3 ms·

I'm in the same boat as you, but people like us who actually have a career they're confident about are the exception, not the norm. Immigrants start small busi

by tboyd47 10y ago

I'm in the same boat as you, but people like us who actually have a career they're confident about are the exception, not the norm. Immigrants start small businesses all the time without a safety net. Restaurants, smoothie shops, tailors, cell phone stores, contractors, convenience stores, etc. are often small businesses owned by foreigners (anecdotally at least, in my experience). Why do we always say that we need a safety net when we interact with these sorts of businesses all the time? Is it because we have big, amazing careers ahead of us as employees that we can't risk? Or is it just a cultural perception that those occupations are mostly for foreigners?

a3n 10y ago
Non-immigrant with a career: I have benefits and a career, my safety net. Might as well play it safe. Immigrant without a career: I gotta sell something!
soylentcola 10y ago
I have to say, though...when I was younger and taking a "roundabout" route to my career (to put it one way), I was a lot more interested in all sorts of work. Gig work, freelance, starting something small with a friend fixing computers or DJing or whatever. I think at least for me, while there's definitely some appeal in that sort of work, I was more interested when I wasn't making any headway in finding a "jobby job". Basically, I was much more willing to hustle when I didn't have other options but when given the choice between stability and a more self-directed, sink or swim route, I chose the former. That's not to say I won't eventually feel differently. It's just the case for my recent past/present.
yourapostasy 10y ago
> Why do we always say that we need a safety net when we interact with these sorts of businesses all the time? My two hypotheses, purely from personal experience, not at all based upon any valid statistical data. YMMV, freely-given opinions worth what you paid for it, etc. Immigrants likely have not yet grown up in the kind of media-pumped, over-saturated hyper-aware-of-health-factors as developed-nation (especially US) native-born citizens. If this hypothesis is correct, then native-born would have an exaggerated sense of risks, while immigrants have a more proportionate sense tempered by their lives' constraints (making do without what native-born would consider necessary safety nets). Native-born citizens might statistically be unhealthier than immigrants. Immigrants are a self-selecting group who are statistically going to exhibit certain degrees of greater perseverance than the wider population. This perseverance could be a contributing factor in diet choices, a major contributor to the rising poor health outcomes in native-born populations in the US. If so, then the immigrant group might not feel as much pressure to secure the safety net as the native-born population. Most diet choices in the US are unhealthy. Like very poor nutrient:calorie ratios, excessively high portions, or encouraging poor convenience-oriented habits over selecting and preparing whole foods closer to raw than processed. All only possible with the kind of extravagant energy per capita spent in the US that are not generally available in the nations immigrants tend to come from, leading to catastrophic US general population health outcomes.

by tboyd47 10y ago

a3n 10y ago

Non-immigrant with a career: I have benefits and a career, my safety net. Might as well play it safe. Immigrant without a career: I gotta sell something!

soylentcola 10y ago

I have to say, though...when I was younger and taking a "roundabout" route to my career (to put it one way), I was a lot more interested in all sorts of work. Gig work, freelance, starting something small with a friend fixing computers or DJing or whatever. I think at least for me, while there's definitely some appeal in that sort of work, I was more interested when I wasn't making any headway in finding a "jobby job". Basically, I was much more willing to hustle when I didn't have other options but when given the choice between stability and a more self-directed, sink or swim route, I chose the former. That's not to say I won't eventually feel differently. It's just the case for my recent past/present.

yourapostasy 10y ago

> Why do we always say that we need a safety net when we interact with these sorts of businesses all the time? My two hypotheses, purely from personal experience, not at all based upon any valid statistical data. YMMV, freely-given opinions worth what you paid for it, etc. Immigrants likely have not yet grown up in the kind of media-pumped, over-saturated hyper-aware-of-health-factors as developed-nation (especially US) native-born citizens. If this hypothesis is correct, then native-born would have an exaggerated sense of risks, while immigrants have a more proportionate sense tempered by their lives' constraints (making do without what native-born would consider necessary safety nets). Native-born citizens might statistically be unhealthier than immigrants. Immigrants are a self-selecting group who are statistically going to exhibit certain degrees of greater perseverance than the wider population. This perseverance could be a contributing factor in diet choices, a major contributor to the rising poor health outcomes in native-born populations in the US. If so, then the immigrant group might not feel as much pressure to secure the safety net as the native-born population. Most diet choices in the US are unhealthy. Like very poor nutrient:calorie ratios, excessively high portions, or encouraging poor convenience-oriented habits over selecting and preparing whole foods closer to raw than processed. All only possible with the kind of extravagant energy per capita spent in the US that are not generally available in the nations immigrants tend to come from, leading to catastrophic US general population health outcomes.