WE ARE: A Nation of Immigrants - New Haven 2018
The Participants


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Sabrina

China

Portrait Location: 
New Haven Green A19

Current occupation: Scientist and entrepreneur

Arrival in the US: At age 16, c. 2003

Reason for migration: My parents emigrated to the United States so that I could get a better education.

Commentary: Being here was very different from what I had pictured, from what I had seen in the movies.  English was definitely more challenging.  People speak very fast and I had learned British English when I was in China so the accents were different.  I was placed in an English as a second language class and an algebra class for math.  That was very surprising to me since I had pretty much learned all that math when I was in elementary school.

A few of my friends who came to the United States to pursue advanced degrees and who have published papers, gotten patents and made significant scientific contributions to society are very worried that their visas won’t get renewed.  It’s a sad situation.  For me, the United States is an immigrant country and we used to welcome anyone who came for any reason.  They needed shelter, or education, or to escape their war-torn countries.  The US is a place for them to accomplish anything they want to do. I recently read a book that claimed that if you give a job to an immigrant, you are not able to give that job to a US citizen.  However, if this person can build jobs, create an industry, that’s totally different.  You’re talking about one job multiplying into millions and billions of profits and new jobs.  For example, Elon Musk, an immigrant, has created millions of opportunities for others in this country.  This is what makes America great.