How can I feel like am not a second class citizen in America as an immigrant? Seems current environment is back in the old days.

Immigrants and enslaved Africans built America, and they are still building it. Companies founded by immigrants or their children bring in $8.6 trillion a year and employ more than 15.4 million people. (American Immigration Council) When someone tries to make you feel like a second-class citizen, that is the goal: to make you shrink. Don't give it to them. When people feel threatened, they find someone to attack. Hurt people, hurt people. The target changes. The playbook doesn't.

So here is the question: if we all built this country, why should one person own it more than another? Nobody gets to hand you a lesser seat in the house your people built. Are you really a second-class citizen? Or can you see why people who feel they are falling behind would launch a psychological assault on the people getting ahead?

The numbers are on your side

Immigrants are behind almost 60% of America's billion-dollar startups and nearly half of the Fortune 500.

• 46% of the 2025 Fortune 500 (231 companies) were founded by immigrants or their children. (American Immigration Council)
• 59% of US startups worth $1 billion or more (455 of 775) have at least 1 immigrant founder, and nearly 1 in 4 has a founder who first came as a student. (National Foundation for American Policy, 2026)
• 59% of Nigerian immigrants have at least a bachelor's degree, about double the 33% of people born in the US. (Migration Policy Institute)

Many immigrant communities out-earn the country as a whole. Median household income by ancestry in 2022, against $74,755 for all US households (US Census Bureau, American Community Survey):

• Indian: $152,341, about double the national median
• Taiwanese: $122,951
• Ghanaian: $82,758
• Irish: $78,949
• Nigerian: $78,005

Newcomers don't take from America. They add to it.

Why they try to make you feel small

People will always find a difference to exploit: skin, accent, religion, the country on your passport. Demeaning others is how some people make themselves feel bigger.

So look at the numbers again. It's what sports fans do when their team is losing: they shout insults to rattle the other side. The insults are about their fear, not your worth.

America is a land of newcomers

The first Americans are Native Americans, who have lived on this land for at least 12,000 years. Everyone else arrived later: some by choice, some fleeing hunger or war, and millions in chains. That makes almost all of us newcomers, which is exactly why we owe each other respect.

Go back far enough and we are 1 family: the human race. Every person alive today descends from ancestors who lived in Africa, every one of us without exception. The only difference between any of us is where the ship stopped or where the plane landed.

The people now called "real Americans" were once the outsiders:

• The Irish, fleeing the famine of the 1840s, were drawn as apes in newspaper cartoons and shut out with "No Irish Need Apply" signs.
• Italians were seen as racially suspect. In 1891 a mob in New Orleans killed 11 Italian immigrants, one of the largest lynchings in US history.
• Germans, Chinese, Jews, Poles and Mexicans all heard the same message in their time: you don't belong here. Their grandchildren are teachers, senators and CEOs.

Enslaved Africans built America, without pay

Immigrants came for opportunity. Enslaved Africans were brought by force and built the country for free.

• More than 200 enslaved people helped build the White House and the US Capitol, working alongside paid craftsmen. (White House Historical Association)
• Cotton picked by enslaved people was America's biggest export before the Civil War.
• By 1860, about 4 million people were enslaved. Historians estimate their market value at about $3.5 billion, more than all the railroads and factories in the country combined.

Black inventors changed how we live

• Lewis Latimer improved the carbon filament that made electric light bulbs last, and drew the patent drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.
• Garrett Morgan invented the 3-position traffic signal and a safety hood that became a model for the gas mask.
• Dr. Charles Drew created large-scale blood banks that saved countless lives in World War II and since.
• Madam C.J. Walker built a hair care empire and became one of America's first self-made women millionaires.
• Frederick McKinley Jones invented refrigerated trucks, which is how fresh food reaches your grocery store.
• Katherine Johnson did the math that put John Glenn in orbit and helped land Apollo 11 on the moon.
• Dr. Patricia Bath invented a laser method for cataract surgery and became the first Black woman doctor to get a medical patent.
• Jerry Lawson led the team behind the first home video game console with swappable cartridges.
• Mark Dean co-invented key parts of the IBM personal computer and led the team that built the first 1 gigahertz chip.
• Marian Croak holds patents behind internet calling (VoIP), the technology under every video call you make.
• Lonnie Johnson, a NASA engineer, invented the Super Soaker.

Immigrants built America

• Alexander Hamilton, born on the Caribbean island of Nevis, co-wrote the Federalist Papers and built the US financial system as the first Treasury Secretary.
• Andrew Carnegie came from Scotland as a boy and built American steel.
• Levi Strauss came from Bavaria, Germany and gave the world blue jeans.
• Albert Einstein fled Germany in 1933 and did the rest of his work at Princeton.
• Madeleine Albright, born in Czechoslovakia, became the first woman to serve as US Secretary of State.
• Colin Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, became the first Black US Secretary of State.

Immigrants built the companies you use every day

If Steve Jobs's father, Abdulfattah Jandali, hadn't come from Syria to study in America, there would be no Steve Jobs as we know him. Would there be an Apple? Would there be an iPhone in your pocket?

• Sergey Brin was born in Moscow and came to the US at 6. He co-founded Google.
• Jensen Huang was born in Taiwan and co-founded NVIDIA, the chip company powering the AI boom.
• Jan Koum came from Ukraine as a teenager on food stamps and co-founded WhatsApp.
• Eric Yuan came from China and founded Zoom.
• Hamdi Ulukaya came from Turkey and built Chobani.
• Rihanna came from Barbados and built Fenty Beauty.
• Ursula Burns, the daughter of Panamanian immigrants, became the first Black woman to run a Fortune 500 company (Xerox).

Leaders with roots in India run some of America's biggest companies:

• Satya Nadella: Microsoft
• Sundar Pichai: Google and Alphabet
• Shantanu Narayen: Adobe
• Arvind Krishna: IBM
• Sanjay Mehrotra: Micron
• Neal Mohan: YouTube
• Nikesh Arora: Palo Alto Networks
• Shailesh Jejurikar: Procter & Gamble
• Reshma Kewalramani: Vertex Pharmaceuticals
• Indra Nooyi ran PepsiCo for 12 years, and Ajay Banga ran Mastercard before leading the World Bank.

Even Elon Musk, one of the loudest voices in today's immigration debate, is an immigrant from South Africa.

Don't accept what they hand you

No one can make you a second-class citizen. Only you can, by accepting the label someone else hands you. Hand it back. You come from the same story as every name on this page.

Your rights are real

The Constitution protects people, not just citizens. Due process, free speech and protection from unreasonable searches apply to you, and labor laws protect workers whatever their status.

• You have the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.
• You don't have to open your door to immigration agents without a warrant signed by a judge.
• Don't sign anything you don't understand without legal advice.
• Many states have their own protections. The American Immigration Council publishes state-by-state guides.

This is general information, not legal advice. For your situation, talk to an immigration attorney.

How to feel like you belong (because you do)

1. Know your worth. Read this page again when you need it.
2. Find your people. Join community groups, professional associations and alumni networks where people know you by name.
3. Build a visible record. Your work, your skills, your reputation. Keep growing your skills with CEEK Learning.
4. Build something. Immigrants are about 80% more likely to start a business than people born here. If you have an idea, start with Build Your Empire.
5. Carry a rights card with an attorney's number, so you are never caught off guard.

The people trying to make you feel small are counting on you believing them. The history of this country says otherwise.