The Immigrant Experience in America (TIEIA)

Simone W. Johnson Smith
  • 4.9 (13)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

The Immigrant Experience In America Podcast amplifies and humanizes the experiences of immigrants living in The United States of America and around the world. We are building a human library of immigrant stories. Connect with us at thebridgeconcepts.org to add yours to our library. Are you an immigrant, expat, international professional, international student new to the United States (or another country) and struggling to make sense of your new environment? Culture shock and adjustment challenges impact many of approximately 218 million migrants moving across the globe (UN, 2024). Are you feeling misunderstood and out of touch because you are struggling to understand the unstated rules of the new culture? That's what we do each week on The Immigrant Experience in America. Every episode is an in-depth look at adjustment challenges, navigating the pitfalls of immigrant life, and becoming a third culture person. I was inspired to start this podcast by my own experience as an immigrant American who legally migrated to the United States but yet has frequent experiences of a love-hate relationship of America with its immigrant population and as a result of a larger vacuum surrounding the positive contributions of immigrants to American Life. We will sit down with successful immigrant Americans to discuss how they navigated the complexity of being an immigrant-American to achieve their American Dream. This is a spot for us to get real - peel back the layers, if you will, of what it means to be an immigrant living away from their birth country. Our intention is to serve as a bridge from your culture to the American (or other country) culture – giving you a roadmap of tools and language to understand the unstated rules of the new country/culture, wherever you find yourself in the world. Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS.

  1. 6h ago

    The Black Tax: Honor Your Mother and Fund Your Future (Week 3 of 90-Day Black Tax Series)

    Honoring your roots and funding your future can feel like a choice between two competing instructions. In week three of the 90-day black tax series, Simone makes the case that they were never actually in competition, even though it can feel that way when the phone rings and the math does not add up. Simone traces the belief back to something nobody taught her directly, a feeling absorbed in the space between what was said and what was implied, in the quiet math of every dollar that left before she asked whether it should. She widens the lens beyond her own culture, naming how this shows up across Afro-Caribbean, African, and Asian communities, as the brown tax in Latin American culture, and pointing listeners back to week one's naming of the Filipino term. She shares a sobering pattern she has observed, immigrants who worked and gave for decades, sent money home to build houses that were never finished, and returned to find the sacrifice went unmatched, a caution against giving without a plan rather than a reason to stop giving. The heart of the episode is a real, usable script for an honest number: I have a hundred dollars, home needs eighty, I only have twenty left, I am sorry, I love you, this is what I have to give right now, offered as an alternative to going into debt out of fear of setting a boundary. She reframes the whole conversation as stewardship instead of survival, building something sustainable enough to still be standing in twenty years, rather than giving until it hurts because the hurting feels like proof of love. She is candid that this comes from her own history with burnout, not from theory. This episode is for the immigrant professional who has felt the pull between honoring family and building a future and assumed one had to lose. It continues directly from weeks one and two, naming the black tax and the pushback that comes with setting any limit around it, and lands on the case that giving on purpose, with a number attached, is not a smaller kind of love than giving without limits. Simone is the founder of Thrive Abroad and The Bridge Concepts, LLC, a Jamaican-born American intercultural strategist, coach, speaker and former U.S. diplomat. She is the International Impact Book Award-winning author of Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience, available on Amazon and online worldwide, and host of this podcast, reaching listeners in over 100 countries. #BlackTax #ImmigrantFinance #DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #Stewardship #FirstGenWealth New to the U.S.? Start here → thebridgeconcepts.org/newcomer Already established, and the financial piece resonated? Get The Black Tax Boundary Kit, a free starting number and three scripts for the conversations that get hard. → thebridgeconcepts.org/black-tax-boundary-kit.html Ready for the fuller plan, built around your specific number? Apply for a Chemistry Call. → [https://form.jotform.com/261967575607068]  Want the conversation to continue weekly? Subscribe to The Thrive Abroad Brief. → thriveabroad.substack.com The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music Support the show on Patreon Visit: thebridgeconcepts.org Follow along: LinkedIn | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook Share your story with us: thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For guidance specific to your immigration status, consult a licensed immigration attorney. For guidance specific to your financial situation, consult a licensed financial professional.

  2. 6h ago ·  Bonus

    You Might Also Like: The Oprah Podcast

    Introducing How to Get Along When Every Generation Thinks Differently from The Oprah Podcast. Follow the show: The Oprah Podcast BUY THE BOOK! 'Generations' by Jean Twenge ⁠https://amzn.to/45yTwiQ⁠ For the first time in history we are living in a society with seven different generations. Oprah and a multi-generational audience are joined by Dr. Jean Twenge who is a psychology professor at San Diego State University. She’s also the author of the definitive book on this phenomenon, Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future. Dr. Twenge unpacks how each generation shapes our society, families, work force and dating life. From the ‘Gen Z Stare’ to work-life balance to living in a multi-generational home, Oprah and Jean are joined by other authors, content creators and members of all generations who talk about their experiences with each other and how we can continue to better understand each other. 00:00:00 - Oprah on generational divide 00:05:15 - Welcome Jean Twenge, author of “Generations” 00:09:37 - Slow life strategy 00:10:40 - Adulting happening later 00:12:40 - Welcome Amanda Schneider, author of “Work for What’s Next” 00:15:00 - Gen Z and hierarchy 00:18:00 - Job hugging 00:19:40 - Gen Z and work-life balance 00:24:40 - School teacher shares divides 00:27:30 - Older generations and technology 00:29:30 - Gen Z stare 00:34:20 - Marriage and dating 00:35:40 - Gen Z is not dating 00:39:40 - Welcome Melani Sanders, creator of The We Do Not Care Club 00:44:00 - Family life differences 00:50:30 - Can we bridge the gap? Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/oprahpodcast/⁠ ⁠https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/⁠ Listen to the full podcast: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI⁠ ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to team@podroll.fm.

    You Might Also Like: The Oprah Podcast

  3. 1d ago

    The Black Tax: Whitewashed (Ep. 226 - Week 2 - 90-Day Black Tax Series)

    Has anyone ever called you that? In week two of the 90-day black tax series, Simone unpacks what happens the moment you try to change a pattern you have already named, and the specific word that tends to show up right when you do. Simone traces the accusation back to a clash she names directly, the collision between a collectivist, communal cultural dynamic and the individualistic boundaries needed to function and stay whole while living abroad. She is careful to separate the pattern from the people in it, naming that most of what gets asked of us is asked out of real need, and most of what we give, we give out of love, while also naming a harder truth, that some of what circulates are stories built to extract money while the person abroad quietly absorbs the cost in their own health and peace. The core of the episode is a piece of timing she wants listeners to actually notice: nobody calls you selfish for the first nine years of saying yes, the word tends to surface exactly once, in the exact moment you say something different than expected, and that timing is not a coincidence, it is information. She is honest that she has not fully resolved the harder question underneath it, telling the difference between a boundary that protects something real and one that is avoidance wearing healthier language, and names that changing will make people around you uncomfortable, so finding real community, coaching, or therapy to support the work matters as much as naming the pattern itself. This episode is for anyone who has been met with silence, a look, or a missed phone call the moment they tried to do something different than what was expected of them, and needed to hear that the accusation is not proof of wrongdoing, sometimes it is only proof that something is changing. About Simone W. Johnson-Smith Simone is the founder of Thrive Abroad and The Bridge Concepts, LLC, a Jamaican-born American intercultural strategist, coach, and former U.S. diplomat. She is the International Impact Book Award-winning author of Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience, available on Amazon, and host of this podcast, reaching listeners in over 100 countries. #BlackTax #Whitewashed #ImmigrantFinance #DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #FirstGenWealth New to the U.S.? Start here → thebridgeconcepts.org/newcomer Already established, and the financial piece resonated? Get The Black Tax Boundary Kit, a free starting number and three scripts for the conversations that get hard. → thebridgeconcepts.org/black-tax-boundary-kit.html Ready for the fuller plan, built around your specific number? Apply for a Chemistry Call. → https://form.jotform.com/261967575607068 Want the conversation to continue weekly? Subscribe to The Thrive Abroad Brief. → thriveabroad.substack.com The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music Support the show on Patreon Visit: thebridgeconcepts.org Follow along: LinkedIn | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook Share your story with us: thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For guidance specific to your immigration status, consult a licensed immigration attorney. For guidance specific to your financial situation, consult a licensed financial professional.

  4. Aug 7

    The Black Tax, Brown Tax, Utang Na Loob (Week 1 - 90 Day Black Tax Series, Ep. 225)

    First of the 90-Day Black Tax Series There is a number most of us have never written down. Not because we cannot do the math, but because writing it down makes it real. In this solo episode, Simone opens the first installment of a ninety-day series with a topic she has carried personally: the black tax, the ongoing financial responsibility so many of us hold for family and community back home, or family who followed us here and never quite landed the way we did. Simone walks through what the black tax actually is, the phone call, the tuition, the medical bill, the funeral, the moment saying yes overrides our own goals without us ever deciding it should. She names the same pattern as it shows up under different words in different cultures: the brown tax in Latino households, utang na loob in Filipino families, a debt of gratitude that never quite finishes being repaid. Different words, the same weight. She is direct about what this is not: not a discipline problem, not a character flaw, not something unique to people who are bad with money. It is leftover survival math, arithmetic that made sense once, in a different country, under different pressure, and never got updated for where we are standing now. She also draws a distinction worth sitting with, between giving that is freely chosen and giving that has quietly become extraction, and is honest that untangling the two is bigger than one episode. This episode is for the immigrant professional who has never once written down the actual number, the ones with two degrees and a title on the door who could not tell you what they have saved for their own future, because the number has never been asked out loud. It is the opening of a ninety-day arc that will stay on this exact topic across the show, the newsletter, and the coaching, not identity in general, not culture in general, this specific weight and what it takes to build wealth without losing yourself or the people you love. About Simone W. Johnson-Smith Simone is the founder of Thrive Abroad and The Bridge Concepts, LLC, a Jamaican-born American intercultural strategist, coach, and former U.S. diplomat. She is the International Impact Book Award-winning author of Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience, available on Amazon and everywhere online globally, and host of this podcast, reaching listeners in over 100 countries. #BlackTax #ImmigrantFinance #DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #ImmigrantExperience #FirstGenWealth Already carrying the weight of this conversation? Get The Black Tax Boundary Kit, a free starting number and three scripts for the conversations that get hard. → thebridgeconcepts.org/black-tax-boundary-kit.html Want to go deeper, on your own terms, at your own pace? Subscribe to The Thrive Abroad Brief for weekly insight on this exact topic across the next ninety days. → thriveabroad.substack.com The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience  Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music Support the show on Patreon Visit: thebridgeconcepts.org Follow along: LinkedIn | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook Share your story with us: thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For guidance specific to your immigration status, consult a licensed immigration attorney. For guidance specific to your financial situation, consult a licensed financial professional.

  5. Jul 29

    Simone on Speak Harmony Podcast - "Are You Lost In Translation?" (Ep. 224)

    I recently sat down with Sharon Thompson and Dr. Sharon Reid on the Speak Harmony Podcast to talk about something most of us carry quietly — the self we translate away just to feel acceptable in a new place. We got into what "lost in translation" actually means. It is not the word that gets lost. It is the self. The version of you that was shaped by a particular soil, a particular faith, a particular way of understanding respect, time, and belonging — and what happens when you land somewhere that runs on entirely different, unspoken rules. From there, the conversation moved through third culture kids and the tension they carry between two households that live in two different cultures at once, the unwritten American workplace rule that humility will not get you promoted the way self-advocacy will, and the quiet financial anxiety so many of us hold — sending money home while still trying to build something here. We also talked about setting healthy boundaries with family and cultural expectation, and why that is one of the hardest, least discussed emotional challenges immigrants face. This episode is for anyone who has felt the edit happening in real time — the softening, the shrinking, the code-switching before you walk into a room. It is for first-gen professionals, third culture people, and anyone building a life across two worlds who has ever wondered which version of themselves is allowed to show up. My book, Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience, goes deeper into everything we touched on here — reading the cultural environment, bridging divides, and reclaiming identity without losing what makes you, you. It's available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-America-Coming-Home-Yourself/dp/B0DMWQ1GLR/ #DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #LostInTranslation #ImmigrantExperience #ThirdCultureKids #CulturalIdentity New to the U.S.? Start here: Newcomer Already established, and the financial piece resonated? Start with the free Black Tax Boundary Kit [https://thebridgeconcepts.org/black-tax-boundary-kit.html], then apply for a Chemistry Call: Apply for a Chemistry Call [https://form.jotform.com/261967575607068] And for the ongoing conversation every week, subscribe to The Thrive Abroad Brief on Substack: https://thriveabroad.substack.com The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music Support the show: Patreon Website: https://thebridgeconcepts.org Follow: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonewjohnson/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theimmigrantexperience Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theimmigrantexperiencepod/ Facebook: @simonewjohnson Share your story with us: thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS. Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.

  6. Jul 15

    Cafecito Cultural Interview: Are You Lost in Translation? (Ep. 223)

    In this episode of The Immigrant Experience in America, Simone W. Johnson-Smith joins Rosa Bel and the Cafecito Cultural community of educators for a conversation on what actually gets lost when we cross a border: "Are You Lost in Translation? How Culture Shock Shapes the Core of Our Identities." Drawing from her own journey as a Jamaican immigrant and 15 years in U.S. federal service, Simone unpacks why culture shock is not a single event but a slow identity negotiation, one that can quietly reshape a person over a decade or more if it goes unnamed. This conversation explores the three stages of that reshaping (Performance, Eraser, Crisis), the invisible code-switching tax carried by high-achieving immigrants, and why the financial scripts we inherit from home can quietly work against the future we're trying to build here. Simone and Rosa also dig into third culture kids and heritage speakers specifically, why bilingual, bicultural students so often see their own identity as something to minimize rather than a source of power, and what educators can do to reflect that value back to them. This episode is for immigrants, first-generation families, third culture people, educators, and anyone building a life between two cultures. "Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience" by Simone W. Johnson-Smith is an International Impact Book Award winner, available on Amazon and wherever books are sold. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DMWQ1GLR #immigrantexperience #culturalidentity #cultureshock #immigrantmentalhealth #thirdculturekid #heritagelanguage #blacktax #decodingamerica #thriveabroad The Immigrant Experience in America New to the U.S.? Start with the free guide to your first ninety days. → The One Who Made It Out Guide Already established, and the financial piece of this conversation hit home? Start with the free Black Tax Boundary Kit: naming the pattern, finding your real giving number, and three scripts for the moment it gets hard. → Black Tax Boundary Kit Ready to build the full plan, not just the number? Apply for a free Chemistry Call. → Chemistry Call Want a weekly note on immigration, identity, and money, in under five minutes? The Thrive Abroad Brief. → Thrive Abroad Brief Snack Bites The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience Listen to more episodes on: 💼 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3OK7xCN 💼 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3DKXsiE 💼 Amazon: https://amzn.to/43VG4Cn 📱 Support our Patreon: https://bit.ly/3KwUiTz 📱 Connect with Simone! 💼 Website: https://www.thebridgeconcepts.org 📱 Follow us on Social Media: 💼 LinkedIn: /simonewjohnson 💼 Instagram: /theimmigrantexperiencepodcast 💼 TikTok: /theimmigrantexperience 📱 Share your story with us: https://www.thebridgeconcepts.org/podcast.html#share-your-story Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of any employer. Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.

  7. Jun 24 ·  Video

    The Voice Behind the Legends - Machan Taylor

    Before she ever stepped onto the world stage with Pink Floyd, Sting, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, George Benson, Michael Jackson and more, Machan Taylor was a little girl relocated from Japan to suburban America, carrying the lifelong ache of not fully belonging anywhere.   That experience of being wrenched from the life and culture that was familiar to her, growing up in a deeply dysfunctional family, with an American born father who cheated on her native Japanese mother and came home from work each night drunk deeply scarred Machan for decades. She struggled to find her identity, struggled with looking different than everyone around her, wrestled with lasting psychological pain and grieved the loss of a loving childhood she could never reclaim.   Even as she sang on some of the world's biggest stages securing fame and fortune she struggled to find the things that eluded her, happiness, connection, love. Her trauma led to years of self-destructive behaviors and choices, including marriage to a physically and mentally abusive husband. At the peak of her fame so often her life felt hopeless. Like she would always be that little girl who never fit in.   That journey became Naked Out Loud, a memoir with extraordinary music stories at its core, and something much rarer. It is a deeply human conversation about what it means to be Asian American, to navigate life between visibility and invisibility, and to finally tell the truth about the life behind the applause, that trauma affects even people who win personal acclaim.   Machan is a singer, songwriter, educator, and author whose career took her to the highest levels of the music industry. She has lived inside the kind of music history most people only know from album covers and arena lights. But what makes her an exceptional guest is not just the world she moved through. It is the emotional intelligence, honesty, and perspective she brings to everything those experiences meant. Ultimately her story is about finding healing through meditation, practicing Buddhism, guided psychedelics and gaining awareness, finding love and ultimately finding herself and reinventing herself at the age of 60. For your listeners it is a story of hope.   In Naked Out Loud, Machan traces a path from postwar Japan to New Jersey suburbia, to finding her voice on some of the world's biggest stages, all while wrestling with identity, race, trauma, silence, reinvention, and healing. She speaks with unusual grace about the tension between outer success and inner struggle, and about the long process of claiming your own voice after years of hiding behind the mask of performance.

  8. Jun 24

    MaChan Taylor (Episode 222) - Part 3

    The Immigrant Experience in America Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theimmigrantexperience Listen to more episodes on: 💼 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3OK7xCN 💼 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3DKXsiE 💼 Amazon: https://amzn.to/43VG4Cn 📱Support our Patreon: https://bit.ly/3KwUiTz 📱Connect with Simone! 💼 Website: https://www.thebridgeconcepts.org 📱 Follow us on Social Media: 💼 LinkedIn: / simonewjohnson 💼 Instagram: / theimmigrantexperiencepodcast  💼 TikTok: / theimmigrantexperience 📱 Share your story with us: 💼 simone.8.johnson@gmail.com Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS.  Please note: I do not provide immigration legal services or case-specific guidance. My work focuses on cultural adjustment, financial empowerment, and personal growth.

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About

The Immigrant Experience In America Podcast amplifies and humanizes the experiences of immigrants living in The United States of America and around the world. We are building a human library of immigrant stories. Connect with us at thebridgeconcepts.org to add yours to our library. Are you an immigrant, expat, international professional, international student new to the United States (or another country) and struggling to make sense of your new environment? Culture shock and adjustment challenges impact many of approximately 218 million migrants moving across the globe (UN, 2024). Are you feeling misunderstood and out of touch because you are struggling to understand the unstated rules of the new culture? That's what we do each week on The Immigrant Experience in America. Every episode is an in-depth look at adjustment challenges, navigating the pitfalls of immigrant life, and becoming a third culture person. I was inspired to start this podcast by my own experience as an immigrant American who legally migrated to the United States but yet has frequent experiences of a love-hate relationship of America with its immigrant population and as a result of a larger vacuum surrounding the positive contributions of immigrants to American Life. We will sit down with successful immigrant Americans to discuss how they navigated the complexity of being an immigrant-American to achieve their American Dream. This is a spot for us to get real - peel back the layers, if you will, of what it means to be an immigrant living away from their birth country. Our intention is to serve as a bridge from your culture to the American (or other country) culture – giving you a roadmap of tools and language to understand the unstated rules of the new country/culture, wherever you find yourself in the world. Disclaimer: The Immigrant Experience in America podcast is produced in my personal capacity. The views and opinions shared by me and my guests are our own and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. government or USCIS.

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