Great Immigrant: David Byrne

David Byrne immigrated to Maryland from Scotland with his family when he was eight years old. His parents first moved to Canada to find greater acceptance of their “mixed marriage” — Byrne’s father was Catholic and his mother was Presbyterian. “I felt like a bit of an outsider,” Byrne has recalled about first arriving in America. “But then I realized the world was made up of people who were all different. But we’re all here.”

Growing up in a family that loved music, Byrne learned to play the guitar, the accordion, and the violin. He formed the legendary rock band, Talking Heads, in 1975 with Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, later joined by Jerry Harrison.

As a musician, record producer, contemporary artist, and filmmaker, Byrne has been recognized with a Grammy, Tony, Golden Globe, and Academy Award. His solo album American Utopia (2018) was adapted into a Broadway musical and a film directed by Spike Lee.

“I have the ability to step back and look at myself and the world I live in with kind of dispassionate eyes,” says Byrne. “A lot of that came from my experience as an immigrant – of having just a little bit of distance, so I could ask the questions: How do people relate to one another? What do they do? Why do they do things that way?”

A long-time green card holder, Byrne became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2012 so that he could vote, and has since been active in voter registration efforts, even putting a voter registration booth at each performance of American Utopia. For Byrne, American utopia is “about the kind of deep yearning that people have for something better than whatever their current situation is, and a kind of hope that such a thing is possible.”

Every Fourth of July, Carnegie Corporation of New York celebrates the exemplary contributions of immigrants to American life, as part of its focus on reducing political polarization and strengthening democracy. To highlight their stories, the foundation has commissioned a new comic series that illustrates how naturalized citizens enrich American society.

Download David Byrne’s full comic here.

Why did Byrne become an American citizen? Learn more in the animation below, available on YouTube.

* 7.4 million immigrants are eligible for naturalization. (Source: New Americans in the United States, American Immigration Council, 2025)

Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill lead Jongsma + O’Neill, a nonfiction storytelling studio. They are Sundance fellows, Emmy nominees, and the creators of the immersive exhibition Loot. 10 Stories, which won the 2024 XR-History Award. 

Chuan Ming Ong is a Dutch illustrator whose illustrations have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and Nikkei Asia.