The United States has been one of the richest countries since the Second World War and it is a reference for many things. It exports culture and technology for all world and many people follow their way of life. Because of this a lot of people have been immigrating to this country hoping to find prosperity. The USA has a low rate of unemployment and many people have an opportunity to find a job and, sometimes, to make money. However, immigration is more complicated than we think; there are many features that interfere in this process, such as language and culture.
Some people migrate to the USA seeking for a better life; however, when they arrive in this country they find another reality. There are difficulties with the language and, like in every country, it is hard to find a good job or even occupy a similar work position that you had had in your own country; in consequence, people accept any kind of job. The salary would probably be better than in many countries for a similar position and this allows people to have more resources, for instance a better house, a car, technology and travel.
Nevertheless, these facilities don’t mean prosperity. Prosperity doesn’t mean only to be wealthy or rich, but, in addition, it means to have success, to improve in your career and your life. So, you left your life in your native country to immigrate to another country and, especially if you have difficulties with the language and don’t have money to improve this skill, you need to accept any job. It doesn’t matter what you need to do, you only accept the job, and many times this job doesn’t give you any prestige. Besides, you can be discriminated about the type of job you are engaged in and sometimes you can even be discriminated for your ethnical background.
In my opinion, immigrating to the USA can have positive or negative results. If you have good language skills and an academic background you can occupy a good position and be prosperous, even though is hard to achieve it. However, if you don’t have good language skills you can make more money than in your native country, but it is very hard to be prosperous or respected.
Again, Ricardo, there are certain details in which I can not agree with.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it is quite true (as you say) that the USA export a lot of technology all over the world; but, are you sure that they export "culture"? If we omit the culture of the indian people from north America, you will realise that the USA are one of the countries with the poorest level of culture in the world just because they are a very young country (discovered in 1492). Something similar happens with the New Zealand culture if we leave out the Maoris. In this case the culture is even younger if we considered that the land was discovered/conquered by Captain James Cook in 1769.
And one more thing; from my perspective, the definition you have given about "prosperity" needs qualifying. For me, "prosperity" means to fulfill someone's purposes acording to his aims in life. To put it simply, to me, to be prosper is quite similar to be successful (I think they are synonyms). The problem is that now we are entering in the conflict of what success means, and I'm afraid that it is another topic.