nature Adam and Eve just couldn’t not
bite that Apple and we’ve been exploring
ever since today’s talk is about
curiosity so let’s look at the curiosity
of immigrants in this country and how
it’s made America strong unless you’re a
Native American every one of you came
from someplace else raise your hand if
you’re an immigrant raise your hand if
your parents were immigrants raise your
hand if your grandparents were
immigrants essentially every one of you
came from someplace else and that’s
I’m going to start with talking about a
particular American immigrant AB dungen
dolly came from Syria the city of Homs
which has now been destroyed by the
Syrian civil war his curiosity drove him
to study in Beirut and there he got
involved in protests even spent three
days in jail and those protests
eventually led him to flee and he came
to the United States here in New York to
study at Columbia University he then
went on to Wisconsin got a PhD
eventually went into the restaurant
business
the typical immigrant he’s now 85 lives
in Nevada has two successful children as
part of the American Dream let me focus
on one of his two children in 1955 he
and his then-girlfriend had a son they
gave that son up for adoption and that
son ended up growing up in Los Altos
California he was a curious young boy
and at age 12 he liked to tinker with
machines
and was trying to build a frequency
counter but he didn’t have the parts and
he did something that probably no
University of Rochester student today
has ever done he went to the phonebook
picked up that big book and looked up
the number for Hewlett Packard and asked
to speak to the CEO of Hewlett Packard
and he did for 20 minutes and he not
only got those parts he got a job at
Hewlett Packard for the summer now you
might have guessed it today but that
young boy grew up to found Apple Steve
Jobs is the son of that Syrian immigrant
and he’s probably the most curious man
of our time now what does this story
have to do with our talk today about
curiosity and immigrant strength
absolutely everything today 40 million
Americans are immigrants first born
immigrants that’s 12 percent of our
population they come here for different
reasons some come for opportunity others
are fleeing war and usually the United
States had something to do with those
conflicts look at today tens of
thousands of undocumented migrant
children are fleeing the drug fuelled
violence in Central America think about
the next time you see somebody buying
drugs Americans buy those drugs and fuel
that violence so we have a role there I
mentioned Syria 10,000 immigrants have
come as refugees fleeing that bloody
and we have 11 million undocumented
Vietnam everyone knows Vietnam we just
elected in Florida where I now live a
Vietnam refugee to Congress largely
because the Vietnam vets in her district
were proud that she had succeeded I now
teach at a State University in Florida
I have refugee students from Bosnia
Afghanistan Iraq all conflicts that the
United States had a role in so why do we
let these immigrants in we don’t have to
it’s because they’re the economic
drivers of our country they work hard
they pay taxes they buy homes and they
fuel our economy think for a minute
about that Steve Jobs and just take out
your cell phones which I know you never
put down anyway and say thank you to
Steve Jobs but also say thank you to our
immigration system because today if we
had a abdul jin dolly asking for a visa
from syria we would say no and that’s
if we had not had our immigration in
place at the time when Abdul Jill dolly
Steve Jobs never would have created
Apple you’d still be using these flip
phones because make no mistake about it
there is no way Steve Jobs could have
created Apple in Syria and he’s no
exception look at the genius of the
immigrants who have built this country
Albert Einstein Andrew Carnegie of US
Steel Sergey Brin of Google near your
college students you probably are
familiar with many of the companies
created by immigrants or their children
Budweiser beer Home Depot eBay
McDonald’s even Walt Disney all created
by immigrants or their children the most
successful companies in this in the
world are the fortune 500 companies 40%
of the fortune 500 companies were
created by immigrants or their children
I mentioned before that immigrants were
12% of our population and yet they’re
40% of the Fortune 500’s that means that
immigrants and their children are more
curious they work hard have a harder
drive than the children several
generations removed from immigration so
think about that immigrants 14500 create
wealth of two trillion dollars to our
economy that’s greater than the wealth
of every country in the world except
China and India what that means is that
the curiosity those immigrants drive our
economy they ask they work hard so why
would we not let them in
I’ve lived in Washington for decades and
I have never seen an environment so
toxic politicians are getting elected
scapegoating immigrants and that is
downright on American if you look at
immigration today we have suspended
immigration from six Muslim countries
Iran Iran
Somalia Sudan Yemen and yes Syria and
we’re trying to kick out the 11 million
undocumented workers most of whom have
discrimination has always been part of
the American fabric and it’s always been
wrong a century ago it was the Irish
that we’re told
don’t bother applying for a job Italians
and poles and other Europeans were
discriminated against harshly so the
faces of those immigrants change but the
discrimination does not now if an adult
came here and broke our laws they can’t
get a free pass everybody gets that but
we need a new immigration system that
reflects reality our values per and
practicality and that means making sure
that we yes secure our borders but in a
way that makes sense to the threat and
that we have an immigration system that
makes businesses and individuals play by
the rules because America has to stay
the magnet for those youth who come in
and drive our economy I want em young
curious immigrants driving our economy
that is the strength of American society
that conversation on immigration can’t
happen unless Americans understand their
place in the world take a look at this
unfortunately that really is how most
Americans see the world now take a look
at how the world really looks look at
all those lights around the country and
look at the areas that are not let yet
yet lit the United States has three
hundred and twenty-two million people in
it but that rest of that world seven
billion people more and another two
billion are going to come on earth by
the year 2050 which means by the middle
of this century
will be almost 10 billion people on this
earth and the United States will be 3%
so think globally as you decide your
career think about not just trying to
sell to people here in New York or in
the United States but the 97% of the
community that’s going to live outside
of the world we want to manage
globalization not close up our borders
and end our trade because our prosperity
depends on creating businesses to the
rest of the world our exports are 14% of
our gross domestic product
think about what would happen if you
could sell to the rest of the world
you’d be very wealthy and you could come
back here and endow a building in your
name you can’t do it just selling in the
I want to start a new conversation one
where the world north south east and
west come together and understand that
we’re all part of the same struggle we
all live on the same earth and we all
must work together it’s a simple though
not easy way to address the conflicts
that you see around the world I call it
the new Global Compact and it can
revolutionize the 21st century it
requires that the housing to have not
see that each other struggles must be
solved from both of them to be
the billions of poor people on the world
they’re not worried about cyberattacks
or al-qaeda or terrorism they’re afraid
of not having enough to eat not having
clean water war that will kill them but
they want the exact same thing you do a
good life a nice home a good education
and a future for their children and we
the rich people we have our fears we
don’t worry about eating we do worry
about terrorism cybercrime infectious
diseases environmental degradation but
we want the exact same thing we want a
nice home a good education and a better
future for our children so I want to see
a world where the haves and the
have-nots recognize that we’re all part
of the same conflict but we can’t be
safe and prosperous if the other half is
not to do so requires strong US
leadership and an understanding by all
of you and your generation of America’s
place in the world for when the United
States fails to lead the solutions are
generally not in our interest and harm
the other half of the world let me
illustrate one of the starkest
conflicts the Democratic Republic is in
the heart of Africa and it’s the world’s
deadliest conflict millions of people
had died have died in decades of a
brutal civil war and in fact the
immigrants that we took the most nation
from last year was the Democratic
Republic of the Congo 16,000 of them
what does this have to do with you take
that cell phone out again and look at it
and recognize that it contains cobalt
that in all likelihood came from the
Congo it’s the world’s source of cobalt
which everybody uses to make those cell
phones so you too are participating in
this is the family I know that lives in
the Congo out loud and his family want
the same thing you do they want a nice
house a nice garden a good job and a
better life for the children and yet
they live in fear that the war is going
to be resumed and the rebels will
destroy their village and yet believe it
or not we need their help in fighting
terrorism because Boko Haram Isis al
Qaeda all have roots in Africa and we
can’t be safe if they don’t help us
because there’s the lone superpower the
United States is the one that has a
target on its back so we need a world
where we recognize that unless the u.s.
helps the other half live we will never
be safe now here’s a statistic that
gives me great concern this is the eight
richest men on earth and yes they’re all
men combined they own more wealth than
3.6 billion people nearly half of the
world that is just wrong and don’t make
the mistake of thinking that the other
half doesn’t know how the rich half
lives they do and they will fight for
prosperity and if they can’t achieve it
they’re going to become recruits for al
Qaeda terrorists drug lords that
threaten yes us so that brings me back
to the new global compact as you prepare
to graduate understand America’s role in
the world three percent of the global
population by the time you reach middle
age so why wouldn’t we have a global
work force
why wouldn’t we think globally be part
of the new conversation to recognize
that we are all part of the same
struggle and all part of the same earth
promote tolerance turn off the TV talk
to people or at least change the channel
and change the conversation
envy intolerance that’s growing up in
our country and the bickering start a
new conversation recognize that it’s the
curiosity of immigrants that make this
Country Strong think and act globally
remember Steve’s jobs question to the
head of CEO and ask and let your
curiosity drive your life because if you
do you can truly change the world thank you