After 250 years the American Dream is surviving, but only just

After 250 years the American Dream is surviving, but only just

Sixteen years ago, Abdi Nor Iftin was a Somali refugee living in one of the roughest slums in Kenya when he found out he had won the lottery of a lifetime. Out of nearly eight million applicants in 2013, he had been one of the lucky 50,000 granted a US visa through a scheme known as the diversity visa scheme that the US government had begun in the 1990s.

Abdi had long dreamt of moving to America. He was so obsessed, his childhood friends even nicknamed him "Abdi America" after he learnt to speak English by watching Hollywood movies. "My whole life I have been in love with America - the best country in the world, the dreamland, the land of opportunity," he told the BBC in 2014.

That year, Abdi, now 41, arrived in the US, settled in a small town in Maine, got a job installing insulation and became a US citizen. But now, his hopes have run up against reality. He lost his job at a refugee resettlement agency this year, and consequently his health insurance.

On the eve of the United States' 250th birthday, Abdi, like many Americans, is feeling uneasy about the future of his country.

"I feel like the American Dream is alive, but not well," he told me.

Meanwhile, Luke Mullen, a 24-year-old actor from California, told me he's planning on moving to Canada because of a lack of film opportunities in Hollywood, of all places.

"Wealth is getting consolidated in this country and as that happens, the opportunities are dwindling," he said.

Survey after survey taken ahead of the 250th anniversary of America's founding shows many Americans feel the "American Dream"- the promise that anyone in the United States can create a bright future for themselves - is fading.

One part of The Global Story's landmark podcast series exploring 250 years of the United States

A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC found that only a third of the public believes the American Dream still exists. The sentiment is the same across many surveys. One recent study from the Pew Research Center, shows that most Americans say the country's best days are behind it.

America's 250th birthday also comes at a moment of deep polarisation and partisan divide.

So what does it mean if the Dream - a brand exported around the world in movies, music and pop culture - feels out of reach?

In those early days after the Revolutionary War and well into the 21st Century, what became known as the Dream enticed millions of immigrants to this shiny new nation full of hope, optimism and individualism. Factory workers, farmers, gold diggers, f