Posted on 10/07/2025 4:52:28 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
When Qian Zhang boarded a flight from Shanghai to Boston at age 18, she thought she was heading toward the "best version" of her life. It was 2009, during President Barack Obama's first term, when the U.S. economy was rebounding and opportunities for well-educated workers seemed plentiful.
She was bound for Dartmouth College, a top choice for many Chinese students, and later found her way to Harvard Business School.
Qian embraced the American dream: the promise of equal opportunity, a country that rewards talent and hard work, and a place where global citizens like her could belong.
By her early 30s, she was a vice president at a global firm in Boston, earning six figures a year. But behind the glittering resume was a reality defined by her immigration status.
Like hundreds of thousands of foreign professionals, Qian lived on an H-1B work visa — the document that tethered her job, her ability to travel, and her entire sense of security to the grace of her employer. "Your entire life is tied to your job," she said. "If you lose the job, you lose the visa. If you lose the visa, you lose the country."
At first, she pushed aside her anxieties. She bought property, built friendships, and told herself she was no different from her American colleagues.
But each year brought fresh reminders: vacations cut short to fly back to China for visa paperwork, discreet job searches because changing employers required fresh visa sponsorships, and the constant fear that one misstep could unravel her life. "The H-1B made me feel like a second-class citizen," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
“ it made me feel like a second class citizen”
…good! Then you’ll be ahead of the game in your 3rd world sh—hole.
She is NOT a citizen here. Adios! And someone should check to see if she voted anywhere she resided.
She’s a Chinese citizen. How she feels about that isn’t our concern.
White males in the USA feel like second class citizens in their own country.
AMF
Obviously a ChiCom spy.
2nd class citizen? You’re not a citizen at all honey......
Because H1B visas should be used for VPs at financial firms. What does ahe do that an American couldn’t? Oh yeah work for less money.
VP is a low exec level at a financial company. Send this trash back to her broken economy.
By the way....she came in 2009 during the Great Recession when tens of millions of Americans were out of work. Why the hell were we importing foreign labor when we were suffering mass unemployment? What a complete betrayal of Americans that was. The good jobs she got and money she made.....yeah, that should have gone to an American.
Becoming a citizen would solve the problem, BUT NO!! We can't have that be a possible solution! It's too logical.
‘it made me feel like a second-class citizen’
Well first off you aren’t a citizen - your an alien here on a visa...so get over yourself.
Go home and feel like a citizen where you have citizenship by birth!
Exactly. They aren’t citizens
“ it made me feel like a second class citizen”
…good! Then you’ll be ahead of the game in your 3rd world sh—hole.
...actually you’re not a citizen here, of any class. Go back to India where you are.
Hard to be a second class citizen if you aren’t a citizen....
I can’t begin to G.A.S. She’s been here for a few years. Did she ever apply for citizenship? Did she just plan to extract from the U.S. and go back home to China when it was convenient for her?
The program isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) an indefinite method of lawful residency of a foreigner. We owe her NOTHING.
What U.S. citizen didn’t have her seat at Dartmouth or Harvard, or with her current employer?
what a load of baloney, if it was that tramatic why didn't she just go back to China? Seriously, this is the biggest load of lefty crap Ive read this month.
Trauma? ill give you trauma, how about 4 years in the marine corps?
you sucked up a 100k job from an American for 10 years, probably lived a good life, built a house, bought property and it traumatized you?
she is a first class Chinese Kareeen!!
And CNBC thought we’d feel sorry for her.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.