A lot of these immigrants have had excellent eduction and often pretty high level jobs. The old Soviet Union was pretty big on eduction, especially science and

A lot of these immigrants have had excellent eduction and often pretty high level jobs. The old Soviet Union was pretty big on eduction, especially science and math. So theoretically it's not that big of a step to take, from being a mathematician to a programmer. Reality says otherwise, though. I have two friends who came to The Netherlands during the Balkan war in the early 90's. He used to be a math professor, she used to be a surgeon. Nowadays, he's cutting marble for tombstones, she works at the HR department. Quite the step back, although they have no regrets coming here.