry are different concepts. Dutch is my current nationality, defined by citizenship, language, culture, and shared social experience. Being "Dutch-Norwegian" would mean I hold dual citizenship or were raised in both cultural contexts simultaneously. Most Americans claiming to be "Irish-American" have no citizenship, language fluency, or authentic cultural immersion in Ireland.

The cultural disconnect is stark. What Americans call "Italian-American culture" has diverged dramatically from actual Italian culture over generations. It's become a distinctly American phenomenon with superficial cultural markers rather than authentic representation. When Irish-Americans visit Ireland, locals often view them as simply American tourists because the cultural gap is so evident.

With each generation, the cultural connection weakens substantially. By the third or fourth generation, what remains is often reduced to stereotypical elements like celebrating St. Patrick's Day or eating pasta on Sundays. This selective cultural picking isn't equivalent to genuine cultural identity.

European identity framework differs fundamentally. In Europe, identity is primarily based on where you were born and raised, your language, and your lived experience – not distant ancestry.

Many Americans who claim hyphenated identities have minimal knowledge of their ancestral country's modern culture, politics, or social realities. They cling to outdated or stereotypical notions that no longer reflect the actual country.

Comparing a continental identity (European) to a national one (Dutch) is not the same as comparing a national identity (American) to a hyphenated ancestral one (Irish-American). The Netherlands exists within Europe; "Irish-American" does not represent a legitimate political or cultural subset of America in the same way.

Do they speak a different language, have their own celebrations or social groups?

Lol melting pot

Come on dude it's a white centric thing to make them feel more ethnic. No one else does this, even in the US. What you're describing is locality pride so someone should be proud to be from a certain state. Not claiming relation/influence from a European country. Immigrants in the US are the first to want to call themselves American while racists refuse to accept that while saying they're Irish or whatever the fuck.

Nah, that's a load of bullshit, the only cultural aspect to it is racism. It's just used as a way to divide people, there's "real Americans" and then there's the rest.

There's a shit ton of black Americans that will never just be called Americans even though their family has lived on US soil much longer than the family of some of the white people who are just called Americans.

In US. Grew up with family speaking itallian when I was young. I am not itallian, even though one day I may get citizenship there. And, the fact is:

What you are saying just isn't true. People want it to be, but it isn't. If you go from your house to someone else's, it is the same, maybe lunch is different. If you go from a British house to a French one, so much is different, exponentially more so. That doesn't even take into account the surrounding infrastructure.

The cold hard truth is that everyone who is actually Itallian is laughing at you for thinking otherwise..

I am a Meat Popsicle.

I call BS.

I'm Canadian and my parents immigrated here from England before I was born. I have a UK passport as well as a Canadian passport.

I'm not English-Canadian, I'm just Canadian. No one hyphenates in Canada, and you cannot say that Canada has any more unifying cultural heritage than the USA.

I understand the different cultural groups, though factually it's incorrect. The main issue is Americans coming to their respective country of descent, and portraying themselves as, for example, Dutch. They're not Dutch whatsoever, their language, customs, culture, and nationality are different. It's incorrect and frankly pathetic.

I believe the USA would be better off if people would just drop the grouping and start being Americans.

Yeah my kids are 1/8 and I encouraged them to learn about that part of their heritage but no, they’re just American.