Ten reasons not to move to the USA
'07.05.2021'
Source: Lifehacker
Author of the Telegram channel "Over the hill" especially for Life hacker wrote about the difficulties to be faced when moving to the States and what is the price to overcome them.
ForumDaily publishes a shortened version of the text.
I get questions every day from my readers Telegram channel, the main one of which sounds uncomplicated: “So is it worth moving or not?”. On the other hand, I was familiar with hundreds of American immigrants, followed their fates and made several conclusions. I will try to answer the first based on the experience of the second.
Everyone experiences immigration in a different way: one moves easily and causes methamphetamine euphoria, the other turns into the tragedy of a lifetime. The difficulty of immigration for a particular person is determined by objective parameters: knowledge of the English language, the presence of a demanded specialty, financial possibilities and available legalization options.
This article is 10 reasons why you should not move to the United States.
1. Immigrant complex
The immigrant complex is a feeling of being inferior to the local population, which affects self-esteem, performance and even health. The complex develops against the background of comparing oneself with the environment: they know the language, I don't; they have documents, I do not; they have a good job, I have not; they buy a house - I rent a room.
Not every immigrant faces this complex, but the one who encounters, is experiencing hard, and many describe it as the most difficult period in life.
The weaker the immigrant's position in four parameters (English, money, specialty, legalization), the higher the likelihood of an inferiority complex. Ailment is not terrible for the reasons for its occurrence (language can be learned, documents to be received, work to be found, and to earn money at home), but by what leads to loss of dignity and faith in one's strength, which practically deprives a person of chances for success.
2. Social Downshifting
If the bank account does not please the eye with an 6-digit number, and the specialty does not imply a working invitation to the USA, the first time will have to work hard and not always to work honorably.
In the US, the high cost of living, which means you can pass on the savings of two generations in a few months. Because you do not want to spend an emergency reserve, consecrated by a great-grandmother, but you have to live somehow, you have to go to work - and not always the first job turns out to be overly intellectual.
Professionals whose owners rarely fall into the plot are popular among visitors without money and language. Forbes: handyman, builder, waiter, cleaning lady, nanny, hostess, porter, taxi driver and security guard. Many of them have already managed to achieve something in their homeland - let it be through acquaintances, luck or entrepreneurial abilities - but they already occupied a certain social level, which they now have to say goodbye, moving to the bottom of American society. Not everyone can handle it.
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3. Stress level
Stress is a natural reaction of the body to problems, and in limited quantities it is even useful, as it helps mobilize. However, the stress faced by the immigrant is several times greater than the usual working or academic stress.
The difficulties of finding a job, adapting, renting a home (which they don’t rush to give up due to lack of credit history), opening accounts, obtaining insurance and surviving in a new environment can lead to a level of experience that is dangerous from a clinical point of view. I have repeatedly seen immigrants who fell down with their feet with temperature and other somatic manifestations of stress, simply because they could not cope with emotions.
Such a “novice’s stress” has a double destructive force: it is not only unpleasant in itself (like any superstrong stress), but also catches a person at the most crucial moment when he should be positive and energetic. As a result, instead of a constructive and progressive solution to the problems of relocation, a person closes himself and struggles with an illness that often takes the form of depression.
4. Happiness level
I read every year Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse Research Institute. The 2017 report for the year shows that North America accounts for almost half of the world's wealth.
But does this mean that Americans and local immigrants live happier than everyone else? Optional: the level of well-being expressed by wealth should be reduced by the level of stress and other social problems bundled with material wealth.
The rise in the standard of living, which is usually accompanied by a move to the United States (unless an immigrant leaves Switzerland or Denmark, which, you see, is a very rare scenario), does not always compensate for the increase in stress levels. Since happiness is a subjective matter, depending on many factors, a person can evaluate it only after the fact. Many immigrants after a while notice that there was more joy in their lives before moving. So is this the main thing?
5. Social integration and language
Language is not only a way of communication, but also a basic component of personality: if you cannot speak freely, you become a dull version of yourself. More recently, at a party, you could generate a joke in a split second, causing location to the entire company, and now you have to express yourself at the intellectual level of a three-year-old child and with the promptness of a hundred-year-old turtle.
Ignorance of the English language deprives you of the possibility of full social integration. The old Maslow will not let you lie: once you are full, healthy and protected, you need love and recognition that are difficult to find in a new country.
6. Difficulties of legalization
Immigration opportunities are different for everyone: someone wins the lottery, someone gets an invitation to work (and an immigration visa), someone joins a relative who has already become a US citizen. It is much harder for those who are starting legalization in the United States. The possibilities of such people are limited, and they, as a rule, are forced to seek a partner for marriage, to seek political asylum or - it is terrible to speak out loud, but I am forced to remain in the US illegally.
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Such people stay in limbo for a long time: for some, the process of obtaining documents takes 10 years. At the same time, there are no guarantees of a positive decision, and in case of refusal the applicant is forced to return to his home country, although over the years he has already managed to settle in a new place. This can not be called anything other than tragedy: a person loses the most valuable and limited resource - years of life.
7. Retraining costs
I know several universal professions all over the world: programmer, prostitute, chef, taxi driver, waiter. But what should doctors, lawyers and engineers do, whose skills and abilities are tied to a specific country, laws, norms, techniques and language?
They have a long and not always cheap retraining process. He will be lucky if he confines himself to testing and obtaining a license, but some specialists will have to go through the whole process of learning and master a whole layer of new knowledge.
8. Immigrant handicap
The life of an adult is not only study, work, family and leisure, but also a huge amount of “metadata”: our connections, acquaintances, convenient ways of solving typical problems and habits. A person begins to acquire connections in school, continues at the university, and finally forms an environment when entering into adulthood.
An immigrant, unless he arrives on the soil prepared by his relatives, is forced to look for contacts again.
Which clinic is better to contact? In which area to rent a house? Where to find a good lawyer and realtor? In part, these problems are solved by the Internet and social networks, but, losing a huge array of “metadata”, a person in any case feels less protected.
9. Contradictions and Security
With the seeming well-being of the United States, a country full of contradictions and conflicts: 325 of millions of people share the same territory, but different political beliefs, religious beliefs, cultural background, color and ethnic origin. And while American society, built on the principles of respect and tolerance, digests most of the problems, some still crawl out, including in the form of crime and terrorist acts.
The problem of massacres in America is exaggerated by the effect of the media multiplier, but it still exists. According to the statistics of murders in terms of population, we occupy a place near Albania, the Niger and Turkmenistan.
This is not to say that it is dangerous in the USA. But it can be said that in the USA it is not safe.
10. Homesickness
If you do not appreciate your homeland, and you only read books about nostalgic feelings, the best way to experience both the first and second is to become an immigrant. The longing comes at different times, but most people sooner or later it still happens.
Homeland is not only a territorial unit on the world map and a record in the birth certificate, but also a whole complex of sociocultural experiences: people, sounds, smells, places, events, culture, customs, holidays, memories, humor, cuisine, love, fear, taxi drivers, ice, first sex.
Most of the significant events in your life — bad or good — are most likely related to your homeland.
Many Russians, after moving to America, deny involvement in culture and the presence of a Russian matrix, but this does not prevent the Russian matrix from remaining in them and from time to time giving a voice in the form of bouts of light nostalgia.
