Arnold Schwarzenegger: If you are an immigrant ‘you have to behave like a guest’
The actor and former Republican governor of California said on The View that immigrants have a responsibility to give back to the United States what the country has given them.
Arnold Schwarzenegger during an event in Vienna.
This Tuesday Arnold Schwarzenegger was a guest on The View to promote the second season of his Fubar series on Netflix. During the interview, the actor and former Republican governor of California was asked to give his take on current events, especially being an immigrant who went on to have a great career in Hollywood and who became the governor of one of the most important states in the country.
Joy Behar, one of the hosts, asked the actor, "You're an immigrant in this country. Did you have a visceral reaction to what they're doing, what ICE is doing when you see the videos of it?"
"Well, I tell you, as you said an immigrant, I'm so proud and happy to have been welcomed by the American people like that. I mean, imagine coming here at the age of 21 with absolutely nothing, and then creating a career like that. I mean, in no other country in the world can you do that. Everything, whether it's my career as a bodybuilder, as an actor, becoming governor, the beautiful family I've created, it's all because America is strong," said the actor, who became a U.S. citizen in 1983.
Schwarzenegger, who was a Republican but endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, went on to say that foreigners have to be smart and not do illegal things:
"The important thing is also that at the same time we have to do things legally. That is the important thing. And those people who are doing illegal things in the United States, and they are foreigners, they are not smart, because when you come to the United States, you are a guest, and you have to behave like a guest."
According to Schwarzenegger, the important thing about being an immigrant is to think about the opportunities that the United States offers in education, work, and in creating a family.
The actor went on to say that immigrants also have to do something positive for the community:
"As an immigrant, you have a responsibility to give back to America what it has given you and to do something for your community, without any financial effort, whether it's an after-school program, the Special Olympics or whatever else you're specializing in."
Schwarzenegger, from immigrant to governor of California
"America was as great as I had always dreamed it would be while growing up in rural Austria," Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote in his autobiography Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story.
In the U.S., Schwarzenegger won seven Mister Olympia titles, starred in iconic films such as Terminator, Predator and Total Recall, and was governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
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