The Privilege of U.S. Citizenship

PayPal cofounder Max Levchin tells the story of his own family’s immigration to America

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The ultimate privilege: U.S. citizenship! Sept. 17 is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day! Mark the occasion with PayPal cofounder Max Levchin, who understands from deep personal experience that the true genius of America is that it has always been a haven for the “world’s strivers, innovators and risk-takers.” Levchin—honored as one of Carnegie Corporation’s “Great Immigrants” in 2015—tells the story of his own family’s immigration to America, movingly describing what U.S. citizenship means to him, to his wife (also a naturalized American), and to his two young children, who were born in the U.S.A.

Read Max Levchin’s story in U.S. News & World Report:

In 1991, the summer I turned 16, my family and I came to the United States seeking political asylum from the Soviet Union. We had about $600 among the five of us. Less than a month later, as we began to settle in Chicago, the USSR disintegrated and we found ourselves holding passports from a country that no longer existed. Read more.


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