Does the 'American Dream' still survive in the USA?

That year, Iftin, now 41 years old, arrived in the US, settled in a small town in Maine, got a job installing thermal insulation and became an American citizen. But now, their expectations have given way to reality. This year, he lost his job at a refugee resettlement agency and, with it, his health insurance. On the eve of the USA's 250th anniversary, Iftin, like many Americans, views the future of his country with apprehension. "I feel like the American dream is still alive, but it's far from okay." Abdi Nor Iftin came to the United States through the BBC Diversity Visa Program Luke Mullen, a 24-year-old actor from California, told the BBC that he plans to move to Canada because of the lack of opportunities in the Hollywood — hence Hollywood — film industry. Polls conducted on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States show that many Americans believe the "American dream," the promise that anyone in the country can build a better future, is losing steam. A recent Associated Press-NORC poll showed that only a third of the population believes the American dream still exists. The result is repeated in several surveys. A recent study by the Pew Research Center concluded that the majority of Americans consider the country's best days to be behind it. The USA's 250th anniversary also takes place at a time of strong political polarization, of a deep partisan divide. What does it mean when the American dream, an idea exported to the world through film, music and pop culture, begins to seem out of reach? 'Not just a dream of cars' In the early years after the American Revolutionary War and throughout the centuries that followed, what came to be known as the "American dream" drew millions of immigrants to this new nation, seen as a place of hope, optimism and individualism. Workers, farmers, miners and pioneers migrated to the US believing they could build a new identity, that of "American", free from the class systems of Europe. Historians remember that the "American dream" never included everyone: certainly not indigenous peoples, enslaved people, not even women. Still, the idea persisted. The concept dates back to the founding of the country, but the expression only became popular later, with The American Epic, a book published in 1931, during the Great Depression (1929-1939). In it, historian James Truslow Adams wrote: "It is not just a dream of cars and high wages, but the dream of a social order in which every man and woman can fully develop the capabilities with which he was born." Over the years, the slogan has evolved. Today, it is often associated with entrepreneurship, social mobility and, above all, economic opportunities. "It's always been about living better than before," says Cyril Ghosh, author of The Politics of the American Dream: Democratic Inclusion in Contemporary American Political Culture. "For some people, living better simply means stopping being persecuted by the Anglican Church. [...] It's not just about material possessions. It's also about security. About living better than in the previous stage of life. That's what the American dream has always been about." Iftin grew up in Somalia, hiding in trenches to avoid being killed by the extremist group Al-Shabaab. "Freedom was a huge priority. Surviving the next day, waking up alive the next day, was a huge concern. That's what I wanted," he says, explaining why he wanted to move to the USA. Researchers say first-generation immigrants, like Iftin, tend to be more optimistic about the opportunities offered by the United States. "Many come from poorer countries. Therefore, their living conditions tend to be better than they would be if they had not emigrated," says Elizabeth Suhay, author of Debating the American Dream: How Explanations for Inequality Polarize Politics. "For the most part, immigrants are more likely to say they are achieving the American dream or have already achieved it," says Mark Hugo Lopez, director of race and ethnicity research at the Pew Research Center, who studies perceptions of Latin American immigrants in depth. According to Lopez, this group also tends to be more optimistic about the prospects for their children. The 'American dream' interrupted The American dream has always been a huge attraction for immigrants. But today, fewer people are arriving in the country. US President Donald Trump has made the fight against immigration one of the pillars of his government, after campaigning on the promise of implementing the largest mass deportation program in history. In his second term, Trump not only restricted the entry of immigrants through the southern border but also blocked some legal immigration routes to the US, including the diversity visa program, used by Iftin. Today, the US not only receives fewer immigrants. There are also signs that record numbers of people are leaving the country. One explanation is that many Americans who grew up in the US feel that the country has not lived up to its part of the bargain: the idea that, by working hard and following the rules, it would be possible to have a dignified and comfortable life. Last year, for the first time, the number of Americans moving to Ireland surpassed the number of Irish people emigrating to the US. The American government does not monitor how many citizens leave the country voluntarily and, therefore, there are no official statistics. But reports indicate that the phenomenon is not restricted to Ireland. A record number of Americans are applying for British citizenship. Furthermore, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported that the number of Americans moving to live and work in almost all of the 27 countries of the European Union is growing. Why are these people leaving the US? Some point to the country's political scenario; others mention healthcare costs and standard of living. In most cases, however, the decision is likely the result of a combination of factors, including personal reasons. For Mullen, the issue is the job market. The actor, who became known as a teenager for the Disney series Andi Mack, and today dedicates himself more to writing and producing, states that he currently finds more opportunities to work on film projects in Vancouver, Canada, than in Southern California, where Hollywood is located. Vancouver now has new tax incentives from the government to strengthen its competitiveness in relation to Hollywood and consolidate itself as an important hub for the film industry. The American dream was sold to the world, in part, through US cinema. And in many ways, Hollywood symbolizes the idea of ??making it in the country. For Mullen, the reality is more complex. According to him, there were more opportunities in the past. In recent years, investment by major studios in films and series produced in Hollywood has stagnated or declined. "I can't even imagine what it was like to grow up in the 1990s, during the heyday of television, romantic comedies and so many other projects. But, especially now, we are seeing a huge effort to cut costs, make it increasingly difficult to produce new projects, take fewer and fewer risks and hire fewer people," he says. Mullen recently obtained Canadian citizenship thanks to a change in the country's legislation, approved in December last year. “My process to become a Canadian citizen is directly linked to the fact that I am unable to produce projects here [in the USA] that I have been working on for years and that I am passionate about,” he says. Therefore, he intends to move to Canada, although he is keen to emphasize that it will not be forever. "I will never abandon the USA. This is my country and it is still worth fighting for. There is a lot we need to do to make it a better place," he says. Aspiration versus reality Today, there is a consensus among sociologists and political scientists that financial success has become one of the central pillars of the "American Dream," the belief that my children or grandchildren will have a better life than I did. "Broadly speaking, the American dream is the idea that, if you work hard, you should achieve a comfortable life, what we could call a middle-class standard of living: a house, access to healthcare, childcare facilities, a car and higher education," says Suhay. The data also indicates that, in the last 50 years, the idea that each generation would live better than the previous one has lost strength. Research by economist Raj Chetty, from Harvard University, in the USA, found that, among those born in 1940, 90% ended up earning more than their parents. Today, only half of the people born in the 1980s are on track to surpass the previous generation economically. This perception of economic prosperity became widespread in the 1950s, during the post-World War II boom (1939-45), perhaps best symbolized by the expansion of neighborhoods of single-family homes surrounded by white picket fences. According to Ghosh, the American dream gained even more traction in political discourse in the mid-1960s, with the civil rights movement and the adoption of broader immigration policies. “It’s an essential part of America,” says Suhay. "Almost everyone agrees that this is an important ideal. But there is a huge debate about whether the United States can actually deliver the American dream." So when did the American dream start to lose steam? According to Mark Rank, co-author of Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes, the American dream began to weaken around 50 years ago, starting in the 1970s, with globalization and stagnant wages. "It's become much more difficult to achieve the American dream, this idea of ??an implicit agreement that if you work hard and follow the rules, you can have an economically comfortable life," says Rank. "The notion that each generation would be better off economically than the last has always been a central component of the American dream. And that remained true until about the 1970s." Experts say that in the following years, the American dream entered a period of prolonged decline as socioeconomic inequality increased. Then, according to some of them, there was another turning point: the 2008 financial crisis and its consequences, which made owning a home and job stability increasingly difficult to achieve. Many Americans never regained the economic optimism they had before the crisis. Still, wages in the US remain significantly higher than in the UK and much of Europe. Despite this, there remains a sharp partisan divide over whether the American dream can be achieved. Polls show that Republicans and older Americans remain more likely to believe him. Young people, on the other hand, show much greater skepticism. A survey revealed that only one in five adults between the ages of 18 and 29, like actor Luke Muellen, believes that the American dream is still possible. But that doesn't mean the American dream has always been just a matter of financial success. For many people, it represents above all an ideal of freedom and individual rights, whose origins date back to the founding documents of the USA, such as the Bill of Rights. In this sense, it is worth remembering that many black Americans have long considered the American dream a myth, built on the idealistic rhetoric of the "Founding Fathers" (a group of people linked to American independence and the institutional foundation of the country), but incompatible with the reality of slavery and racial segregation that marked the country's history. Long before disenchantment with the American dream spread across the country, Martin Luther King Jr. already said that the USA manifested a "schizophrenic personality". "In a very real sense, America is, in essence, a dream, a dream that has not yet come true," he said in a speech delivered in North Carolina in 1960. "Slavery and segregation have been profound paradoxes in a nation founded on the principle that all men are created equal." Reniqua Allen-Lamphere, a writer who has researched black people's views on the American Dream, describes the concept as one of America's "most enduring myths." "Black people have a unique relationship with the American dream, in part because so much of their history has been a struggle for freedom in its most basic sense," he told the BBC. But she adds: "The American dream is also part of me, this hope that better days will come. Although I find that difficult. Very difficult." Keeping the American dream alive One thing caught my attention when analyzing the various opinion polls carried out in recent months. A survey by The Times newspaper showed that, despite the pessimism surrounding the American dream, "61% of those interviewed said they still believed in this ideal". Brandon Patty, 44, a clerk and financial controller in St. Johns County, Florida, and commander of the U.S. Navy Reserve, is one of those Americans who firmly believes that the American dream is still alive and well. “It’s an honor to be part of this,” he says. “Only by the grace of God, by being born here and being part of the American experiment.” "When I hear the term American Dream, I think that the opportunities are limitless that in the US you can start from nothing and find your way. This is something that, in many ways, is part of the American identity itself," says Patty. Patty was the first in his family to graduate from college and the first in his generation to graduate from high school. "Today I'm 44 years old and, honestly, I'm living that dream," he says. Gonzalo Schwarz, president and executive director of think tank The Archbridge Institute, agrees that it is important to highlight the positive aspects of living in the USA. A survey carried out by the institute itself concluded that the majority of respondents across different demographic groups believe that the American dream is still alive. According to the organization, this result arises from a different methodology, based on more direct questions than those used in most research, which, according to it, approach the topic in a more conceptual way. “If we only focus on the negatives and the portion of people who believe the American dream is out of reach, we risk turning its decline into a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Schwarz. "We need to step back, take a long-term perspective, and seek to reignite the American dream as a beacon of hope for America's next 250 years." For Rank, the sociologist who wrote on the subject, the American dream is still alive, although today it is more difficult to achieve than in the past. “If we say that it has ceased to exist, we are eliminating a fundamental component of the US identity,” he says. "There are doubts about the American dream, and there are also uncertainties." But in his view, in line with the country's tradition of optimism, these doubts represent an opportunity to rethink how the United States can ensure that the American dream remains within everyone's reach for the next 250 years. Back in Maine, Iftin says that his brother Hassan, who was unable to immigrate to the US because of visa restrictions, recently became a Canadian citizen. “My brother says the healthcare system there is better,” he says, amidst laughter. Despite the obstacles, Iftin says that if he could go back in time, he would still choose the USA. "I think it was my first love."