Citizen USA: A 50 State Road Trip
Eight years ago Alexandra Pelosi's husband, Michiel, was just one in millions of immigrants who came to America legally. Since he married her, and she was born in USA, he had no problem getting a green card. He was happy as a resident alien, until his son was born. Suddenly he realized he really had to become an American, so he started down the path to citizenship.
In order to become an American you must be a permanent resident for three to five years, be able to read, write and speak English, be a person of good moral character, pass a civics test, and take an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America. After her husband went through this process something really changed in him. He felt like he really belonged to this country, and he was no longer a foreigner in his own family.
His experience inspired Alexandra to set out on a road trip, across America, to all 50 states, to experience the moment when new citizens take their oath, to find out why so many people are willing to renounce their birth country and swear allegiance to the United States of America.
After going to all 50 states she realized that the coolest thing about United States is that you can go to any state and meet people from all over the world. Her favorite thing about America is the newest citizens, immigrants just like her husband who are enriching the country. Seeing America through the eyes of the newest citizens makes you realize all that Americans take for granted. According to Alexandra, the American Dream is alive and well and if Americans want to keep that thing alive they need to keep the country colorful. They just need to make sure to continue to be welcoming.
NAFTA or DOLLARS or EUROS are simply a big scale version of money+''wealth'' BLACKMAIL...Every nation.state or entity should have the right to self-determination in politic and economically..SHOULD have the right also to menage freely devaluation of it's own money...
Well, I'll say this: it was refreshing to watch a documentary about the USA which doesn't characterize it as the epitome of evil. But, it isn't surprising that people lining up to become citizens are going to have basically only good things to say. You won't hear much from them about the crime, violence, unemployment and general pessimism. I agree with others who have commented here that Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and pretty much any European country would be an upgrade.
As an American in Sweden, I must say...it depends. Europeans are notoriously xenophobic and intolerant of co-workers that don't "fit in."
I have two comments:
1)I think it is great if all these people are really so happy as they say they are. However, I cant help but wonder whether there is a little hysteria here also. Look - most of these people have left their homecountry, their families, and their friends behind. So they really dont have any option: They better like it. Even if you come from some terrible and poor country there will always be a part of you that miss your first homecountry. At least, that is my impression from talking to immigrants in the US (and in Denmark). I sense a little overcompensation in their behavior.
2) I think the US is still one of the most open countries in the world when it comes to simply accepting people from all over the world - but, unfortunately, I dont think the US is any longer the best place for immigrants to go. If I were an immigrant I would go to Canada, Australia or perhaps even some Europeans countries. It really depends on what kind of person you are. The social mobility is higher in several European countries today than in the US: If you arrive poor in the US you and your children will likely remain poor. Still it is probably better than living in many other places...
"Perhaps even some European countries"? Do you really know that little about Europe. It is not perhaps, it is DEFINITELY good to go a European country. Here in Norway, where I live, you'll get your own apartment, social services (money) from the state and all sorts of help if you come to the country, along with free health care and all the other benefits we have. If I were an immigrant, I'd rather go to Norway than the US, tbh.. And I think many knows this, as our growth in population is more due to immigrants than us having babies ourselves ;)..
sure, there is truth in this documentary, but there is also a lot of sugary sweet sentiment that seems to divert from some of the reality with becoming and being a naturalized citizen and the underlying corruption of government.
but this would make a great public relations creation to show to prospective immigrants.
I wonder why they don`t ask people which side of America you don`t like
They are actually interviewing the War Criminal Henry Kissinger, for insights into the opportunities the U.S offers!! I saw this doc scraping what I thought was the bottom of the barrel, but I believe I have now found it, unless of course this peevish jingoism continues spiraling downward. Obama is the son of a white mother and a black African, he is not black in the sense americans interpret the title to confer. He is something altogether separate in his ancestry and his life experiences. The U.s Military is the largest most dangerous threat to world security. And why are immigrants, traitors to their own countries, who abandon the nations that gave them the life and labor they now offer to a foreign enemy nation, welcomed here? When unemployment is such a devastating blight on the America continent, why are more mouths to feed and more bodies who need ever scarcer jobs and business opportunities being offered to those who's land this is not the inheritance of? This is my land, I was born and raised here, I owe it my life and it is my inheritance to bear and sow the fruits of. Not any foreigner. These new citizens are intruders, mostly not victims of U.S imperialism but colaborators exploiting their own people and securing scarce green cards through their own wealth and influence, when real victims of tyrannical regimes and valuable yet deprived persons can come to this nation to contribute, but only if we need them. We don't need them though. They sell us cigarettes or comandear lucrative employment were a natural born American continues to find himself unemployed and a burden on the state and the community. Imigrants are not celebrations of American opportunity, and representations of the poor the U.s once welcomed; legal immigrants are the least worthy of citizenship. ILLegal immigrants on the whole are those so hopelessly impoverished and deprived of their humanity that they risk uncertainty for what by American standards is a subsistence existence, but an opportunity to survive and provide for their families. You know those pesky border crossers, mostly latino. Those victims of NafTa, the neer failed state status- Mexico, or or perhaps the terror state Colombia! Unfortunently I am unemployed, I won't give up a job opportunity or share what little I have with these invaders either, and nor would you. I am a human, I cannot give what is not mine to offer. Amnesty contemporarily, is a criminal concept as well, for the vast majority of americans, but to the decision makers(those few persons who actually own this country) who find it convenient to pit americans against immigrants in a race toward the bottom, it would be a boon. Until America is free from the tyrany of the minority of the opulent, we do not want nor can afford to share with outsiders. The U.S Border was an imaginary boundry, though today in part it is a militarized buffer zone segregating americans from the Bantustan that Mexico has become. Mexicans are the zombie hordes depicted in World War Z that propogandists want you to detest, like you do flies. They are humans whose life is as valuable as yours and mine, however, I need a place to live and money to survive and on this side of the border I come first. Or else god forbid the floodgates do open and we join those victims in their own personal hells.
Unless you are native American (who rightly saw the land as belonging to God, and claimed a right to a share of it, as God's children) the idea of turning away other peoples is absurd. Got universal vision? Also, immigrants these days do back-breaking work that americans can not or will not do. Get off their backs unless you want their back-breaking jobs.
Many immigrants in this video speak better english than americans that were born here. Has anyone noticed that?
Wherever you go, people are people. They all want the same thing... more. In the US there is more of everything.
Superman was Canadian.
The people that control the news media would never show this doc.? That's why its important we have the internet and and that we keep it open and free!
A refreshing documentary thank you!
From a first generation atheist Italian.
Very well put together doc here. Nice job on interviewing everyone. I find it somewhat sad that everyone has to get a good dose of the Catholic religion when they come here, but what the heck. What makes this doc strong were the people in it, not America's belief system.
I've never seen a documentary that portrays the "outsider's view" of the USA in such a positive light, at least one made in recent years. +1 for the history books I guess ^^
Still, being one who's convinced the s*** is just starting to hit the fan for the modern fiat economy, I'm happy not to be living there.