Unit 4_Ted talk topics immigrations – modern changing societies Sayu Bhojwani recruits and supports first and second generation Americans to run for public office. In politics, representation matters -- and that's why we should elect leaders who reflect their country's diversity and embrace its multicultural tapestry, says Sayu Bhojwani. Through her own story of becoming an American citizen, the immigration scholar reveals how her love and dedication to her country turned into a driving force for political change. "We have fought to be here," she says, calling immigrant voices to action. "It's our country, too." 1. Listen and take notes on the intro (2 min). Share your content with your mates 2. Do a Listen-to-WR task (02:16 - 07:41 ) https://www.ted.com/talks/ sayu_bhojwani_how_immigrant_voices_make_democracy_stronger 3. Pick up ONE and do a Listen-to-WR task. Top 7 TED Talks for Immigrants https://www.immigroup.com/news/top-7-ted-talks-every-immigrant-needs-watch Script from Sayu Bhojwani till 02:16 greatest democracy. I came because I wanted to study English literature. You see, as a child, My journey to this stage began when I came I buried my nose in books, and I thought, why to America at the age of 17. You see, I'm one not make a living doing that as an adult? But of the 84 million Americans who are after I graduated from college and got a immigrants or children of immigrants. Each of graduate degree, I found myself moving from us has a dream when we come here, a dream one less ideal job to another.Maybe it was the that usually has to be rewritten and always has optimism that I had about America that made to be repurposed. I was one of the lucky me take a while to understand that things were ones. My revised dream led me to the work I not going to change. The door that I thought do today: training immigrants to run for public was open was actually just slightly ajar -- this office and leading a movement for inclusive door of America that would open wide if you democracy. had the right name, the right skin color, the I was born in India, the world's largest right networks,but could just slam in your democracy, and when I was four, my family face if you had the wrong religion, the wrong moved to Belize, the world's smallest immigration status, the wrong skin color. And I democracy perhaps. And at the age of 17, I just couldn't accept that. moved to the United States, the world's TED TAKLK_Script shock waves through my community. People Sayu Bhojwani (02:16 - 07:41 ) who were members of my family, young people I had worked with, were experiencing So I started a career as a social harassment at schools, at workplaces and in entrepreneur, starting an organization for airports. And now I was going to represent their young people like myself -- I was young at the concerns in government.No job felt more time that I started it -- who traced their heritage perfect for me. to the Indian subcontinent. In that work, I 05:27 became and advocate for South Asians and And here are two things I learned when I other immigrants. I lobbied members of became Commissioner. First, well-meaning Congress on policy issues. I volunteered on New Yorkers who were in city government election day to do exit polling. But I couldn't holding government positions had no idea how vote, and I couldn't run for office. So in 2000, scared immigrants were of law when it was announced that the citizenship enforcement. Most of us don't really know the application fee was going to more than difference, do we, between a sheriff and local double from 95 dollars to 225 dollars, I decided police and the FBI. And most of us, when we it was time to apply before I could no longer see someone in uniform going through our afford it. I filled out a long neighborhoods feel curiosity, if not concern. So application, answering questions about my if you're an undocumented parent, every day current and my past affiliations. And once the when you say goodbye to your child, send application was submitted, there were them off to school and go to work, you don't fingerprints to be taken, a test to study know what the chances are that you're going to for, endless hours of waiting in line. You might see them at the end of the day. Because a raid call it extreme vetting. And then in December at your workplace, a chance encounter with of 2000, I joined hundreds of other local police could change the course of your immigrants in a hall in Brooklyn where we life forever. pledged our loyalty to a country that we had 06:23 The second thing I learned is that when long considered home. My journey from people like me, who understood that fear, who international student to American citizen took had learned a new language, who had 16 years, a short timeline when you compare it navigated new systems, when people like us to other immigrant stories. were sitting at the table, we advocated for our 03:49 And soon after I had taken that formal communities' needs in a way that no one else step to becoming an American, the attacks of could or would. I understood what that feeling September 11, 2001, changed the immigration of fear was like. People in my family were landscape for decades to come. My city, New experiencing it. Young people I had worked York City, was reeling and healing, and in the with were being harassed, not just by midst of it, we were in an election cycle. classmates, but also by their teachers. My 04:12 Two things happened as we coped with husband, then boyfriend, thought twice before loss and recovery in New York City. Voters he put a backpack on or grew a beard because elected Michael Bloomberg mayor of New York he traveled so much. City. We also adopted by ballot referendum the 07:06 What I learned in 2001 was that my Office of Immigrant Affairs for the City of New vote mattered but that my voice and vantage York. Five months after that election, the newly point also mattered.And it's these three things elected mayor appointed me the first -- immigrants' votes, voices and vantage points Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs for this -- that I think can help make our democracy newly established office. stronger. We actually have the power to 04:44 I want you to come back to that time. I change the outcome of elections, to introduce was a young immigrant woman from Belize. I new issues into the policy debate and to had basically floundered in various jobs in change the face of the pale, male, stale America before I started a community-based leadership that we have in our country today. organization in a church basement in Queens. The attacks of September 11 sent TED TAKLK_Script 10:04 Sayu Bhojwani ( 07:41 12:16) But the third most untapped resource in American democracy is the vantage point that So how do we do that? Well, let's talk first immigrants bring. We have fought to be about votes. It will come as no surprise to here. We have come for economic and you that the majority of voters in America are educational opportunity. We have come for white. But it might surprise you to know that political and religious freedom. We have come one in three voters are black, Latino or in the pursuit of love. That dedication, that Asian. But here's the thing: it doesn't just commitment to America we also bring to public matter who can vote, it matters who does service. People like Athena Salman, who just vote. So in 2012, half of the Latino and Asian- last week won the primary for a seat in the American voters did not vote. Arizona State House. Athena's father grew up 08:12 And these votes matter not just in in the West Bank and moved to presidential elections. They matter in local and Chicago, where he met her mother. Her mother state elections. In 2015, Lan Diep, the eldest is part Italian, part Mexican and part son of political refugees from Vietnam, ran for a German.Together they moved to Arizona and seat in the San Jose City Council. He lost that built a life. Athena, when she gets to the election by 13 votes. This year, he dusted off statehouse, is going to fight for things like those campaign shoes and went back to run education funding that will help give families for that seat, and this time he won, by 12 like hers a leg up so they can achieve the votes. Every one of our votes matters. financial stability that we all are looking for. 08:50 And when people like Lan are sitting at 11:10 Immigrants' votes, voices and vantage the policy table, they can make a points are what we all need to work to include difference. We need those voices. We need in American democracy. It's not just my work. those voices in part because American It's also yours. And it's not going to be leadership does not look like America's easy. We never know what putting a new factor residents. There are over 500,000 local and into an equation will do.