What Should an Immigrant Know About America? | Man on the Street

In general, I think that all borders should be abolished. I think that everyone should be able to travel. Should Americans be able to conquer Mexico? Hell no. What's up, guys? Franklin here. Welcome to A New Man on the Street. I'm a proud, patriotic, legal immigrant to the United States, but I'm also curious. What advice would Americans give to someone moving to the U.S.? So I'm here at Cal State L.A. to ask college students, what should an immigrant know about America? Let's see. I'm an immigrant. What should I know about America? That it's built off of racism and oppression, and immigrants are currently under attack right now by ICE. Do you believe immigrants have opportunities in America? Not all immigrants in the sense of like certain ethnic groups might get more opportunities than others. I think it's a colorism issue though. If you look at different cultures, you see that. Darker-complected people are often times persecuted or treated more unfairly than lighter-complected people. But you're grateful to America? Yeah. Cool. Then you should love it then, right? No, I don't love it. I don't love it, but... Wait, why don't you love it? Because right now it's kind of boring. But you come to college. Yeah. You go to college. And you're building a career and you're building a future and... You can get a cheeseburger after, and then you can go to the beach, and you can go to a concert, and you can criticize the government. That's pretty cool. That is pretty cool. You cannot do that in many places, you know. For example, when we look at the largest American companies, 40% of them were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. That means there are opportunities for immigrants, right? Yeah, there are. But, like I said, not all of them get equal rights between immigrants. Hispanics in the US do better, economically speaking, than Hispanics in the rest of the world, including their own countries. Why do you think that is if this country is racist towards Hispanics? I think that this country has a lot of wealth. But it's only mostly going to a certain class. Do you know what's the immigrant group with the highest income, if you had to guess? If I had to guess, I would say Armenians. Indian Americans. And the most educated immigrant group in America is Nigerian Americans. So maybe it's not necessarily about the race or the ethnicity. Yeah, that's true. That could also be a possibility. Do you have any relatives who were immigrants at any point? Like your parents, your grandparents? Why do you think, or what have they told you? Why they chose America? They told me they came to America to find a better opportunity, but they're leaving Vietnam because there was a war at the time. Okay, they escaped communist Vietnam, I bet. Yeah. And are you glad they did that? Yeah. I think the other thing to remember is that borders are a social construct, and in general, I think that all borders should be abolished. I think that everyone should be able to... Should Americans be able to conquer Mexico? Hell no. Why do you think so many people like your parents choose America to build a future, a career, to be free, to have freedom? Freedom. That's the reason. That's what my parents say, yeah. Do you love freedom? Yeah, I like being free. Then you love America, my brother. You love freedom, you love America. Last question, are you grateful to be an American? I definitely think I'm happy where I am right now. I definitely like the opportunities I've been given. And I don't think my ethnicity, like there have been conflicts through my life that have been related to my ethnic background, but that hasn't stopped me. That hasn't kept me from pursuing my dreams and all that stuff. I mean, I'm here in Cal State LA, and it's because I worked hard for it, You know, despite what. What certain stereotypes or what not were pushed against me. Of course, that's how it should be. You're not a victim, you're a victor. Exactly. So this is what every person should know about America. This is the greatest country on earth. The most successful experiment in human history. A country that has provided freedoms, opportunities, hope to millions around the world. So we have to be grateful every day to this country. Thank you for watching this video. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.