1
00:00:15,521 --> 00:00:18,350
So, I'm not here to talk about something
that's funny.

2
00:00:18,350 --> 00:00:21,180
I'm here to talk about something that's
really, really close to my heart.

3
00:00:21,180 --> 00:00:24,010
In fact, it is so close I cannot escape
it.

4
00:00:24,990 --> 00:00:29,000
It's because I came to this country as an
immigrant.

5
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,490
It's hard for some people to notice when
somebody's an immigrant.

6
00:00:33,490 --> 00:00:39,840
I do things related to internet culture,
which is very American.

7
00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:41,010
It is very internet-y.

8
00:00:41,010 --> 00:00:43,210
You have to be in the zeitgeist.

9
00:00:43,210 --> 00:00:49,400
It is a class of work that people who are
like me, do not do.

10
00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:55,910
We run dry cleaners, grocery stores, nail
salons, 7-11's.

11
00:00:55,910 --> 00:00:59,219
Maybe we get an H-1B visa and we work at
Microsoft.

12
00:00:59,940 --> 00:01:04,280
But we do not go out and make
entertainment websites.

13
00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:08,730
Because for that to occur, we must have a
connection

14
00:01:08,730 --> 00:01:12,190
that is much more deeper than a career or
profession.

15
00:01:12,190 --> 00:01:16,470
I must understand you, and your
background, and where you grew up.

16
00:01:17,610 --> 00:01:19,219
But some how I ended up here.

17
00:01:19,810 --> 00:01:25,370
And because I came here when I was 14, I

18
00:01:25,370 --> 00:01:30,990
was able to understand what its like to be
a American, yet still be a immigrant.

19
00:01:30,990 --> 00:01:34,070
If I came here when I was ten or maybe if I
was 21,

20
00:01:34,070 --> 00:01:35,210
I may have missed that.

21
00:01:35,210 --> 00:01:37,530
I may have been set in my ways as a

22
00:01:37,530 --> 00:01:41,280
immigrant, or maybe I would've acted like
a second generation,

23
00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:43,520
where I didn't remember where I came from.

24
00:01:44,620 --> 00:01:48,530
But because I was 14, I remember, I
remember all these things.

25
00:01:48,530 --> 00:01:51,700
I remember living in a one bedroom
apartment with my parents.

26
00:01:51,700 --> 00:01:53,820
There was a mattress on the living room
floor.

27
00:01:54,540 --> 00:01:56,710
My parents, I was an only child, my
parents gave me the

28
00:01:56,710 --> 00:01:59,290
bedroom, and they slept out on the
mattress on the living room floor.

29
00:01:59,290 --> 00:02:01,630
And I remember their horror.

30
00:02:01,630 --> 00:02:06,120
And the shame on their face, when I
brought my friends home from school.

31
00:02:07,420 --> 00:02:10,660
I remember that moment when I walked into
the door with the kids, and

32
00:02:10,660 --> 00:02:15,550
my parents are like, "You didn't tell me
that you were gonna bring guests."

33
00:02:15,550 --> 00:02:18,180
And that awkward moment when they were
trying to figure out

34
00:02:18,180 --> 00:02:20,720
what to do with that mattress in the
living room floor.

35
00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:24,130
And we had no place for my friends to sit.

36
00:02:25,510 --> 00:02:28,050
Immigration is a very, very unfair trade.

37
00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:35,390
I don't know if many of you have immigrant
parents, but they pay for everything.

38
00:02:35,390 --> 00:02:39,039
They pay the costs, we the children reap
the benefits.

39
00:02:39,590 --> 00:02:41,530
And as my parents like to joke, the
grandkids

40
00:02:41,530 --> 00:02:44,545
will forget about it all, and they'll
become useless.

41
00:02:44,545 --> 00:02:48,400
[LAUGH].

42
00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,510
>> Probably because they spoil them but,
not my fault.

43
00:02:53,670 --> 00:02:56,080
So, when I look at my immigration
experience.

44
00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:58,670
I was 14, my parents brought me here.

45
00:02:58,670 --> 00:03:00,229
We had relatives.

46
00:03:01,350 --> 00:03:02,400
It isn't poverty.

47
00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:07,000
Poverty is defined by the whole, by, by
the cold and the hunger of it all.

48
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:08,600
It is very Oliver Twist.

49
00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,430
That is what I think of when I think about
poverty.

50
00:03:11,430 --> 00:03:16,180
Many immigrants live in near, or in
poverty.

51
00:03:17,130 --> 00:03:19,240
Many immigrants do not.

52
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:22,780
It is not a monolithic experience.

53
00:03:22,780 --> 00:03:28,800
Yet many immigrants experience poverty in
its own way.

54
00:03:29,430 --> 00:03:36,810
Yet the reason we believe in the immigrant
experience, is that the poverty is filled.

55
00:03:36,810 --> 00:03:39,530
The lack of something and it, and it's...

56
00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:44,580
And it is filled by dreams, it is filled
by hope.

57
00:03:45,330 --> 00:03:47,740
So that when you are living in a one
bedroom,

58
00:03:47,740 --> 00:03:50,520
when you can not pay the bills for your
phone...

59
00:03:51,700 --> 00:03:56,450
We justify it by saying, there's a better
future for the next generation.

60
00:03:57,350 --> 00:04:00,970
And the strangeness of it all, is that a
century ago,

61
00:04:00,970 --> 00:04:03,050
immigration was very, very different.

62
00:04:03,050 --> 00:04:05,700
A century ago immigration was defined by

63
00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:10,180
something completely different than what
we experience today.

64
00:04:11,670 --> 00:04:17,140
1912 steam ships, railroads.

65
00:04:17,140 --> 00:04:18,870
No automobiles for people to criss cross
on

66
00:04:18,870 --> 00:04:22,799
the high way, no internet, no access to
information.

67
00:04:24,220 --> 00:04:28,060
The greatest suffering for immigrants was
caused by nature.

68
00:04:28,060 --> 00:04:31,110
By the world that we live in, the physical
world itself.

69
00:04:31,110 --> 00:04:35,310
Distance, illness, acts of God.

70
00:04:36,390 --> 00:04:41,760
Being able to sail around the world to
reach America, was physically challenging.

71
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:43,760
Your ship could be ship wrecked.

72
00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:45,460
You could run out of water.

73
00:04:46,070 --> 00:04:50,860
You could die of thirst and disease, and
when you got into that train

74
00:04:50,860 --> 00:04:55,150
to cross America, you had no idea of what
was on the other side.

75
00:04:55,960 --> 00:05:00,179
But 100 years later, today, it is vastly
different.

76
00:05:01,650 --> 00:05:04,870
The suffering immigration is caused by
man.

77
00:05:06,730 --> 00:05:08,250
It is not nature.

78
00:05:08,250 --> 00:05:11,790
For the most part, we have conquered
nature.

79
00:05:11,790 --> 00:05:14,830
You can get on a plane right now, and in

80
00:05:14,830 --> 00:05:18,360
12 hours be on the other side of the
planet.

81
00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:21,739
Being served drinks and little cocktails
along the way.

82
00:05:23,060 --> 00:05:25,300
Very different than a steam ship.

83
00:05:25,300 --> 00:05:29,970
Today, the suffering of an immigrant is man
made by policy.

84
00:05:31,130 --> 00:05:33,200
It is separation not distance.

85
00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:37,180
It is, if I leave this country and I'm a
Canadian, let's

86
00:05:37,180 --> 00:05:40,570
say, I may not be able to get back across
the border.

87
00:05:40,570 --> 00:05:42,950
I may not be able to visit my friends.

88
00:05:42,950 --> 00:05:45,110
Because what if they question my
immigration

89
00:05:45,110 --> 00:05:47,260
status on the border and reject me?

90
00:05:48,290 --> 00:05:51,930
This happens a lot more than what my
friends, Canadian friends like to admit.

91
00:05:51,930 --> 00:05:53,340
It is bureaucracy.

92
00:05:54,030 --> 00:05:57,023
People waiting 20 years to enter the
lottery to

93
00:05:57,023 --> 00:06:01,020
receive a permit to migrate to the United
States.

94
00:06:01,020 --> 00:06:03,360
Watching there relatives

95
00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:07,030
and there nephews grow old and unable to
visit.

96
00:06:07,030 --> 00:06:10,340
It is prejudice, it is reading about
yourself as

97
00:06:10,340 --> 00:06:14,290
an immigrant in the papers, and knowing
that's not true.

98
00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,690
It is easier to ship a box of bananas from
India, than

99
00:06:19,690 --> 00:06:23,569
to reunite a child from there with her
parents in the United States.

100
00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:27,700
The world has gotten small, though we have

101
00:06:27,700 --> 00:06:30,830
erected barriers, to keep people
out.

102
00:06:33,660 --> 00:06:37,650
Yet at the same time, if you ask everyone
in the United States, they

103
00:06:37,650 --> 00:06:40,450
will almost certainly tell you, that this

104
00:06:40,450 --> 00:06:43,539
country was built on immigrants and
immigration.

105
00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:46,710
That we are all a nation of immigrants.

106
00:06:47,530 --> 00:06:53,220
Yet for some reason, we are uncomfortable
with the idea of letting people in.

107
00:06:54,340 --> 00:06:59,110
That while we recognize the value and have
erected a statue that says,

108
00:06:59,110 --> 00:07:03,539
"Give me your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

109
00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:11,880
We don't like to see the people outside
our boarders as people.

110
00:07:13,650 --> 00:07:15,640
I'm not sure what drives this fear.

111
00:07:17,470 --> 00:07:18,990
Most people aren't really afraid of me.

112
00:07:19,710 --> 00:07:21,579
I post cat pictures on the internet.

113
00:07:21,579 --> 00:07:22,960
[LAUGH].

114
00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:26,820
>> Maybe it's because they believe that
there's

115
00:07:26,820 --> 00:07:28,860
a finite number of jobs in the United
States.

116
00:07:28,860 --> 00:07:30,710
That there 300 and something million

117
00:07:30,710 --> 00:07:33,830
people and there's probably 150 million
jobs.

118
00:07:33,830 --> 00:07:37,580
And if somebody takes my job, I'll never
get that job back.

119
00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:46,060
Maybe we believe that the, that in order
for the economy to grow, that only

120
00:07:46,060 --> 00:07:51,550
those people with skilled, intellectuals,
or laborers who

121
00:07:51,550 --> 00:07:54,260
can do special things should be let in.

122
00:07:55,580 --> 00:07:57,480
I came here as a 14 year old.

123
00:07:57,480 --> 00:07:59,795
My only skill set, was annoying the shit
out of my parents.

124
00:07:59,795 --> 00:08:02,330
[LAUGH].

125
00:08:02,330 --> 00:08:03,250
>> Maybe,

126
00:08:05,050 --> 00:08:07,010
and this starts to get a little bit more
uncomfortable....

127
00:08:08,220 --> 00:08:11,970
Maybe we believe, that only a certain
people, that

128
00:08:11,970 --> 00:08:15,450
look like me, should be let into this
country.

129
00:08:15,450 --> 00:08:20,080
Maybe we believe, that only certain people
who come from countries

130
00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:23,509
where we have historical immigration,
should be let into the country.

131
00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:29,840
Strangely, our elected politicians do not
ask you what you believe in.

132
00:08:31,070 --> 00:08:33,850
They set immigration policy, and we just
go along.

133
00:08:35,270 --> 00:08:39,080
Immigration is usually debated in tight
political circles of people who are in

134
00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:44,088
the know, who have experience, yet we all
claim to be descendents of immigrants.

135
00:08:46,070 --> 00:08:50,540
Sadly, our view of immigration has always
been affected by race.

136
00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:57,470
Chinese exclusion act, there's a reason
why almost every Asian

137
00:08:57,470 --> 00:09:02,790
American that you see in the street has
been no, no before the 1960's.

138
00:09:03,790 --> 00:09:08,470
That before the 1960s this country
outlawed people who looked like me.

139
00:09:08,470 --> 00:09:09,490
I am Korean, by the way.

140
00:09:09,490 --> 00:09:11,208
So, I don't take, really, 
offense to that.

141
00:09:11,208 --> 00:09:14,305
[LAUGH]
>> But, I'm kidding.

142
00:09:14,305 --> 00:09:17,360
[LAUGH]


143
00:09:18,270 --> 00:09:20,665
>> National Origins quota system.

144
00:09:21,025 --> 00:09:23,470
Fancy words for saying we don't want

145
00:09:23,470 --> 00:09:26,820
Eastern European immigrants back in the
1800s.

146
00:09:27,650 --> 00:09:29,930
Arizona state bill 1070.

147
00:09:30,710 --> 00:09:34,760
If you're brown, we stop you, and ask you
if you really belong here.

148
00:09:35,910 --> 00:09:38,629
These are actual laws that this country
has passed

149
00:09:39,950 --> 00:09:42,300
that is about immigration.

150
00:09:42,300 --> 00:09:46,230
About keeping people out, and figuring out
who to let in.

151
00:09:46,230 --> 00:09:51,740
Whatever label you put on them, whatever
fancy acronym you can put on them,

152
00:09:51,740 --> 00:09:56,659
it doesn't hide the fact that we have
very, very

153
00:09:59,100 --> 00:10:04,970
outdated views on immigration versus what
we actually believe in this room.

154
00:10:05,930 --> 00:10:08,940
We don't wanna be racist, but somehow,

155
00:10:08,940 --> 00:10:12,890
we keep letting our politicians pass these
bills.

156
00:10:14,030 --> 00:10:16,160
And it turns out,

157
00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:18,570
as I looked more and more into this, the
conclusion

158
00:10:18,570 --> 00:10:23,000
that I drew, was not that immigration
itself is controversial.

159
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:24,530
In fact, one of the reasons why the United

160
00:10:24,530 --> 00:10:27,580
States has a growing economy and a growing
population,

161
00:10:27,580 --> 00:10:29,620
while the rest of the developed world has
a

162
00:10:29,620 --> 00:10:32,120
birth rate that is declining and declining
to a point

163
00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:37,390
where they're unable to sustain their own
social safety nets and tax base.

164
00:10:37,390 --> 00:10:42,750
The reason this country continues to have
a population

165
00:10:42,750 --> 00:10:46,370
that is thriving, that is diverse, is due
to immigration.

166
00:10:47,310 --> 00:10:50,280
Most people, most generations who've been
in this country for more than three or

167
00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:53,260
more generations no longer create babies
at

168
00:10:53,260 --> 00:10:55,560
a rate that actually makes this economy
sustainable.

169
00:10:55,560 --> 00:10:58,770
In fact, most of our population growth has
come from Hispanic migration.

170
00:10:58,770 --> 00:11:05,070
If it weren't for them we'd have more
houses than you could fill people with,

171
00:11:05,890 --> 00:11:08,760
more dollars and more retirees to
support,

172
00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:11,554
that our working folks can actually
provide for.

173
00:11:12,450 --> 00:11:14,110
The system is fragile.

174
00:11:15,630 --> 00:11:19,180
Yet people wanna keep everybody else out,
without recognizing that the

175
00:11:19,180 --> 00:11:25,010
system relies on immigration to continue
to grow and support itself.

176
00:11:25,010 --> 00:11:26,590
So it led me to believe that it's

177
00:11:26,590 --> 00:11:29,780
only certain kinds of people that it's
actually controversial.

178
00:11:29,780 --> 00:11:31,350
Maybe it's not just race.

179
00:11:31,350 --> 00:11:32,670
Maybe it has to do with origin.

180
00:11:32,670 --> 00:11:34,010
Maybe it has to do with religion.

181
00:11:35,850 --> 00:11:39,113
When I planned this talk with the Tedx
Portland folks,

182
00:11:39,113 --> 00:11:41,470
immigration was kinda on the radar.

183
00:11:42,608 --> 00:11:48,010
And if, and a week ago, two immigrants
det, detonated a bomb in Boston.

184
00:11:52,330 --> 00:11:54,650
What was their race, what was their
religion?

185
00:11:54,650 --> 00:11:55,580
Does it matter?

186
00:11:57,310 --> 00:11:58,050
I don't know.

187
00:12:00,930 --> 00:12:04,880
After coming to the United States, my father and
I worked as a janitor in office.

188
00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:06,230
We were not skilled laborers.

189
00:12:06,230 --> 00:12:08,700
There were plenty of Asians to go around.

190
00:12:08,700 --> 00:12:10,320
We worked as a janitor.

191
00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:13,080
And our suffering of working as an
immigrant making $2,000

192
00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:17,720
a month as an entire family, was actually
made harder.

193
00:12:20,010 --> 00:12:23,390
We were cleaning out trashcans.

194
00:12:23,390 --> 00:12:25,740
The people who, in the office, that when
you

195
00:12:25,740 --> 00:12:27,770
work late come in and empty out the trash.

196
00:12:27,770 --> 00:12:28,660
That was us.

197
00:12:29,730 --> 00:12:33,100
I remember collecting all the empty soda
cans that were in the trash.

198
00:12:33,100 --> 00:12:36,390
It was, oh my god, it stunk to high
heaven.

199
00:12:36,390 --> 00:12:38,440
But I remember putting that in a black
plastic bag

200
00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:41,220
in the balcony of our, of our one bedroom
apartment.

201
00:12:42,290 --> 00:12:44,190
And we had collected enough to like,
literally

202
00:12:44,190 --> 00:12:46,020
I, we couldn't go out on the balcony
anymore.

203
00:12:46,020 --> 00:12:47,330
And I remember trading that in.

204
00:12:47,330 --> 00:12:48,989
It was like my allowance.

205
00:12:49,590 --> 00:12:50,700
Empty soda cans.

206
00:12:50,700 --> 00:12:54,590
We traded them in, and got $150. It was
amazing.

207
00:12:54,590 --> 00:12:57,780
It was hard labor. I earned it.

208
00:12:57,780 --> 00:13:00,370
I still remember the smell, that rotting soda.

209
00:13:02,530 --> 00:13:04,340
It was $120 apparently.

210
00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:10,089
The immigrant owners of the janitorial
business stiffed us.

211
00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:13,480
A month of work, my mother and my father
and

212
00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:17,490
myself, and all we had to show for was a
$120.

213
00:13:17,490 --> 00:13:19,920
It's not that all immigrants are good.

214
00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:21,070
I'm not saying that.

215
00:13:21,070 --> 00:13:23,050
Some of us are good, some of us are bad.

216
00:13:23,050 --> 00:13:25,890
In fact, we are probably more 
of a reflection of the America

217
00:13:25,890 --> 00:13:29,580
as it is today, than most people are
willing to admit.

218
00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:39,580
But in some cases, in one generation,
between my parents and myself, we can go

219
00:13:39,580 --> 00:13:42,620
from babies that were born in post-Korean

220
00:13:42,620 --> 00:13:46,820
War, where they had no electricity, no
infrastructure.

221
00:13:46,820 --> 00:13:50,250
My father graduated from middle school,
and didn't go back.

222
00:13:50,250 --> 00:13:52,190
My mother has a high school degree.

223
00:13:52,190 --> 00:13:57,664
We came to the United States, and I built
a internet technology business in Seattle.

224
00:13:59,104 --> 00:14:00,450
I don't know if there's causation.

225
00:14:00,450 --> 00:14:02,450
I don't know even if there's correlation.

226
00:14:02,550 --> 00:14:04,660
I don't know
what drives that.

227
00:14:04,700 --> 00:14:10,239
It feels random, but it happens over and
over again.

228
00:14:10,770 --> 00:14:13,530
More than a third of all American

229
00:14:13,530 --> 00:14:17,450
technology startups have at least one
immigrant cofounder.

230
00:14:18,180 --> 00:14:19,684
I don't know why that is.

231
00:14:21,064 --> 00:14:27,180
But what I wanna understand is, as the
number of people

232
00:14:28,420 --> 00:14:32,770
who start to look at immigration rise as
we get closer to debating this bill.

233
00:14:32,770 --> 00:14:35,570
They'll recognize that my story is not
unique.

234
00:14:36,100 --> 00:14:39,080
They may also recognize, that there may be
more

235
00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:44,040
terrorists in the immigration population
than they had recognized before.

236
00:14:44,950 --> 00:14:47,560
That the good may outweigh the bad, that
we

237
00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:51,330
do not actually know holistically who
these immigrants are.

238
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That all these people, collectively, when
they show up on our borders,

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we may not be able to judge the character

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of these people by the passports that
they bring.

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So then the question becomes, who do we
let in?

242
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Somebody at dinner asked me last night, so
who do we let in?

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What is the answer?

244
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I don't know that it's important for me to

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tell you my answer, because it doesn't
really matter.

246
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At the end of the day I am one voter. One
naturalized American citizen.

247
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But it's, it makes me...

248
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We're missing an opportunity to have an

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intelligent discussion about what we the
people want.

250
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We are

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We are letting other people, decide who we
let into this country.

252
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This is the second time I've teared up at
the Tedx talk.

253
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I don't know what's up with that.

254
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[LAUGH]

255
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>> Do not let this opportunity pass.

256
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It doesn' matter whether you agree with me
or not.

257
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It only matters that we actually talk
about who do we believe we should let in.

258
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And that we tell people who are in the
office to

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

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

261
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Thank you.