0:00:15.521,0:00:18.350
So, I'm not here to talk about something[br]that's funny.

0:00:18.350,0:00:21.180
I'm here to talk about something that's[br]really, really close to my heart.

0:00:21.180,0:00:24.010
In fact, it is so close I cannot escape[br]it.

0:00:24.990,0:00:29.000
It's because I came to this country as an[br]immigrant.

0:00:30.000,0:00:33.490
It's hard for some people to notice when[br]somebody's an immigrant.

0:00:33.490,0:00:39.840
I do things related to internet culture,[br]which is very American.

0:00:39.840,0:00:41.010
It is very internet-y.

0:00:41.010,0:00:43.210
You have to be in the zeitgeist.

0:00:43.210,0:00:49.400
It is a class of work that people who are[br]like me, do not do.

0:00:49.400,0:00:55.910
We run dry cleaners, grocery stores, nail[br]salons, 7-11's.

0:00:55.910,0:00:59.219
Maybe we get an H-1B visa and we work at[br]Microsoft.

0:00:59.940,0:01:04.280
But we do not go out and make[br]entertainment websites.

0:01:04.280,0:01:08.730
Because for that to occur, we must have a[br]connection

0:01:08.730,0:01:12.190
that is much more deeper than a career or[br]profession.

0:01:12.190,0:01:16.470
I must understand you, and your[br]background, and where you grew up.

0:01:17.610,0:01:19.219
But some how I ended up here.

0:01:19.810,0:01:25.370
And because I came here when I was 14, I

0:01:25.370,0:01:30.990
was able to understand what its like to be[br]a American, yet still be a immigrant.

0:01:30.990,0:01:34.070
If I came here when I was ten or maybe if I[br]was 21,

0:01:34.070,0:01:35.210
I may have missed that.

0:01:35.210,0:01:37.530
I may have been set in my ways as a

0:01:37.530,0:01:41.280
immigrant, or maybe I would've acted like[br]a second generation,

0:01:41.280,0:01:43.520
where I didn't remember where I came from.

0:01:44.620,0:01:48.530
But because I was 14, I remember, I[br]remember all these things.

0:01:48.530,0:01:51.700
I remember living in a one bedroom[br]apartment with my parents.

0:01:51.700,0:01:53.820
There was a mattress on the living room[br]floor.

0:01:54.540,0:01:56.710
My parents, I was an only child, my[br]parents gave me the

0:01:56.710,0:01:59.290
bedroom, and they slept out on the[br]mattress on the living room floor.

0:01:59.290,0:02:01.630
And I remember their horror.

0:02:01.630,0:02:06.120
And the shame on their face, when I[br]brought my friends home from school.

0:02:07.420,0:02:10.660
I remember that moment when I walked into[br]the door with the kids, and

0:02:10.660,0:02:15.550
my parents are like, "You didn't tell me[br]that you were gonna bring guests."

0:02:15.550,0:02:18.180
And that awkward moment when they were[br]trying to figure out

0:02:18.180,0:02:20.720
what to do with that mattress in the[br]living room floor.

0:02:20.720,0:02:24.130
And we had no place for my friends to sit.

0:02:25.510,0:02:28.050
Immigration is a very, very unfair trade.

0:02:29.320,0:02:35.390
I don't know if many of you have immigrant[br]parents, but they pay for everything.

0:02:35.390,0:02:39.039
They pay the costs, we the children reap[br]the benefits.

0:02:39.590,0:02:41.530
And as my parents like to joke, the[br]grandkids

0:02:41.530,0:02:44.545
will forget about it all, and they'll[br]become useless.

0:02:44.545,0:02:48.400
[LAUGH].

0:02:48.400,0:02:51.510
>> Probably because they spoil them but,[br]not my fault.

0:02:53.670,0:02:56.080
So, when I look at my immigration[br]experience.

0:02:56.080,0:02:58.670
I was 14, my parents brought me here.

0:02:58.670,0:03:00.229
We had relatives.

0:03:01.350,0:03:02.400
It isn't poverty.

0:03:02.400,0:03:07.000
Poverty is defined by the whole, by, by[br]the cold and the hunger of it all.

0:03:07.000,0:03:08.600
It is very Oliver Twist.

0:03:08.600,0:03:11.430
That is what I think of when I think about[br]poverty.

0:03:11.430,0:03:16.180
Many immigrants live in near, or in[br]poverty.

0:03:17.130,0:03:19.240
Many immigrants do not.

0:03:19.240,0:03:22.780
It is not a monolithic experience.

0:03:22.780,0:03:28.800
Yet many immigrants experience poverty in[br]its own way.

0:03:29.430,0:03:36.810
Yet the reason we believe in the immigrant[br]experience, is that the poverty is filled.

0:03:36.810,0:03:39.530
The lack of something and it, and it's...

0:03:40.920,0:03:44.580
And it is filled by dreams, it is filled[br]by hope.

0:03:45.330,0:03:47.740
So that when you are living in a one[br]bedroom,

0:03:47.740,0:03:50.520
when you can not pay the bills for your[br]phone...

0:03:51.700,0:03:56.450
We justify it by saying, there's a better[br]future for the next generation.

0:03:57.350,0:04:00.970
And the strangeness of it all, is that a[br]century ago,

0:04:00.970,0:04:03.050
immigration was very, very different.

0:04:03.050,0:04:05.700
A century ago immigration was defined by

0:04:05.700,0:04:10.180
something completely different than what[br]we experience today.

0:04:11.670,0:04:17.140
1912 steam ships, railroads.

0:04:17.140,0:04:18.870
No automobiles for people to criss cross[br]on

0:04:18.870,0:04:22.799
the high way, no internet, no access to[br]information.

0:04:24.220,0:04:28.060
The greatest suffering for immigrants was[br]caused by nature.

0:04:28.060,0:04:31.110
By the world that we live in, the physical[br]world itself.

0:04:31.110,0:04:35.310
Distance, illness, acts of God.

0:04:36.390,0:04:41.760
Being able to sail around the world to[br]reach America, was physically challenging.

0:04:41.760,0:04:43.760
Your ship could be ship wrecked.

0:04:43.760,0:04:45.460
You could run out of water.

0:04:46.070,0:04:50.860
You could die of thirst and disease, and[br]when you got into that train

0:04:50.860,0:04:55.150
to cross America, you had no idea of what[br]was on the other side.

0:04:55.960,0:05:00.179
But 100 years later, today, it is vastly[br]different.

0:05:01.650,0:05:04.870
The suffering immigration is caused by[br]man.

0:05:06.730,0:05:08.250
It is not nature.

0:05:08.250,0:05:11.790
For the most part, we have conquered[br]nature.

0:05:11.790,0:05:14.830
You can get on a plane right now, and in

0:05:14.830,0:05:18.360
12 hours be on the other side of the[br]planet.

0:05:18.360,0:05:21.739
Being served drinks and little cocktails[br]along the way.

0:05:23.060,0:05:25.300
Very different than a steam ship.

0:05:25.300,0:05:29.970
Today, the suffering of an immigrant is man[br]made by policy.

0:05:31.130,0:05:33.200
It is separation not distance.

0:05:33.200,0:05:37.180
It is, if I leave this country and I'm a[br]Canadian, let's

0:05:37.180,0:05:40.570
say, I may not be able to get back across[br]the border.

0:05:40.570,0:05:42.950
I may not be able to visit my friends.

0:05:42.950,0:05:45.110
Because what if they question my[br]immigration

0:05:45.110,0:05:47.260
status on the border and reject me?

0:05:48.290,0:05:51.930
This happens a lot more than what my[br]friends, Canadian friends like to admit.

0:05:51.930,0:05:53.340
It is bureaucracy.

0:05:54.030,0:05:57.023
People waiting 20 years to enter the[br]lottery to

0:05:57.023,0:06:01.020
receive a permit to migrate to the United[br]States.

0:06:01.020,0:06:03.360
Watching there relatives

0:06:03.360,0:06:07.030
and there nephews grow old and unable to[br]visit.

0:06:07.030,0:06:10.340
It is prejudice, it is reading about[br]yourself as

0:06:10.340,0:06:14.290
an immigrant in the papers, and knowing[br]that's not true.

0:06:16.600,0:06:19.690
It is easier to ship a box of bananas from[br]India, than

0:06:19.690,0:06:23.569
to reunite a child from there with her[br]parents in the United States.

0:06:25.600,0:06:27.700
The world has gotten small, though we have

0:06:27.700,0:06:30.830
erected barriers, to keep people[br]out.

0:06:33.660,0:06:37.650
Yet at the same time, if you ask everyone[br]in the United States, they

0:06:37.650,0:06:40.450
will almost certainly tell you, that this

0:06:40.450,0:06:43.539
country was built on immigrants and[br]immigration.

0:06:44.320,0:06:46.710
That we are all a nation of immigrants.

0:06:47.530,0:06:53.220
Yet for some reason, we are uncomfortable[br]with the idea of letting people in.

0:06:54.340,0:06:59.110
That while we recognize the value and have[br]erected a statue that says,

0:06:59.110,0:07:03.539
"Give me your tired, your poor, your[br]huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

0:07:07.000,0:07:11.880
We don't like to see the people outside[br]our boarders as people.

0:07:13.650,0:07:15.640
I'm not sure what drives this fear.

0:07:17.470,0:07:18.990
Most people aren't really afraid of me.

0:07:19.710,0:07:21.579
I post cat pictures on the internet.

0:07:21.579,0:07:22.960
[LAUGH].

0:07:25.160,0:07:26.820
>> Maybe it's because they believe that[br]there's

0:07:26.820,0:07:28.860
a finite number of jobs in the United[br]States.

0:07:28.860,0:07:30.710
That there 300 and something million

0:07:30.710,0:07:33.830
people and there's probably 150 million[br]jobs.

0:07:33.830,0:07:37.580
And if somebody takes my job, I'll never[br]get that job back.

0:07:40.720,0:07:46.060
Maybe we believe that the, that in order[br]for the economy to grow, that only

0:07:46.060,0:07:51.550
those people with skilled, intellectuals,[br]or laborers who

0:07:51.550,0:07:54.260
can do special things should be let in.

0:07:55.580,0:07:57.480
I came here as a 14 year old.

0:07:57.480,0:07:59.795
My only skill set, was annoying the shit[br]out of my parents.

0:07:59.795,0:08:02.330
[LAUGH].

0:08:02.330,0:08:03.250
>> Maybe,

0:08:05.050,0:08:07.010
and this starts to get a little bit more[br]uncomfortable....

0:08:08.220,0:08:11.970
Maybe we believe, that only a certain[br]people, that

0:08:11.970,0:08:15.450
look like me, should be let into this[br]country.

0:08:15.450,0:08:20.080
Maybe we believe, that only certain people[br]who come from countries

0:08:20.080,0:08:23.509
where we have historical immigration,[br]should be let into the country.

0:08:24.680,0:08:29.840
Strangely, our elected politicians do not[br]ask you what you believe in.

0:08:31.070,0:08:33.850
They set immigration policy, and we just[br]go along.

0:08:35.270,0:08:39.080
Immigration is usually debated in tight[br]political circles of people who are in

0:08:39.080,0:08:44.088
the know, who have experience, yet we all[br]claim to be descendents of immigrants.

0:08:46.070,0:08:50.540
Sadly, our view of immigration has always[br]been affected by race.

0:08:52.280,0:08:57.470
Chinese exclusion act, there's a reason[br]why almost every Asian

0:08:57.470,0:09:02.790
American that you see in the street has[br]been no, no before the 1960's.

0:09:03.790,0:09:08.470
That before the 1960s this country[br]outlawed people who looked like me.

0:09:08.470,0:09:09.490
I am Korean, by the way.

0:09:09.490,0:09:11.208
So, I don't take, really, [br]offense to that.

0:09:11.208,0:09:14.305
[LAUGH][br]>> But, I'm kidding.

0:09:14.305,0:09:17.360
[LAUGH][br]

0:09:18.270,0:09:20.665
>> National Origins quota system.

0:09:21.025,0:09:23.470
Fancy words for saying we don't want

0:09:23.470,0:09:26.820
Eastern European immigrants back in the[br]1800s.

0:09:27.650,0:09:29.930
Arizona state bill 1070.

0:09:30.710,0:09:34.760
If you're brown, we stop you, and ask you[br]if you really belong here.

0:09:35.910,0:09:38.629
These are actual laws that this country[br]has passed

0:09:39.950,0:09:42.300
that is about immigration.

0:09:42.300,0:09:46.230
About keeping people out, and figuring out[br]who to let in.

0:09:46.230,0:09:51.740
Whatever label you put on them, whatever[br]fancy acronym you can put on them,

0:09:51.740,0:09:56.659
it doesn't hide the fact that we have[br]very, very

0:09:59.100,0:10:04.970
outdated views on immigration versus what[br]we actually believe in this room.

0:10:05.930,0:10:08.940
We don't wanna be racist, but somehow,

0:10:08.940,0:10:12.890
we keep letting our politicians pass these[br]bills.

0:10:14.030,0:10:16.160
And it turns out,

0:10:16.160,0:10:18.570
as I looked more and more into this, the[br]conclusion

0:10:18.570,0:10:23.000
that I drew, was not that immigration[br]itself is controversial.

0:10:23.000,0:10:24.530
In fact, one of the reasons why the United

0:10:24.530,0:10:27.580
States has a growing economy and a growing[br]population,

0:10:27.580,0:10:29.620
while the rest of the developed world has[br]a

0:10:29.620,0:10:32.120
birth rate that is declining and declining[br]to a point

0:10:32.120,0:10:37.390
where they're unable to sustain their own[br]social safety nets and tax base.

0:10:37.390,0:10:42.750
The reason this country continues to have[br]a population

0:10:42.750,0:10:46.370
that is thriving, that is diverse, is due[br]to immigration.

0:10:47.310,0:10:50.280
Most people, most generations who've been[br]in this country for more than three or

0:10:50.280,0:10:53.260
more generations no longer create babies[br]at

0:10:53.260,0:10:55.560
a rate that actually makes this economy[br]sustainable.

0:10:55.560,0:10:58.770
In fact, most of our population growth has[br]come from Hispanic migration.

0:10:58.770,0:11:05.070
If it weren't for them we'd have more[br]houses than you could fill people with,

0:11:05.890,0:11:08.760
more dollars and more retirees to[br]support,

0:11:08.760,0:11:11.554
that our working folks can actually[br]provide for.

0:11:12.450,0:11:14.110
The system is fragile.

0:11:15.630,0:11:19.180
Yet people wanna keep everybody else out,[br]without recognizing that the

0:11:19.180,0:11:25.010
system relies on immigration to continue[br]to grow and support itself.

0:11:25.010,0:11:26.590
So it led me to believe that it's

0:11:26.590,0:11:29.780
only certain kinds of people that it's[br]actually controversial.

0:11:29.780,0:11:31.350
Maybe it's not just race.

0:11:31.350,0:11:32.670
Maybe it has to do with origin.

0:11:32.670,0:11:34.010
Maybe it has to do with religion.

0:11:35.850,0:11:39.113
When I planned this talk with the Tedx[br]Portland folks,

0:11:39.113,0:11:41.470
immigration was kinda on the radar.

0:11:42.608,0:11:48.010
And if, and a week ago, two immigrants[br]det, detonated a bomb in Boston.

0:11:52.330,0:11:54.650
What was their race, what was their[br]religion?

0:11:54.650,0:11:55.580
Does it matter?

0:11:57.310,0:11:58.050
I don't know.

0:12:00.930,0:12:04.880
After coming to the United States, my father and[br]I worked as a janitor in office.

0:12:04.880,0:12:06.230
We were not skilled laborers.

0:12:06.230,0:12:08.700
There were plenty of Asians to go around.

0:12:08.700,0:12:10.320
We worked as a janitor.

0:12:10.320,0:12:13.080
And our suffering of working as an[br]immigrant making $2,000

0:12:13.080,0:12:17.720
a month as an entire family, was actually[br]made harder.

0:12:20.010,0:12:23.390
We were cleaning out trashcans.

0:12:23.390,0:12:25.740
The people who, in the office, that when[br]you

0:12:25.740,0:12:27.770
work late come in and empty out the trash.

0:12:27.770,0:12:28.660
That was us.

0:12:29.730,0:12:33.100
I remember collecting all the empty soda[br]cans that were in the trash.

0:12:33.100,0:12:36.390
It was, oh my god, it stunk to high[br]heaven.

0:12:36.390,0:12:38.440
But I remember putting that in a black[br]plastic bag

0:12:38.440,0:12:41.220
in the balcony of our, of our one bedroom[br]apartment.

0:12:42.290,0:12:44.190
And we had collected enough to like,[br]literally

0:12:44.190,0:12:46.020
I, we couldn't go out on the balcony[br]anymore.

0:12:46.020,0:12:47.330
And I remember trading that in.

0:12:47.330,0:12:48.989
It was like my allowance.

0:12:49.590,0:12:50.700
Empty soda cans.

0:12:50.700,0:12:54.590
We traded them in, and got $150. It was[br]amazing.

0:12:54.590,0:12:57.780
It was hard labor. I earned it.

0:12:57.780,0:13:00.370
I still remember the smell, that rotting soda.

0:13:02.530,0:13:04.340
It was $120 apparently.

0:13:07.120,0:13:10.089
The immigrant owners of the janitorial[br]business stiffed us.

0:13:11.120,0:13:13.480
A month of work, my mother and my father[br]and

0:13:13.480,0:13:17.490
myself, and all we had to show for was a[br]$120.

0:13:17.490,0:13:19.920
It's not that all immigrants are good.

0:13:19.920,0:13:21.070
I'm not saying that.

0:13:21.070,0:13:23.050
Some of us are good, some of us are bad.

0:13:23.050,0:13:25.890
In fact, we are probably more [br]of a reflection of the America

0:13:25.890,0:13:29.580
as it is today, than most people are[br]willing to admit.

0:13:32.880,0:13:39.580
But in some cases, in one generation,[br]between my parents and myself, we can go

0:13:39.580,0:13:42.620
from babies that were born in post-Korean

0:13:42.620,0:13:46.820
War, where they had no electricity, no[br]infrastructure.

0:13:46.820,0:13:50.250
My father graduated from middle school,[br]and didn't go back.

0:13:50.250,0:13:52.190
My mother has a high school degree.

0:13:52.190,0:13:57.664
We came to the United States, and I built[br]a internet technology business in Seattle.

0:13:59.104,0:14:00.450
I don't know if there's causation.

0:14:00.450,0:14:02.450
I don't know even if there's correlation.

0:14:02.550,0:14:04.660
I don't know[br]what drives that.

0:14:04.700,0:14:10.239
It feels random, but it happens over and[br]over again.

0:14:10.770,0:14:13.530
More than a third of all American

0:14:13.530,0:14:17.450
technology startups have at least one[br]immigrant cofounder.

0:14:18.180,0:14:19.684
I don't know why that is.

0:14:21.064,0:14:27.180
But what I wanna understand is, as the[br]number of people

0:14:28.420,0:14:32.770
who start to look at immigration rise as[br]we get closer to debating this bill.

0:14:32.770,0:14:35.570
They'll recognize that my story is not[br]unique.

0:14:36.100,0:14:39.080
They may also recognize, that there may be[br]more

0:14:39.080,0:14:44.040
terrorists in the immigration population[br]than they had recognized before.

0:14:44.950,0:14:47.560
That the good may outweigh the bad, that[br]we

0:14:47.560,0:14:51.330
do not actually know holistically who[br]these immigrants are.

0:14:51.330,0:14:55.930
That all these people, collectively, when[br]they show up on our borders,

0:14:55.930,0:14:58.490
we may not be able to judge the character

0:14:58.490,0:15:02.730
of these people by the passports that[br]they bring.

0:15:05.040,0:15:08.590
So then the question becomes, who do we[br]let in?

0:15:08.590,0:15:12.110
Somebody at dinner asked me last night, so[br]who do we let in?

0:15:12.110,0:15:13.309
What is the answer?

0:15:15.180,0:15:17.850
I don't know that it's important for me to

0:15:17.850,0:15:21.340
tell you my answer, because it doesn't[br]really matter.

0:15:21.340,0:15:26.250
At the end of the day I am one voter. One[br]naturalized American citizen.

0:15:27.980,0:15:29.710
But it's, it makes me...

0:15:36.100,0:15:40.820
We're missing an opportunity to have an

0:15:40.820,0:15:44.630
intelligent discussion about what we the[br]people want.

0:15:47.910,0:15:49.000
We are

0:15:53.250,0:15:58.810
We are letting other people, decide who we[br]let into this country.

0:16:03.860,0:16:06.030
This is the second time I've teared up at[br]the Tedx talk.

0:16:06.030,0:16:07.570
I don't know what's up with that.

0:16:07.570,0:16:08.481
[LAUGH]

0:16:15.320,0:16:17.810
>> Do not let this opportunity pass.

0:16:19.550,0:16:21.940
It doesn' matter whether you agree with me[br]or not.

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It only matters that we actually talk[br]about who do we believe we should let in.

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And that we tell people who are in the[br]office to

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make these decisions and let them know,[br]that we believe in something.

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That we will not let them make that[br]decision for us.

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Thank you.