Another way of asking this question is does where you are born determine who you are? This question is not as foolish at it may seem. We know that a person's birthplace does not dictate who they are or what type of person they will become. Yet for many, the place they are born and more specifically the place they grow up becomes a significant issue in how they view themselves and how they feel they are viewed by others. This is most notable in individuals that grow up minority or ethnic communities or communities that suffer from poverty and inaccurate stereotypes.

This phenomenon seems to be influenced by a variety of factors that are present in the lives of people that grow up in these communities. These factors include the stigma of poverty, the stereotypes associated with that particular community, discrimination against members of that community by society at large and the real dangers found in these communities. It is safe to say that these communities most often do not represent the type of place that people aspire to live in, on the contrary, they are often places people desire to escape. In a strange contrast it is also a place that generates a sense of unity among those in the community against the outside world around it. It is in this complex setting that children growing up in these communities attempt to form their identity.

At the heart of this article is the question for the individual: Are you identified by your place of birth? A child who grows up in a community that suffers from issues that are typical stigmas in our society (poverty, immigration, lower level of education, high rates of crime or substance abuse etc.) will without doubt struggle to be able to see him or herself as being separate from those issues but will feel instead that those issues in someway help to form their identity, who they are. If I come from a rural community in a mountainous region of the country that was mark by poverty, high unemployment, high dropout rates and so on, am I a hillbilly? Unfortunately, due to stereotypes and discrimination that does occur I may struggle with the inaccurate sense that despite any accomplishment that I may achieve I may still feel that underneath it all I am still a hillbilly. Now if I don't mind being a hillbilly, this does not present a problem, but due to the stigma attached to the stereotype, I am most likely going to be uncomfortable with this identity and maybe even ashamed of it. This is when one's birthplace becomes problematic for individuals.

For some who have been raised by good parents in good homes in these communities, the link between who I am and where I come from seems to be impossible to break despite the very normal "American" home in which they grow up. In these individuals there is a tremendous effort made to achieve and accomplish in order to separate themselves from any negative connotations that there place of origin may have. They excel in school, they do well in their career, they buy nice homes in the suburbs, drive nice cars, have good families, pursue college degrees and in essence live the American dream. However, despite the number of accomplishments, they are haunted by the feeling they are still nothing more than the product of the inner city or that border town. That they are less worthy than those who live around them and those that they work with, that they are looked down upon because of where they came from because that is who they are. But is this true?

To complicate matters further, there is pressure that is felt by those trying to escape this identity from the community in which they have grown up. This pressure takes the form of issues of loyalty to the community. In a very real way there is a pressure to remain loyal to the community by adopting the attitudes and identity generated by that community. To strive to fit into another community or to leave the childhood community behind is to be disloyal, to be a traitor to the community. So, if the individual doesn't want to live down the street from where they grew up, struggle with low (inadequate wages), deal with crime and wants to move to a safer more prosperous part of the state or country, that individual is a traitor, they no longer fit it the community of their upbringing. This is particularly troubling because the person who is leaving the community no longer feels they belong there and yet at the same time they feel they do not belong to the community in which they currently live and work. In essence, they feel as if they are people without a home, without a place of belonging, no place in which they really identify.

We as human beings are designed to be a part, a part of a family and a part of a community. To be separate and to feel as if you do not belong runs contrary to how we are designed. Hence the person who struggles without a sense of belonging is wrestling with very core issues.

Part 2 of this article address some solutions for this issue.