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There might be some hard to account for factors. Many immigrants end up in worse jobs than they had in their home countries. Some doctors end up driving cabs

by TimPC 7y ago

There might be some hard to account for factors. Many immigrants end up in worse jobs than they had in their home countries. Some doctors end up driving cabs for instance. If your parent is a doctor with the income of a cab driver I'd expect you to have more upward mobility than if your parent is a cab driver with the income of a cab driver.

icsllaf 7y ago
Also, there's a factor of where the people live. Someone who is a cab driver in Los Angeles might be making the same money as someone who is a mechanic in Nebraska. But the possibility of upwards mobility and higher education in Los Angeles is much higher than that of rural areas. Most immigrants move to large metropolitan areas than the countryside.
- sjg007 7y ago
  We know that some metro regions have greater upward economic mobility for sure. I think the Bay area has the highest mobility.
glofish 7y ago
While anecdata can be useful in general, in this particular case I have a hard time believing that the case you describe: working in a worse job than your home country, is informative or representative. There is a wisdom of crowds at work, especially when it comes to huge decisions such as immigration - no country offering worse prospects is ever the target of large scale immigration.
- tmcb 7y ago
  That specific case may seem too radical, but there is some logic in moving to a different country with less promising job prospects if, say, your home country is ravaged by war or by systemic violence. Also, citizens of countries with fickle economies and high inflation could benefit from having an income in a more stable currency, especially if they are breadwinners for their extended family, in which case they send back money they earn abroad.
- d1zzy 7y ago
  > While anecdata can be useful in general, in this particular case I have a hard time believing that the case you describe: working in a worse job than your home country, is informative or representative. Does being a homemaker as a result of moving countries count as "worse job"? Maybe I'm living in a bubble but I know many couples where one spouse got a job in another country and the other became a homemaker (most common) or got a worse job. There as a huge amount of skill sets that do not transit well across countries/cultures/continents. So much that I'd argue it is the exception when your skill set transitions well (such as computers, sciences). Yes, it is possible for those persons to invest time and money (go to college, form new network, learn the language and culture) to eventually get back to their original career but by the time they manage to get there they already lost years of their career so automatically they are behind when compared to others of the same age and talent in the same career or if they wouldn't have changed countries. And to be honest, people are only getting older, not younger, so having to start from scratch when the best outlook for that is being able to be were you ware X years ago in your country is not a very attractive proposition. Combined with the SO who moved for the job earning enough for both it results in a lot of homemakers.

by TimPC 7y ago

icsllaf 7y ago

Also, there's a factor of where the people live. Someone who is a cab driver in Los Angeles might be making the same money as someone who is a mechanic in Nebraska. But the possibility of upwards mobility and higher education in Los Angeles is much higher than that of rural areas. Most immigrants move to large metropolitan areas than the countryside.

sjg007 7y ago
We know that some metro regions have greater upward economic mobility for sure. I think the Bay area has the highest mobility.

glofish 7y ago

While anecdata can be useful in general, in this particular case I have a hard time believing that the case you describe: working in a worse job than your home country, is informative or representative. There is a wisdom of crowds at work, especially when it comes to huge decisions such as immigration - no country offering worse prospects is ever the target of large scale immigration.

tmcb 7y ago
That specific case may seem too radical, but there is some logic in moving to a different country with less promising job prospects if, say, your home country is ravaged by war or by systemic violence. Also, citizens of countries with fickle economies and high inflation could benefit from having an income in a more stable currency, especially if they are breadwinners for their extended family, in which case they send back money they earn abroad.
d1zzy 7y ago
> While anecdata can be useful in general, in this particular case I have a hard time believing that the case you describe: working in a worse job than your home country, is informative or representative. Does being a homemaker as a result of moving countries count as "worse job"? Maybe I'm living in a bubble but I know many couples where one spouse got a job in another country and the other became a homemaker (most common) or got a worse job. There as a huge amount of skill sets that do not transit well across countries/cultures/continents. So much that I'd argue it is the exception when your skill set transitions well (such as computers, sciences). Yes, it is possible for those persons to invest time and money (go to college, form new network, learn the language and culture) to eventually get back to their original career but by the time they manage to get there they already lost years of their career so automatically they are behind when compared to others of the same age and talent in the same career or if they wouldn't have changed countries. And to be honest, people are only getting older, not younger, so having to start from scratch when the best outlook for that is being able to be were you ware X years ago in your country is not a very attractive proposition. Combined with the SO who moved for the job earning enough for both it results in a lot of homemakers.