For those of you who have been dual citizens of the US/UK your whole life, I am wondering what your experience in the UK is like.

I was born in the UK, then moved to the US as a child, and then moved back to the UK in my early 20s. My whole life, I was treated by my friends/family as a dual citizen, but as soon as I moved to the UK as an adult, I was treated as only an American.

People absolutely cannot believe I was born here or that I would know anything about the UK! It's like as soon as they hear my accent, they want me to play the role of ignorant, unaware, uncultured American so they can play the role of smart, well-travelled British person (which is hilarious, as I'm the one who has two passports). Even people who are well-educated behave this way. I have had Oxbridge-educated people scrutinize which hospital I was born at, saying "I don't think there's a maternity unit there" haha what??? I think they sometimes get upset that me being originally from here means that they don't get to have the interaction with an American that they've expected so they do it anyway.

People have also expressed shock and discontent over the fact that I can vote here and use the NHS. I remember someone snottily asking how I was able to vote, implying that I'm somehow scamming the system. I have actually had employers who, years into hiring me, have asked what visa I was on to work there 😂 or colleagues who knew better asking me if I "plan to get British citizenship."

My British partner and I got married so that we have the option of moving to the US, and, upon hearing this, his friend, who had just been informed that I was a British citizen, remarked "oh of course, you're getting married so you can stay in the UK" as though I'm the one marrying him for a visa 😂

I honestly feel like I'm speaking to a wall most of the time! Now that I'm older and more confident, people aren't as willing to try some of these things with me (like implying I'm some leech by accessing healthcare in the country I work in, pay taxes in, and was born in). But people still behave soooo strangely! It is so irritating to be constantly othered in the country you are originally from!

It's extra irritating that people from the US are seen so poorly here. I think if I were from Italy and I was constantly having to talk about beaches or pasta or whatever I'm sure that would get old, too, but the general disdain people have for the US makes for a lot of unnecessarily unpleasant interactions. I honestly hate meeting new people here, unless they're not from the UK, because each conversation starts with them asking about the US, then telling me something they don't like about the US as though I alone am personally responsible for it, and then finding some way to other me and "educate" me about the UK 😂

I guess these comments just show their lack of worldliness, which I would be fine with accepting, except for the fact that nobody here would ever be able to see themselves as so provincial and unworldly!

Anyway, I never meet other dual citizens here, so I'd love to know what your experiences are like.