How the American Dream has survived 250 years, but only just
Key takeaways
- How the American Dream has survived 250 years, but only just
- By Asma Khalid Co-Host, The Global Story Podcast Sixteen years ago, Abdi Nor Iftin was a Somali refugee living in one of the roughest slums in Kenya when he found out he had won the lottery of a lifetime.
- He was so obsessed, his childhood friends even nicknamed him "Abdi America" after he learnt to speak English by watching Hollywood movies.
Why this matters: a developing story that could shape the day's news cycle.
How the American Dream has survived 250 years, but only just
By Asma Khalid Co-Host, The Global Story Podcast Sixteen years ago, Abdi Nor Iftin was a Somali refugee living in one of the roughest slums in Kenya when he found out he had won the lottery of a lifetime. Out of nearly eight million applicants in 2013, he had been one of the lucky 50,000 granted a US visa through a scheme known as the diversity visa scheme that the US government had begun in the 1990s.
Abdi had long dreamt of moving to America. He was so obsessed, his childhood friends even nicknamed him "Abdi America" after he learnt to speak English by watching Hollywood movies. "My whole life I have been in love with America - the best country in the world, the dreamland, the land of opportunity," he told the BBC in 2014.