Almost American: A Mongolian Girl's American Story

By Billie Tuvshinbayar

Why do so many Americans have negative perceptions of immigrants? What kind of struggles come with moving to a foreign country?

In Almost American, author Billie Tuvshinbayar talks openly about what it means to be an immigrant in America. After moving from Mongolia to the U.S. at just 19 years old, Billie noticed that many

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Apr 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781641374583

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Almost American

Almost American

A Mongolian Girl’s American Story

Billie Tuvshinbayar

New Degree Press

Copyright © 2020 Billie Tuvshinbayar

All rights reserved.

Almost American

A Mongolian Girl's American Story

ISBN

978-1-64137-456-9 Paperback

978-1-64137-457-6 Kindle Ebook

978-1-64137-458-3 Ebook

THANK YOU

To my grandparents: I consider myself very lucky to have known you. Thank you for giving me a family that loves and supports me. I love you both.

To my mom: The greatest gift of all was to be born as your child. Thank you for everything you have done for me and Amka. I love you.

To Stephen: This book truly wouldn’t have been possible without you. Thank you for standing by my side and supporting every decision I make. I love you.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1.

The Interview

Chapter 2.

Leaving the Nest

Chapter 3.

An Empty Wallet with Big Dreams

Chapter 4.

Lottery Winners

Chapter 5.

Immigrants and Their Children

Chapter 6.

The Price We Pay

Chapter 7.

Free Movement

Chapter 8.

Determined

Chapter 9.

American Confidence

Chapter 10.

Stephen from Tinder

Chapter 11.

Just-in Time

Chapter 12.

Happily Ever After?

Chapter 13.

Sweet and Sour

Chapter 14.

Almost American

Acknowledgements:

Appendix:

Introduction

I’m asking you a question, Ling Ling! he yelled. I could smell the alcohol coming off his breath. It smelled like cheap whiskey mixed with rubbing alcohol. Hey! I’m talking to you! I so badly wanted to remove myself from the situation, but I was wedged in my seat between him and the bus window on the X2. I had seen him on my way home from school before. He would often bother other riders for money, and if they refused to hand over a few dollars, he would yell and shame them until they got off the bus. With literally no cash in my purse, I decided to stay quiet and look out the window. Do you even speak English? He yelled louder as spit flew from his mouth. He seemed more annoyed this time. You probably don’t speak English. What are you even doing in America if you don’t even speak English?

The X2 bus is its own miniature melting pot within the city. While its route runs between some of Washington D.C.’s most dangerous neighborhoods, it also rides through one of its most historic and wealthy. In fact, it makes a stop right in front of the White House. People of all races, genders, and social classes share these seats. It even doubles as shelter for some of the homeless during colder winter nights. A Washington Post article published a miraculous story of a woman who gave an emergency birth on the X2; just a few weeks later, it published another article about two people being shot waiting at an X2 bus stop.¹ Trust me when I say it’s an interesting way to travel.

I continued to stare through the window, and turned up my music in my headphones. I tried my best to drown him out with some Taylor Swift, but quiet parts in the song left me vulnerable. You FOBs are so cheap. Go back to where you came from. People like you are destroying this country. Get off of this bus! Get out of my country!

**

Growing up in Mongolia, I quickly became fascinated with America. While I loved many things about my home country, I was captivated by America’s constant innovation and how deeply it influenced global entertainment, arts, and technology. For many, including myself, America is perceived to be the number one country in the world.

After graduating high school I was fortunate enough to legally migrate to the United States. But like many other immigrants, I had to learn a new language, adapt to a new culture, and basically start a new life. By the time I graduated from college I considered myself more American than Mongolian. Yet wherever I went, I was never American enough. No matter how hard I tried to blend in, I never felt accepted as part of the crowd. I have been called an FOB (fresh off the boat), an immigrant, and a foreigner. Even when they weren’t necessarily meant to be offensive, it felt as if these words were being used to diminish my value as a person. But then, finally I wondered to myself: Why does the word immigrant have such a negative connotation in American society?

According to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, immigrants account for less than fourteen percent of the entire American population. And out of 44 million foreign-born individuals living in the United States, only a quarter of them are undocumented.² Yet the media and recent political campaigns tend to focus only on this sub-set of immigrants. A study by the National Foundation for American Policy concluded that fifty-five percent of all American start-up companies valued at $1 billion have at least one immigrant founder. These billion-dollar immigrant-founded tech companies alone have created an average of more than 1,000 jobs per company.³ In fact, a research director at The Center for American Entrepreneurship concluded that immigrants have founded almost one-third of venture-backed companies—close to a quarter of all new businesses, and half of Silicon Valley high-tech startups.⁴ How, then, do you put a value on the innovative ideas and concepts that have helped to shape current American culture?

From my perspective, it seemed that the Nation of Immigrants now looks down on its new wave of immigrants. It has painted bizarre pictures of them—and of me. This is the reason why I decided to help change the status quo and begin researching successful immigrants who are contributing to the U.S. economy and our society.

In search for a better life, immigrants and their children have provided the world with some of the largest, most successful businesses that we rely on. These companies and their ideas impact our everyday decisions—what we buy, what we eat, how we dress, and how we consume media. To that end, immigrants have created or co-founded many of the most impactful businesses, achieved some of the most important scientific breakthroughs, and have developed some of the greatest technological disruptors that have helped make America great. Some of them include:

• YouTube (Jawed Karim and Steve Chen)

• Space X (Elon Musk, who also co-founded Tesla, Inc.; Neuralink; The Boring Company; OpenAl; and PayPal)

• Google (Sergey Brin)

• LinkedIn (Jean-Luc Vaillant, Eric Thich Vi Ly and Konstantin Guericke)

• PayPal (Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Yu Pan and Lukasz Nosek)

• Palantir Technologies (Peter Thiel, who also co-founded PayPal; and Founders Fund)

• Uber (Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp)

• eBay (Pierre Omidyar)

• Moderna Theraupeutics (Noubar Afeyan)

• Chobani (Hamdi Ulukaya)

• Robinhood (Baiju Bhatt and Vladimir Tenev)

• TurboTax (Sasan Goodarzi)

• Dropbox (Arash Ferdowsi)

• Wish (Peter Szulczewski and Danny Zhang)

• Instacart (Apoorva Mehta)

• Credit Karma (Kenneth Lin)

• Forever 21 (Do Won Chang and Jin Sook Chang)

• Panda Express (Andrew Cherng, Peggy Cherng, and Ming Tsai Cherng)

• Sweetgreen (Nathaniel Ru, Jonathan Neman, Nicolas Jammet)

And the list goes on. But what if these immigrant founders, or their parents, had been deported, evicted, or had their visas revoked? What if immigrants and refugees were blocked from coming into America completely? Would America still be the greatest country in the world? Some believe immigrants take more from this country than they give back. But is this true? Heck, what does it even truly mean to be American? I worry that we could lose the next wave of great founders, entrepreneurs, and pioneers in America if we continue to push them away. In my view America needs more positive, encouraging, and motivating stories about successful immigrants.

**

This book has two