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Living The American Dream

• famousactress 14y ago
  Awesome story. We don’t get to choose what country we’re born in or what socio-economic status... It bums me out how few people (at least, in the US) seem to recognize this. It's such a lottery, and there's a big difference between pride and entitlement. The world would probably quickly get much closer to an actual meritocracy if this particular lottery ran closer to once-a-decade or so, instead of once-per-lifetime.
  • jacques_chester 14y ago
    The birth lottery is stunningly important. Out of the several billion people I could have been, I was born in Australia, to intelligent and kind middle class parents. Really. My biggest single stroke of luck was to be born where I was born. Everything else is going to deeply path-dependent.
    • pm90 14y ago
      Couldn't agree more. Although I was born in India (which is not a developed country), I still think that I was lucky to be born into a middle-class college educated family. In India, there are kids who still die of hunger . From a very early age I realized that I could have just as easily been born into one of the many millions of poor families that make up half the country. It was indeed a pretty big stroke of luck
• philiphodgen 14y ago
  Nicely done and inspirational. Thanks for the post on your blog and for putting it here so I would find it.
  • myasmine 14y ago
    Glad you liked it!
• rollypolly 14y ago
  Great story. Gives me a renewed appreciation for the privileges I was born with.
• rdl 14y ago
  Congratulations for both becoming a US Citizen and for getting involved in tech! Great to see SE PA is developing more of a tech scene, too (I'm originally from there). It's kind of frustrating that the state department consular staff dropped the ball on informing your family about applying for citizenship -- I know of people who ended up stateless after the fall of the USSR for similar reasons. I suspect on the west coast there would be more opportunities to go to college without an SSN for financial aid (by using state or private grants), due to the relatively larger number of non-citizen or undocumented immigrants.
• autarch 14y ago
  This seems like a good example of how screwed up immigration policies are in this country. We should be running out to other countries and actively recruiting people like her to immigrate here. She's smart, she's hard-working, and she's obviously incredibly motivated. But despite all this, the process of even getting a green card took a ridiculously long time. I really don't understand people knee jerk stance against immigration (well, I do understand it, it's largely racism).
  • noonespecial 14y ago
    That's a fascinating idea I've been kicking around for a while now. What if a country recruited citizens? The US almost did in a way at the end of WW2 and we more or less got a space program out of it.
    • micahgoulart 14y ago
      Canada does that. They actively seek out highly skilled foreigners and offer them opportunity to immigrate to Canada. It's out of necessity since there is a shortage of highly skilled professionals in Canada. Here's a recent article about new initiatives the Canadian government is taking: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Feds+plan+hand+pick+skilled+immigrants+attract+entrepreneur+with+visa/6474031/story.html http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Feds+plan+hand+pick+ski...
      • trustfundbaby 14y ago
        They've scaled back the Federal program drastically, there are only very few skills which are eligible for immigration and IT/software dev is not one of them
        • pyre 14y ago
          Doesn't it qualify under NAFTA at least (granted this only applies to US/Mexico)?
    • jacques_chester 14y ago
• lionheart 14y ago
  Great story. My family immigrated as well, from the former Soviet Union, but thankfully we had help and I got my citizenship only 5 years after moving to the US. I really am thankful every day that my parents braved the incredible hardships of moving to the other side of the world to a country where everything was different from what they knew. If it wasn't for them making this decision, I wouldn't have the incredible opportunities that I do today.
  • yan 14y ago
    Just wanted to chime in that I recently had a very similar conversation with my parents. Thanked them and chatted about the effort they went through to uproot their entire life and immigrate. Guess what I'm trying to say is, if you've been putting off giving thanks for something similar, now is a better time than ever.
• jorgem 14y ago
  The nice tone of comments on this thread are why I enjoy HN. Compare to comments elsewhere (not the same article, but immigration related): http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/historic-wave-of-mexican-migration-comes-to-a-standstill-report-says.html http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/historic-wave-...
  • deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
• throawa 14y ago
  Just wanted to share my story too (throwaway account). I first came to the US when I was 16 on a high-school "exchange" program, which was actually a one-way "exchange" (nobody went to my country from the US), sponsored by the US government in order by promote democracy, American way of life and thinking, etc., across the world, and especially in the former Soviet Union, where I was from. The American plan was to immerse 15-17 year-olds from the former Communist bloc into American mentality, then send them back to their home countries and let them loose into their societies. At the time, my former USSR republic was in chaos, the Union just collapsed a few years earlier, economy was in turmoil with ridiculous hyperinflation, food supply failures, crime rate skyrocketting, etc. Needless to say, everybody wanted to get out, and the competition to get into this US-sponsored program was crazy. To get in, you had to pass 3 rounds of testing: prove your English language skills, submit an essay in English, and finally, pass an interview. In my high school of about 1500 students, I was one of the two people who made it that year. I then spent my last year of high-school as a senior in an American high-school out in the Middle of Nowhere, USA and lived with an American host family, who were proud "rednecks". I didn't fully understand the full meaning of that word at that time, but in those parts of the country, it wasn't anything to be ashamed of. Needless to say, I learned quite a bit about "American way of thinking" during that year. Meanwhile, the message from my parents back home was simple and consistent: find a way to stay there FOR GOOD. Get into an American university. Oh, and by the way, we have no money for that, so figure out how to do it for free. Which I did, by the end of my American senior year. I lucked out because I got into a graduating senior class, even though I was supposed to stay with my age group and be a junior. As a senior, I got to take SATs and ACTs, and studied hard for them, having figured out that those were an important ticket to American education. Surprisingly, my results were higher than national average, even though my English was nowhere near native. It would be enough to get into most colleges in the universities in the country. Unfortunately, just being accepted was not an option in my circumstances, since I had no money whatsoever to pay for college. I needed a full-ride scholarship, nothing less. Fortunately, my (pretty high) GPA and test results turned out to be enough to get one at only one college out of over 200-300 applications that I sent out. In the meantime, I was back home, back from my first year in America, wanting to go back, this time on my own, without the hand-holding by the State Department and the chaperones. To do that, I needed to learn more about a whole another side of the State Department -- the consular office, the visas, etc. With my letter of acceptance, and an offer of full scholarship in hand, I braced the throngs of my countrymen lining up at the American embassy. I did end up getting one, a student visa this time, although with a frown from the consular officer about the fact that I just came back from the US on an exchange visa. At the time, that was a minor detail I should have paid more attention to. Fast forward several years. I have a Bachelors and Masters degrees from US schools (both paid for by the schools themselves), have interned at cool companies, met my wife (also an immigrant, but not from my country) and married her, and switched from studying on a student visa to working on an H-1B visa. At this point I've lived in the US for over 13 years, and investigated the possibility of finally getting a green card. It turned out that it was nearly impossible for me to get a green card without having to first go back to my country for two years and fulfilling the State Department's original goal for me -- sharing what I learned in the US as a 16 year-old kid with my countrymen. This, despite the fact that Internet erupted and connected the entire world in ways unthinkable since that time. Despite the fact that I have shared quite a bit with many of my countrymen via various online forums and discussion boards during those 13 years. Despite the fact that I have started a family with roots in the US and my wife does not speak the language. Despite the fact that my skills are better suited in the US, which is proven by high-paying jobs I held, along with similarly high taxes I paid along with that. And so, after 13 years in America, after having received Bachelor's and Master's degrees, with respected schools completely subsidizing my tuition, and after having worked at some of the more respected companies in American tech community, I had nothing left to do but pack up and immigrate to Canada, who was gracious enough to take me, and glad enough to use my skills and take my tax dollars. For me, American Dream remained a dream. Canadian Dream is not as hyped-up as its bigger sister down south, but it has its fair share stories. This is one of them. :)
• option_greek 14y ago
  What an inspiring story! I don't know if she has earned her US citizenship or US earned her as a citizen.
• rickmb 14y ago
  Seems to me that from being an immigrant nation the US has become the Western country that is the hardest to immigrate to.
  • smiler 14y ago
    Yes, I'm British and I would love to be able to easily immigrate to the US. I know so many others who would as well - but it requires you to find a US company willing to sponsor you etc which makes it a real hassle
  • tomjen3 14y ago
    Actually the hardest to legally immigrate to. It is not that difficult to get across the border (and you can properly walk across the Canadian undetected). Which is a real shame, you have the option of a real boost in the economy if you those who want to work get into the country.
  • bearmf 14y ago
    What made you think it is the hardest one? It is not easier to emigrate to UK, Canada or Australia, the systems are just different.
• citricsquid 14y ago
  A really cool chart on legal immigration into the United States for anyone interested in how hard it really is: http://i.imgur.com/yxTFW.jpg http://i.imgur.com/yxTFW.jpg (posted here a few days ago, not sure who posted it though so no credit unfortunately)
  • fierarul 14y ago
    http://reason.org/files/a87d1550853898a9b306ef458f116079.pdf http://reason.org/files/a87d1550853898a9b306ef458f116079.pdf
• jacobr 14y ago
  The "push" factors for emigration are probably strong in many non-democracies, but it's it possible that the "pull" factors for immigration could be weakened by the internet? Some people don't seen to care about moving to the US to live "the American dream" or whatever.
• pinchyfingers 14y ago
  Yasmine, I'm so glad you published this story. It's incredibly disheartening when anyone who lives in the United States believes that they are poor. Too many people born with the privilege of being American citizens choose to blame their life on outside circumstances, when the reality is they've been given the best outside circumstances anyone could ask for. Many people want to redefine the American dream as some kind of struggle for subsistence, but you've perfectly exemplified the true American dream: if you're willing to set goals and work your ass off, then you can choose what kind of life you will live.
• westicle 14y ago
  Very interesting story - hard to comprehend how frustrating it must be having lived somewhere most of your life without being formally "accepted". "I can speak out against the government, if need be, without fear of being prosecuted, imprisoned, or killed". Probably pays not to take that sentiment too far however. This is still the USA we're talking about.
• read_wharf 14y ago
  Welcome.
• vacri 14y ago
  What's the content management system you're using for this site? It's rather obnoxiously blocking me from reading your article because I don't have javascript enabled and it's telling me I need to turn javascript on for mobile safari (there's no copy of safari in this building). I can see the content formatted fine under the warning. It seems to be related to that toolbar up the top - it's not on the homepage and I don't get the error message there.
  • bmelton 14y ago
    I was interested, so I looked -- the CMS appears to just be Wordpress. I'm guessing (without having done much research) that it's Cufon that's pushing the JS requirement. I also saw FB Connect, so I guess it could be that, but I've never seen it do that before (but I've also never looked.)