If you grew up with poor immigrant parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm west Indian and this is something I've always wondered. Immigrants from Africa, Middle Eastern, Asian push college especially STEM for their children.

When it comes to women studying stem it's mainly the women from countries that dont have much opportunities for women. Think arab, african, middle east, indian except latin america.

There was even a study showing that the less opportunities a girl has the more she is likely to study STEM except for Latin American women. I would like to know the history of education in Latin American nations to understand this. Even Chile which is a homogenous nation and is nowhere near the top at education.

My friend is a professor and he told me that Latin American parents tend to push labour but college will always be seen a superior in this nation.

I've wondered about this.

I’m Hispanic and do not understand your diatribe.

One female cousin is a physician and another a microbiologist. My aunt a pharmacist. Another aunt was a nurse. My cousin’s daughter is pursuing a graduate physics degree from a top university.

No, we didn’t all go into sciences. There are a few educators and a few who went into policy / law. All female.

There are plenty of women who go into scientific fields in Latin America. Your example - Chile - actually had a female president (before the U.S. of course) who was a physician.

Exceptions do not make the rule. African Americans and Hispanics are extremely under representatives
I’m the stem. Please stop playing willfully obtuse and getting offended by facts. I say this as someone who is African American.

I really have pondered about this topic, sincerely.

DP here. This might be shocking to you but Latin American countries are full of engineers, scientists, doctors, etc…

Dp. Who is talking about Latin American countries? Immigrants who had a prestigious title back in their country have blue collar titles in the US.

No, wrong. Educated, well-off Latin-Americans tend to stay in their countries. It’s the poor, uneducated and oftentimes illiterate Latinos that come to the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents were poor asian immigrants. Their biggest priority in life was getting me and my siblings set up with an excellent education. That meant renting a small apartment in a good neighborhood, no vacations, no restaurant outings, no summer camps, owning a beat up car, and my dad working 3 jobs to make ends meet.

They succeeded in their main goal- I am very successful and so are my siblings. And many immigrant families I know have a similar story. It does make me wonder about Americans with no language barrier-- why don't they, either white or black, seem to work hard to make it? It is possible, clearly, as so many immigrants do it.

It starts with the parents and their ambition to strive for themselves and their kids. It's no wonder why over 50% of asians have bachelor's degree. It's the highest of the races.

Whoa, whoa whoa here Nellies. I'm a SE Asian immigrant. Dirt poor upbringing. Neither of my parents went to college. And I went to an elite college and have a nice life now with zero help from my folks, who are well-meaning but kind of ignorant. I am the exception and a beneficiary of the model minority myth, always having teachers assume that I'm smart and pushing me into GT classes because of the way I look. "Asian-American" is a giant catch all that means almost nothing. Over 50% of Asians have bachelor's degrees because of the racist laws governing how many Asians were allowed into this country limited free migration for many many years. Only educated East and South Asians were allowed in, skewing the number and giving rise to the model minority myth. SE Asians, especially refugees like myself, were only let in starting about 50 years ago.

It is NOT possible for many of my Black friends because of severe institutional racism in this country going back to 1619. There are a million laws and norms that prevent upward mobility in a way that Asians these days don't experience.

Jay Kaspian Kang, an Asian-American journalist, has written many thoughtful pieces about being Asian in America. You should check him out and check your assumptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents were poor asian immigrants. Their biggest priority in life was getting me and my siblings set up with an excellent education. That meant renting a small apartment in a good neighborhood, no vacations, no restaurant outings, no summer camps, owning a beat up car, and my dad working 3 jobs to make ends meet.

They succeeded in their main goal- I am very successful and so are my siblings. And many immigrant families I know have a similar story. It does make me wonder about Americans with no language barrier-- why don't they, either white or black, seem to work hard to make it? It is possible, clearly, as so many immigrants do it.

It starts with the parents and their ambition to strive for themselves and their kids. It's no wonder why over 50% of asians have bachelor's degree. It's the highest of the races.

Whoa, whoa whoa here Nellies. I'm a SE Asian immigrant. Dirt poor upbringing. Neither of my parents went to college. And I went to an elite college and have a nice life now with zero help from my folks, who are well-meaning but kind of ignorant. I am the exception and a beneficiary of the model minority myth, always having teachers assume that I'm smart and pushing me into GT classes because of the way I look. "Asian-American" is a giant catch all that means almost nothing. Over 50% of Asians have bachelor's degrees because of the racist laws governing how many Asians were allowed into this country limited free migration for many many years. Only educated East and South Asians were allowed in, skewing the number and giving rise to the model minority myth. SE Asians, especially refugees like myself, were only let in starting about 50 years ago.

It is NOT possible for many of my Black friends because of severe institutional racism in this country going back to 1619. There are a million laws and norms that prevent upward mobility in a way that Asians these days don't experience.

Jay Kaspian Kang, an Asian-American journalist, has written many thoughtful pieces about being Asian in America. You should check him out and check your assumptions.

Spot on. Thank you for pointing this out! Because people of Asian descent make up such a small percentage of the American population, people just assume that Asian-Americans are a monolith when we are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a first generation Taiwanese-American who never spoke English in the home. I was a toddler when we came and my brother was born soon after our arrival. By American standards, my parents earned lower middle class incomes and never lost their accents. Our finances were tight enough that my brother and I earned/paid the entire family contributions for our college financial aid packages. But, our parents attended the top college in Taiwan where they studied social sciences. We didn't own very many books but we went to the public library as often as the grocery store. Our family vacations were road trips and we only stayed at crappy roadside motels, but we visited almost every state in the lower 48. They invited nearly everyone they met to dinner at our little house from my elementary school custodian to my college advisor and hundreds of random strangers and that taught us to treat every guest with the same high respect and appreciation. My parents never pushed us towards STEM or any particular occupation or to make money because they believed we should do what excited us. When I got into skateboarding, my dad snuck into an empty pool to see my tricks. And my mom would listen to my brother's favorite albums just to learn about what he liked. Grades didn't matter nearly as much as our intellectual curiosity, kindness, character and social well-being. I doubt that they'd have been wealthier back in Taiwan but they certainly would have had higher social status. We received little in the way of material advantages, but they cultivated an openness to new experiences and ideas and an appreciation for the great diversity of America. I think those attitudes from our upbringing were instrumental in our academic and career success. My sibling and I are trying to give our kids the kind of upbringing we had and we have wondered whether the advantages we have now makes it harder.

This both really resonates and contrasts with my experience -- also first generation Asian American with a similar frugal, library-filled upbringing, except (1) my family cared about grades and pushed us to "do what we love as long as it's in STEM (high paying/stable)", (2) parents made it to UMC in our teens and could afford to send my sister and me to HYP undergrad + grad schools, and (3) my dad in particular was not a particularly kind, social or open person to those outside our family -- I think being an immigrant with language struggles made him a bit paranoid, even though he absolutely prefers living in America.

While my sister and I are both outwardly well educated and financially successful adults, we have a lot of mental health / career / existential issues from our upbringing that we're still working through (and is partly what leads me to read DCUM forums like this even though I don't think it's very healthy for me ). Luckily DH's upbringing was more like yours and we're hoping to build stronger, healthier values for our own little family.

It's impressive that your dad struggled with the language but yet made it to umc in your teens. What was your parents occupations?

Not PP, but my 7th grade educated parents were pretty well off by the time I was in my late teens by owning a small restaurant. They were both very cheap and very shrewd investors.

Funny you mention preferring living in America. I think it is the opposite for my parents -- they viewed living in America as a necessary evil to get them economic opportunity. They very much would have preferred to stay in their home country, but felt that they had no viable path to prosperity there. They are now retired and spend most of their time in the US, but only because their children, grandchildren, and investments that require management are here.