Musk emigrated to Canada while Apartheid was still in place in South Africa, while calling him an African immigrant isn’t completely technically incorrect it is quite far from what circumstances most people would imagine that phrasing to mean.
It really can't get any more black and white than that. The fact of the matter is, in an atmosphere of reduced enrollment by foreign students, we would have less chances of an Elon Musk type person.
Whilst before 2016 it was growing, since 2016 enrollment by international students in universities has been declined. I'm sure you know Musk came to the US for college. Trump administration of course blames "higher costs"...funny given the global economic boom, everyone has more money and the survey says about 50% of Chinese and Indians cites the political climate "would prevent them from applying to a U.S. business school."
https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/11/18...
He's quoted as saying...
"I would have come here from any country," he says. "The U.S. is where great things are possible."
If that's not pursuing the American Dream...then I don't know what is.
https://www.inc.com/magazine/20071201/entrepreneur-of-the-ye...
He turned out to be a complete asshole so that doesn't matter. Him siding with white nationalists, the whole pill thing... No, he better go back to Africa with his billions, go fix the world from there.
He came from privilege and wealth from colonial South Africa to Canada. Bit of a stretch to paint his story as an "African immigrant moving to the US to pursue the American Dream."