Why immigrants are doing better

In North America, every metric you look at, whether it’s income, assets, or education, South Asian and East Asian immigrants are, on average, doing much better compared to the local population.

For years now in the US, Indian Americans have the highest income per capita, averaging over six figures. This is followed closely by East Asians. South and East Asians are also rising the ranks in the corporate world, in many cases, becoming CEOs of well-known multinational companies — Jensen Huang, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Lisa Su, you name it.

With the immigration floodgates open and millions of immigrants pouring into Canada and the US every year, things may seem bleak. Competition is getting more fierce for jobs and higher education, and everyone is getting a smaller cut of the cake. There are many reasons why this is happening, but that’s another discussion.

Now, I won’t say that the locals in North America are doomed to be outcompeted by immigrants, but growing up in an Asian immigrant household, some of the things that we were taught from a young age have set us apart, and you can learn a few things from these immigrants to become more successful.

Being able to work hard — Hard work, hard work, hard work. Most people are not blessed with intelligence or creativity, but hard work and conscientiousness can be taught.

A lot of immigrants don’t have that sense of entitlement in them as they come from harsher conditions. Most of them are thankful to be here and are willing to work hard and contribute to society (although that is somewhat changing now in Canada with the recent mass immigration).

Growing up, I had work ethic drilled into my mind. You work towards your goals, be persistent in the face of challenges, and do not give up. You put aside your emotions and work hard.

Too many people here seem to have short attention spans and a huge sense of entitlement/privilege — they think they deserve better things by being a certain race. They easily give up in the face of resistance and retreat to their cocktail of dopamine-fueled substances. Then they wonder why they get easily outworked by immigrants and then complain on the internet that immigration and globalization are unfair.

Although I believe a lot of the immigrants’ obsession with work and performance is toxic, it is what made them more productive and thus more valuable than many of the locals, resulting in higher incomes and social statuses. It is however exploited by the businesses here (e.g., working long hours).

Valuing education — Although I believe the education system has its flaws, education level is one of the most important determinants of social status and success. It may not be the deciding factor to the absolute top, but educated people have higher average success and income.

Many immigrant cultures have education and academic excellence drilled into their children. They encourage their children to study difficult subjects such as STEM (doctor lawyer engineer lol). Although it is not perfect for fostering creativity, it is almost a guarantee to a decent career and a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle (although that is increasingly less likely today with more competition at the entry-level).

Also, pushing everyone to achieve and constantly seeking learning and self-improvement is a good thing for personal development. Education is a more predictable and stable environment for personal growth.

On the other hand, the Western model of allowing individuals to pursue their passions or interests (sometimes, ditching traditional education) is more of a dice roll — some people will figure it out, but most will not, so on average, they do much worse. I talked about this in the past and why this is bad career advice.

Family and community values — Many world cultures value family and community a lot more compared to contemporary Western culture. These people are staying in marriages for the family and children. They make sacrifices for the greater good, help each other, and bring each other up.

This means they are putting in the work and settling the conflicts to keep the family/community together, unlike here where more than 50% of marriages end in divorce, or parents kicking their children out as soon as they turn 18. As a result, you see families here falling apart and children not having proper parental figures, resulting in generational trauma.

In fact, many successful people here are strongly family-oriented. You see businesses getting passed down to the next generations all the time by the wealthy. Look at all these powerful, influential families such as the Rothschilds, Morgans, Waltons, Kochs, and Trumps, where their wealth is passed down through generations. They also collaborate with each other to innovate and build more wealth.

Meanwhile, many here don’t save a dime for their kids and spend everything they have, leaving their children with nothing and having to start from scratch vs. the wealthy where their kids already have a leg up.

However, these affluent are the very same people who encourage the common folks to not do the same, and play a part in tearing apart the family-oriented culture in the West. Why? They don’t want others to copy their model of success and become successful, which threatens their dominance.

Ultimately, humans are social and we work together to achieve greater things. A lot of immigrants value family and community over competition, and make sacrifices for the family and community instead of indulging in themselves like the locals. That's why they do better. And you should start a family too.

Financial literacy — You often hear the joke: “[Chinese / Indian / Jewish] people are cheap!”. Yes, and that is one of the main reasons they come ahead in the West in terms of finances.

Many locals live paycheck to paycheck, while the immigrants save for homes, higher education for their children, or investments. Coming to Canada, my parents saved frugally to fund myself and my siblings to university, and bought houses, while many local kids had to pay their own college tuition and struggled to keep up with rent because their parents never bothered saving for their future. It has made us come ahead. And through generations, it can make a huge difference.

Our capitalist/consumerism culture encourages us to buy the latest everything, seek the next exciting experience, and bombards us with ads and social media influencers. It is easy to fall into that trap and spend everything you have (or even go into debt) to get those things to fit in and “live for the experiences”.

That’s why you see so many locals struggle when they encounter any emergency — They have no savings. A job loss or a health issue can be devastating. Many here cannot afford homes or a college education without going severely into debt. Also, financial literacy is generally not taught in schools here as the elite want to keep people poor and desperate.

You rarely see that problem in most immigrants since they save their money, invest, and strive for financial stability. It may be an artifact of the cultural differences between nomadic cultures (which the Anglo-centric culture stemmed from), and agrarian cultures (which make up much of Asia), but I won’t get into the details here. You can read my financial advice here.

Problems with immigrant communities

Now, as you may already know, not all is rosy and perfect with immigrant communities. Being a minority in a foreign land has its fair share of problems, and I’ve experienced them all.

A lot of immigrants get hung up on their traditions and customs, and as a result, there is a clashing of cultures, especially between older and younger generations of immigrants. Children of immigrants often want to fit into the local culture and abandon their traditions, while older generations want them to conform to their customs. Immigrant children also get mocked and bullied for their differences.

This results in a lot of inter-generational conflicts, as well as identity issues in immigrant children. The general immigrant pressure to succeed also results in a lot of mental health issues and low self-esteem in children.

In many immigrant cultures, there aren’t many individual freedoms. You are expected to follow the traditions/religions, go to school, get a job, get married, have kids, support the family, take care of your parents, and save every dime for future generations until you drop dead. If you try to follow a different life trajectory, you’ll be seen as an outcast. Although it makes for a stable society, people rarely live for themselves, and many suffer in silence.

There is also a lot of racism between different cultures, especially between different immigrant diasporas. With most immigrants coming from culturally homogeneous places around the world, they are not used to living in a multicultural society. As a result, they are generally unaware and intolerant of racial and cultural differences. Especially the older generations, including those in my family, still hold stereotypical and bigoted views of certain races/cultures and treat others as such.

Finally, particularly from countries that had a rough past and were competitive for resources, there is still a notion of being cut-throat and using unethical ways to get ahead within immigrant communities, which includes lying, cheating, and breaking the rules to beat the system. Many here may find that behaviour disgusting, but these aspects are often ingrained in these cultures from their rough pasts.

At the end of the day, there is no perfect culture in the world or a single formula for success. However, we can take the lessons from each culture, good and bad, and use it to our advantage.

We are lucky to be living in a society where multiculturalism is embraced and people of different backgrounds can coexist in harmony. We’ve come a long way from the days of slavery, racial segregation, and forced assimilation.

As much as the North American dream is a lie, its spirit still lives on — as long as you’re willing to work hard and strive for freedom, the door to the top is always open, no matter your race and culture, unlike many other countries in the world. We are still the land of opportunity relative to the rest of the world.