The Other Face of America: Eight Facts That Shock New Immigrants
At the start of the episode, short clips are shown of people other than Moustafa Elhusseiny. This is the text of what was said in them, as heard in the recording, and it may be incomplete: “We found America has no democracy and nothing, the number of homeless people there, I mean America is not all good, and some of the young women and men go astray.” Then Moustafa Elhusseiny begins the episode:
In this episode of “Live America” I talk about things that may shock new immigrants when they arrive in America. The knowledge and culture that an incoming immigrant has about America usually come from films and novels that make life there somewhat rosy, and on YouTube today there are many videos whose makers may beautify the American reality. Because I want to be fair, that may genuinely be their view. I have met Arabs and people of other nationalities who see America as God’s paradise on earth, and we differ with them in that view.
First: poverty
Most tourists and new immigrants are surprised that there is poverty in America, and they see it in many ways, and it is plain to anyone who looks closely at American affairs. I think this contradiction arises because many people link America being a superpower with the absence of poverty in it, and that is not logical.
According to government data, the poverty rate in American society in 2020 was about 11.4%. You may see it as low compared with many Asian, African or Arab countries, but America should not be compared with third world countries, but with the countries like it in the first world. And this rate means more than 37 million people, which is not a small number. And if you compare it with the Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Denmark, or with rich Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, you will find the poverty rate in America higher than expected for a country like it. This rate rose by about 1% from 2019.
Second: income inequality
This exists all over the world, but the fairer the distribution of income, the smaller the gap between the classes. Government reports and reports from civil society organizations inside America say that only 1% of American society controls and owns 39% of all of America’s wealth. Imagine this strange reality, while 90% of the rest of the people own only about 23% of America’s wealth. That is, 1% own more than a third of the country’s wealth, and 90% of the American people share and fight over 23% of the remaining wealth. A clear contradiction in one of the richest countries in the world in terms of gross domestic product and income per person.
Among the American indicators are ones that measure income inequality between the classes, and it confirms that the inequality has grown by more than two or three times over the last 30 years. The gap between the classes was small, and moving up a class was much easier than it is now. I believe the matter will not be solved soon as long as America keeps going the same way and puts capitalism before everything.
Third: homelessness
Homeless people are clearly present in the big cities. Anyone who has visited New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, or even Philly in Pennsylvania, can confirm that he saw many homeless people in American streets. According to government data, more than half a million people in America suffered homelessness and spent at least one night on the street in 2020. A large and frightening number, with many causes and greater consequences for American society as a whole.
Fourth: pervasive materialism
One of the main causes of homelessness is the materialism that pervades American society, and I have talked about it in many videos. Life here is grinding, and there is no mercy in the American work machine. If you do not work, you will literally be on the street. Capitalism here looks at a person as a cog in a giant work machine, and the most important thing for it is achieving huge profits for the companies that control the joints of American life.
The giant American companies are known for judging a worker or employee by the target he is supposed to reach, and this target is usually rising wildly. If you are an employee in a company that made $100,000 last year, and it expects profits of $150,000 in the new year, and you did not contribute to achieving them, you have failed in your job, and you may be fired the next day without mercy. In return, the American government and civil society organizations offer a lot of help to those who are fired from their jobs, but the reality remains a pressure on your personality and your whole life until you work in another company and become a new cog in it.
The American people themselves are not busy resisting materialism, nor even correcting the course of capitalism, but often justify it and make excuses for the owners of the giant companies. I see two reasons for this: the first is that they are not politically cultured to a great degree, so they cannot imagine a successful way of running life other than capitalism. The second is that capitalism and pure materialism make you a heavy-duty consumer, so your own interest and pleasure come before anything else.
But when the immigrant arrives he is shocked that he has to work on himself, save his expenses, and deal with his whole day, since his day passes between the street and work or study, then sleeping and waking. He depends entirely on himself. Living here is very expensive, so it is hard to be dependent, and it requires the whole family to work and rely on itself.
I advise whoever wants to come to take the hardship of living abroad into account. To hear about living abroad and read about it is one thing, and to live it is another. At the beginning you are enthusiastic and want to work, then the difficulty of life begins and you long for what you lived before and the comparisons begin. I believe America is not like the cinema we see on television, but has negatives as it has positives.
Fifth: the absence of social life
This is among the things that shock new immigrants most, in the sense we are used to in our Arab countries. You can link it with the previous points and regard it as a natural, expected result. A study by one of the research centers mentioned that an opinion poll in American society in 2018 found that more than 54% of those asked feel social isolation, and more than 40% feel complete loneliness.
The more materialism increases, the fewer the social ties and family relationships. It is striking that the balance between work and social life is more disturbed in American society than in others, and what shows this is the small number of vacations Americans get. They are not like the Japanese who love work, but on the contrary, yet employers do not want to give them vacations, and this is clear compared with European societies. Individualism and self-worship is the dominant trait of the American personality, and widens the gap between work and social life.
Sixth: education
This point may seem strange to someone watching from outside America, but the immigrant who lives there for a while finds it among the things that shock him most: the level of American education differs clearly from one state to another, and from one city to another. In certain cities the education is of high quality, and in other cities its quality is almost very bad.
The reason is that of the budget for public education, that is, public schools, only a small part comes from the federal government, and most of it comes from the state, county or city where the school is located. That is, the taxes people pay in the area, neighborhood or city directly affect the money allocated to public schools. So you find public education very good in rich neighborhoods and cities, and very bad in poor neighborhoods and cities. This is common knowledge for anyone who lives in America, but it may be shocking for someone newly arrived.
There are many attempts to raise the level of public schools in poor areas, but so far most of these initiatives have not had a big effect, because the matter is deeply tied to the property taxes that are collected for cities and then allocated to schools. That is why I said in an earlier episode that there are many websites that show you the average crime and the rating of public schools in the neighborhoods and cities where you want to live, so choose where you live on that basis.
Seventh: drug addiction
Anyone who has lived in densely populated American cities notices this, especially in poor neighborhoods. According to government data, there were more than 93,000 deaths from drug overdoses in 2020, and that is a large number in one year. I expect the number has risen since. I have seen many cases myself in Brooklyn, in Clifton and Paterson, two cities in New Jersey with many Arabs, and even, sadly, in the city of Philadelphia in the American state of Pennsylvania, where there is a whole neighborhood perhaps given over to drug addicts and dealers. There do not seem to be serious solutions to put an end to the drug phenomenon, and in many neighborhoods the young fall into its trap every day. We ask God to save everyone.
Eighth: rising crime rates
I mean here gun violence and murders committed with weapons. Many statistics say there is an increase every year in crimes committed with firearms. Government data says murders rose in 2020 by about 30% over 2019, a big increase in one year. I refer you to the episode in which I showed how to choose the areas where you live inside America, including the spread of crime, the rating of public schools and the ethnic diversity of the city or neighborhood.
These are the most important things I think a new immigrant may be shocked by when he arrives, especially if he has no idea about them. I hope you have benefited.
Article originally published on 3 October 2026.