Lauding the spirit of America, President Barack Obama has said his country recognised no caste system and it was a land where immigrants had not only found space but also made their way to the top on sheer hard work.
"There's no caste system in the United States of America. Anybody who is willing to make the effort can succeed," Obama said at the Democratic party fund raiser at the residence of eminent Indian American couple, Rajeev and Seema Sharma, in Rockville Maryland.
Guests paid the maximum of USD 30,400 a ticket for the dinner with Obama and the event raised USD 400,000.
In his welcome address, which unexpectedly set the tone of the fund raising dinner for election to immigration issues, Rajeev Sharma narrated the story of his parents and in-laws who had migrated to the US from India.
"They worked hard, became Americans... And now they're meeting the leader of the free world at the home of their children," Sharma said.
Obama's father was from Kenya.
"Most of us here came from someplace else -- or our parents came from someplace else, or our grandparents, our great grandparents came from someplace else. And they were inspired by a particular idea, this idea of America," he said.
"It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Obama said.
"... if you were willing to make the effort, if you're willing to apply the energy that your parents applied when they came here, if you were willing to make sacrifices for the
future and not just think about short-term gain, that somehow it would be possible for you to achieve dreams that someplace else you might never imagine possible," Obama said.