- Just because I say we can improve on things,
doesn't mean we do not love this country.
Doesn't mean that we wouldn't go to war for this country.
- [Nabila] We are from Afghanistan,
and we immigrated two years ago.
- [Lalo] I was born in Mexico.
I immigrated 23 years ago.
- [Stacey] I was born in Vietnam
and immigrated about 30 years ago.
- [Peter] I was born in Hong Kong.
I immigrated 57 years ago.
- [Soffeah] I was was born in Mumbai, India,
and I immigrated 13 years ago.
- [Amadou] I was born in Senegal and I immigrated to the US
the day before September 11.
- Is a myth.
- It's a myth.
Most immigrants are here to contribute
to make this nation a better place.
- I work really hard and diligently to become a better
person, every single day.
- We came here to save our life.
We are not here to bring to bring any crime.
We're not terrorists.
I am trying to escape from the terrorist.
How I am a terrorist?
How you can think that?
- That's a myth.
- Think it's a myth.
- That's a myth.
- They definitely are educated.
Maybe not in the same way
that people out here traditionally are.
Education levels might be actually even higher
than what people go through here.
When I graduated from high school,
my parents were like,
"Okay, you have like two more degrees to do."
So there is that balance of like when you say uneducated,
is it like you don't have the same degree as me,
or you don't speak the same language as me.
- For example, in New York you might bump into taxi cabs
that were doctors back home, or lawyers.
Now they are here, they're doing different jobs.
- I think they assume that they are uneducated
because they're escaping certain circumstances back home.
And some people assume well why did you get in that
situation in the first place?
If you were smart enough,
you would of excelled in that environment.
You know, sometimes it's just so hard.
It's just everything is against you,
that you have to go somewhere else.
- Last years that we were in Afghanistan,
I couldn't go to school.
I couldn't get my diploma from Afghanistan.
Just because it wasn't safe anymore.
They used to come inside the school
and just shoot the girls and kill them.
- Sense we moved to America, first I went to high school.
I got my diploma.
Then me and my sister both, we enrolled in college.
- We're studying biology.
- That's a hard myth.
- Myth.
- That is so not true.
The more people come here, the more jobs are created,
the more people get an income,
and hence they pay the income tax.
- There are many immigrants who are actually working
who pay taxes.
That's a lot of money alone, alright.
- I was very impressed with the speech by JFK.
He said "Ask not what your country can do for you,
"but what you can do for your country."
We really don't wanna take anything from America.
We wanna contribute more than we take.
- Immigrants are entrepreneurs.
I personally know a lot of immigrants
who have done a lot of good.
- There's some truth to that.
But just not everyone.
I believe some immigrants, when they come into this country,
sometimes they go to different communities
that represent who they are, and as a result of that
it makes it harder for them to learn English.
However, I do believe that most of them actually
intend to learn English.
- I went to school at night, in the evening,
to learn English.
- Even my family, right now, they are taking classes
in the same college with us,
and they're trying to learn the language.
- My dad and my mom, they had to learn on the spot.
So I would teach them English.
After kindergarten I would like teach them the ABC's.
- That's a myth.
- True for me.
It might be a myth for other people.
- I came here for higher studies.
It's not always the same case for everybody.
- When we were back in Afghanistan,
my dad used to work with United Israel Army.
Two years ago, the Taliban attacked my dad.
After that, my dad decided "I have to move."
"It's not only me who will die, it's all of my family,
"who are in danger."
- North Vietnam took over the South Vietnam.
We had put escape on the boat.
Around 300 something people on one fishing boat.
So we each had some water and run out of water.
The boat got to the Malaysia.
Malaysia did not accept our boat,
so they tow our boat back into the ocean.
We jumped out from the boat and we swam to an island.
We told them we are Vietnamese refugee
and asked them to call the Red Cross.
- That's a myth.
- Myth.
- That's a myth.
It's extremely difficult.
- You know, like you wait 10, 15 years, just to come here.
- My parents brought me over when I was two,
and when I was 18, my step-mom told me to get ready,
because she had applied for me to become
a legal permanent resident,
and from there I lived in Mexico for two years
and was waiting for the whole process.
Had to get my finger printing.
I had to get physicals.
There was so many things that I had to do,
to just get a meeting with an immigration officer.
- It's the truth.
- Google has Satya Nadella as the CEO,
and the founder of Chibani is an immigrant.
- Chinese students, who are coming into
the American universities, who are innovating,
who are taking STEM positions,
who are changing Silicon Valley.
Mexicans who are working for NASA.
- I would say that would be partially true.
- Yeah, that is definitely true.
In this country, anyone who's non-white,
have to work harder.
- Just from my experience, because I see myself
not just as a person of color, but also a women
who was brought up in an oppressive society,
you have to work differently than your peers.
Cause you are dealing with the shocks that you have
from your surroundings, and you know,
you're coping up with the education system.
You're dealing with the food differences.
So on a subconscious level,
you're really out of your comfort zone.
It's not that you're here on a vacation.
You are actually here to prove something.
And you're here to make something of yourself.
- Myself, when we came here, I didn't know English,
and I had to work hard.
When you have an accent, they make fun of you,
and they're saying that you're not an American,
and they don't even think you are a human, you know?
- If I apply for a job and I call, I feel that they,
if they detect an accent,
sometimes they're not that receptive.
People do judge.
- Freedom.
- I love it because I'm safe, I'm happy,
and I'm with my family.
- In my country, it's not easy for girls
to go outside alone.
If you go outside by yourself and you're a girl,
somebody will come and kidnap you,
or do something to you.
- I'm able to speak to African Americans
and get a raw point of view.
I'm also able to speak with a white American,
and also get a raw point of view.
So I love that.
- I'm also happy that I know more than one language,
cause I think it makes your brain function differently.
- I think being an immigrant
has taught me to just like blossom.
Life has been very hard, but at the same time,
I think that's made me a better person.
- We love this country.
Just because I say, okay, we can improve on things,
doesn't mean we do not love this country.
Doesn't mean that we wouldn't go to war for this country.
We understand the importance of America,
like how precious it is.
- Even though we are from another countries,
we're all human, not immigrants.
- We're all brothers and sisters.
So we have to stand by each other.
We have to support each other.
- I wish they knew that we we're human too.
We live, breathe the same way.
We have emotions.
We love.
We are people at the end of the day, and that we are human.
- Hi everyone.
I'm Samara, one of the creators of Truth or Myth.
A special thanks to National Academy of Sciences,
for making this video possible.
Click here to watch more.
And click here to subscribe to SoulPancake,
so you never miss an episode.
(techno music