Despite coming from different countries, they felt an immediate kinship between them.

kinship 是由名词 kin（亲属）加上后缀 -ship（表示状态、关系）构成的复合名词。kin 指"亲属、家族"，-ship 表示"关系或状态"，所以 kinship 字面意思是"亲属关系"，引申为"亲密感、亲切感"。在句中指"一种自然而然的亲近感"。