Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and Zohran Mamdani all have at least two things in common. 1) They all had/have foreign-born fathers with associations to elite American universities. Obama’s at Harvard. Harris’s at Stanford, and Mamdani’s at Columbia. 2) They all spent years of their childhoods outside of the U.S. Obama in Indonesia. Harris in Quebec, Canada, and Mamdani in Uganda and South Africa. There is nothing wrong about these shared experiences. However, I think it’s important to distinguish this narrative from the feel-good, Statue of Liberty, upwardly-mobile, melting pot story of yesteryear. This new narrative owes less to America the economic engine for the tired, poor, huddled masses than it does to America the empire that pulls in talented elites from across the globe. Whatever good this may say about the U.S., it does not speak to the classic American narrative of opportunity and self-improvement. Indeed, the story of successful migrating elites may simply support the idea that neoliberal globalization reinforces rather than alleviates inequality.
