Why I came to America, and why I stayed

Most of the time, when you hear immigrants talk about why they want to come to America, you’ll hear the same answers over and over. You’ll hear them discuss standard of living, or work opportunities, or lower taxes. For those seeking asylum, whether legitimately or as part of an anti-Western invasion scheme, America is seen as an escape from something terrible. For other immigrants, sometimes you’ll hear answers that are weirdly specific. Cheap(er) gas, bigger cars, or drive-through, well, everything.

Personally, I will never fall out of love with America’s embrace of air conditioning.

I was born in England, and back in 2012, I graduated from Oxford University with a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Computer Science. Then, it was time to decide what to do next. For years, I had known I wanted to move to America, but my reasoning at the time was all too similar to the answers above. I had visited America dozens of times, and had friends across the country, but the main reason I wanted to move to California was because the jobs there were just … better. In salary alone, even for the much-abused H-1B visa holders, the job offerings in the San Francisco Bay Area for programmers made the equivalent options in London seem more akin to work placements in the Soviet Union.

I’m only half-kidding.

So in the fall of 2013, I landed in San Francisco International Airport (one of the worst airports in the country, by the way), and began my American journey. I have now lived in the United States for almost 13 years, and in that time, I have come to love America not for what I thought it would give me in 2013, but for what it is and what it represents.

It was in this beautiful country that I met my wife and we had our first baby. It is in this beautiful country that I have witnessed acts of unbelievable kindness, support, and bravery. It is in this beautiful country that I came to understand what truly matters in life.

But this experience could apply in any other country. What makes America unique is its foundation.

Statue of Liberty and New York City Skyline with Manhattan Financial District, Battery Park, Water of New York Harbor, World Trade Center, Empire State Building, Governors island and Blue Sky with Puffy Clouds. HDR image. Canon EOS 6D (full frame sensor) camera. Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM Lens.

Before you live in the U.S., and especially before you live anywhere in the U.S. that’s not a left-wing hellhole, your understanding of this country is based on slogans, movies, and petty jabs by snobby elites who wish America was more like any other country. According to them, it’s all “yee haws” and “have a nice day” and guns and fat people and obnoxious tourists and racism and ignorance.

But that’s not what America is, except for the “have a nice day” part which, once you get used to it, is another wonderful part of living here. No, America’s identity is defined by its values. Values it may have failed to live up to, as all people have in history, but values that are worth striving for. Values rooted in individual liberty, true freedom, and opportunity, not entitlement. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” isn’t a bumper sticker. It’s this country’s foundational principle.

As we approach the 250th birthday of this wonderful nation, we must remember that America still represents the revolutionary values upon which it was built. These values may seem the norm, but we only take them for granted thanks to the genius of the Founding Fathers and the sacrifices of generations past and present who fought to keep these values alive.

IT’S TIME AMERICA ADOPTS A MERIT-BASED IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

Values that, by the way, still remain unique to America and America alone.

Regardless of why I came to America, these are the reasons I stayed in America. These are the reasons I call this amazing country my home. I only have one thing more to say: God bless America.

Ian Haworth is a syndicated columnist. You can find his work on Substack.