Abdi Nor Iftin was a Somali refugee living in one of the roughest slums in Kenya when he learned he had won the lottery of a lifetime. In 2013, out of nearly eight million applicants, he was one of the lucky 50,000 granted a US visa through the diversity visa scheme. His childhood friends had nicknamed him 'Abdi America' after he taught himself English by watching Hollywood movies. 'My whole life I have been in love with America – the best country in the world, the dreamland, the land of opportunity,' he told the BBC in 2014.
Now 41, Iftin arrived in the US that year, settled in a small town in Maine, got a job installing insulation and became a citizen. But this year, he lost his job at a refugee resettlement agency – and with it, his health insurance. 'I feel like the American Dream is alive, but not well,' he said.
“Only a third of Americans believe the Dream still exists, as the US turns 250 amid deep polarisation and inequality.”
He is not alone. Luke Mullen, a 24-year-old actor from California, told the BBC he is planning to move to Canada because of a lack of film opportunities in Hollywood. 'Wealth is getting consolidated in this country and as that happens, the opportunities are dwindling,' he said.
Survey after survey taken ahead of the US's 250th anniversary shows faith in the American Dream – the promise that anyone can create a bright future – is fading. A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC found only a third of the public believes the Dream still exists. A Pew Research Center study shows most Americans say the country's best days are behind it. The anniversary comes at a moment of deep polarisation and partisan divide.
The Dream has been a brand exported around the world through movies, music and pop culture. But some historians argue its foundations were flawed from the start. In the wake of the Revolutionary War, the US Constitution was designed as 'the legal scaffolding of an elite-led counter-revolution', according to analysis that points to Shays' Rebellion – a massive class revolt by ex-revolutionary soldiers that almost toppled the government. The authors of the Federalist Papers, including Alexander Hamilton, pushed for a president serving 'during good behaviour' – in effect, an elected king for life – and a congressional veto on all state legislation. Elitist institutions such as the Senate and the Electoral College were embedded in the system.
America remains among the most economically 'free' countries, but also among the most atomised, alienated and unequal. For Iftin, the Dream that brought him across the world now feels precarious. 'My whole life I have been in love with America,' he said – but his hope has run up against reality.