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South Asians seem proportionally represented more in the higher socioeconomic brackets of the US than in many other countries they immigrate to. Indian and other South Asian Americans earn more than the average American, but even in countries like Britain and Canada, where their socioeconomic status isn't bad, they don't necessarily make more money than average Britons or Canucks. I don't know about the Aussie or Kiwis of South Asian descent.
Plus in plenty of other places they immigrated to, they came as laborers (which were talked about before in some of my threads) such as Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Persian Gulf countries like the UAE, so they are not at all like the Silicon valley IT workers of American perception.
I have heard one explanation being that Americans are more selective about which immigrants they take in general, so the richest/most educated ones immigrant to the US and the rest to other countries. But the contrast seems so large for South Asian Americans, in particular compared to many immigrants, even compared to those who are British or Canadians. You see more South Asians doing working class jobs in London or Vancouver than in New Jersey.
Well you can't really compare the early immigrants to those places - don't forget Malaysia and Singapore too - who came as labourers and were often brought by the British as labour to modern day skilled immigrants to the US.
Maybe it's because the US is far away, and many who go there do so for educational reasons and represent the wealthiest of Indians? Obviously the average Indian isn't going to afford to send their child to Harvard or even an average college in the States.
In Australia, South Asian immigration seems more varied, while there are many professionals, there seem to be those on lower income, many work in service stations and convenience stores. In Singapore, too, Indians actually are as well off as any (Singaporean Indians). You will see many South Asian labourers but they are usually foreign workers.
Asians in general are pretty well off in the US. There was some census data, I don't have the link anymore, but it ranked combined total incomes in the US by race.
Success in most cases is attained by effort and determination. BOTH traits are culturally driven (i.e., the immediate, household, and to some degree, the community environment). If you knew some of these people personally, you'd understand how this works.
Canadian culture is more success oriented then the current American culture - even in old native established Anglo Canadians (Newfies excluded). As for Britain, bloodlines are used frequently to decide who gets where - has always been that way.
You guys don't have much of a clue as to why this "phenomenon" takes place. I am an East Indian and I can tell you why.
Our whole existence depends upon getting grades- be it by rote learning or by getting beaten. A five year olf boy in any corner of India knows that one day he will have to compete for Engineering. There's a running joke here: In India we become Engineers first and then figure out what we want to do with our lives. It is a status symbol, matched only by medicine(like you guys have medicine and law).
A guy with an engineering degree will get a beautiful wife(though lately the ratio is pretty much the same-women also become engineers). Then they want to immigrate. Get a green card someday. And the cycle goes on and on and on.
There is a bit of everything from philosophy to sociology to moral ethics involved here. You have to go much deeper into psychology for example. Indians are Asians and thus have a collective mindset. It is all about the family. All about the mother and the father. No one lives for themselves...they live for mothers and fathers and ultimately their children. Western mindset is individualistic. No need to explain it to you folks.
I myself was an odd ball in India and felt completely at home in the west. I immersed myself in the culture and felt like I belonged there(for good and bad reasons).
So when someone says..They're so hardworking and intelligent I think "Is it all that black and blue"?
The reason the west conquered science and art is because of the individualistic trait which leads to a realization of the self and creativity. But like any coin with two sides there are positive and negative to everything.
You guys don't have much of a clue as to why this "phenomenon" takes place. I am an East Indian and I can tell you why.
Our whole existence depends upon getting grades- be it by rote learning or by getting beaten. A five year olf boy in any corner of India knows that one day he will have to compete for Engineering. There's a running joke here: In India we become Engineers first and then figure out what we want to do with our lives. It is a status symbol, matched only by medicine(like you guys have medicine and law).
This is true to some extent. However, it still doesn't answer the OP's question - Why do South Asian immigrants to AMERICA do so much better financially compared with South Asian immigrants to other developed countries.
My answer to this is that for people who have high educational attainment levels regardless of their racial/ethnic backgrounds, there is much more upside earning potential in the United States compared with other nations.
If you're a doctor, engineer or university professor in the United States, then you will pretty much automatically be in the top 15% of household income earners (even the top 5% is very common). It is the ticket to the upper-middle class.
This is probably not so much the case in other developed countries.
This is true to some extent. However, it still doesn't answer the OP's question - Why do South Asian immigrants to AMERICA do so much better financially compared with South Asian immigrants to other developed countries.
My answer to this is that for people who have high educational attainment levels regardless of their racial/ethnic backgrounds, there is much more upside earning potential in the United States compared with other nations.
If you're a doctor, engineer or university professor in the United States, then you will pretty much automatically be in the top 15% of household income earners (even the top 5% is very common). It is the ticket to the upper-middle class.
This is probably not so much the case in other developed countries.
What other countries are you including?
They do great in Canada where I lived for two years. They do pretty well in England and Australia. As in the profession they represent-usually medicine and engineering- are pretty high paying regardless of who you are.
What you are saying is: Are doctors/engineers/University professors better payed in America than say in Canada or Europe. And that includes anyone-even locals. For that I think you'd have to look at surveys and such.
However, I also know that many Indians and indeed even Asians who get the Canadian PR eventually move over to America. Which is ironic because I met many local Caucasian folks from America who were in the process of becoming Canadians.
Like Postman said, it's because India is so far from the US that not just any Indians can come here. They have to be well-educated, skilled, and at least somewhat well-off. If India were located where Mexico is, I guarantee you that poor, uneducated Indians would dominate the Indian-American population. Let's not forget that India is still a very poor country
Like Postman said, it's because India is so far from the US that not just any Indians can come here. They have to be well-educated, skilled, and at least somewhat well-off. If India were located where Mexico is, I guarantee you that poor, uneducated Indians would dominate the Indian-American population. Let's not forget that India is still a very poor country
Yes...I also wonder just how much different the US is...are Indians really that much more represented in the higher brackets? I guess here while it doesn't seem really poor Indians migrate, it does seem a fair number are non-professionals, unskilled. Isn't there the same stereotype about Indians working at 7-11's there? It does seem to be true in many places though lol.
Yes...I also wonder just how much different the US is...are Indians really that much more represented in the higher brackets? I guess here while it doesn't seem really poor Indians migrate, it does seem a fair number are non-professionals, unskilled. Isn't there the same stereotype about Indians working at 7-11's there? It does seem to be true in many places though lol.
well yeah, they're non-professionals abroad, but they were probably at least somewhat well-off by Indian standards. The poor Indians usually wont have the opportunity to move abroad. And this doesn't just apply to India, this goes for any country that requires a plane ride to the US. You're not gonna get the poor people or even just regular folks from those countries emigrating, unless they're refugees. On the other hand, countries that are close to the US, like Mexico & Central America, do have a lot of poor emigrants.
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