10 reasons not to move to the USA

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The author of the Telegram channel "Behind the Bugrom" wrote especially for Lifehacker about the difficulties he will have to face when moving to the States and what is the cost of overcoming them.

Every day I receive questions from the readers of my Telegram channel, the main one of which sounds simple: "So is it worth moving or not?" On the other hand, I became familiar with hundreds of American immigrants, followed their fates and made several conclusions. I will try to answer the first on the basis of the experience of the second.

Everyone experiences immigration in different ways: for one, the move is easy and causes methamphetamine euphoria, for another it turns into the tragedy of a lifetime. The difficulty of immigration for a specific person is determined by objective parameters: knowledge of the English language, availability of a required specialty, financial capabilities and available options for legalization.

These parameters can be measured (quantitative) and evaluated (qualitative): English has levels of proficiency, demanded specialties are known to everyone (programmers, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, athletes, and so on), financial opportunities are expressed by a number with a certain number of zeros, and legalization options can be divided into easy predictable (family reunification, won the lottery, received a work visa, green card through investment) and complex unpredictable (marriage with a citizen, political asylum, finding an employer in the United States, and others).

According to these indicators, any immigrant can be positioned on the axis "bad - good", and the closer a person is to the value "bad", the higher the likelihood that instead of the American dream, there will be a Pompeian catastrophe.

This article provides ten reasons why you shouldn't move to the United States if you find yourself at the origin.

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 is faced with this complex, but those who do experience it hard, and many describe it as the most difficult period in life.

In my theory, it is the immigrant complex that is the cause of protracted depression in migrants.

The weaker the position of an immigrant in four parameters (English, money, specialty, legalization), the higher the likelihood of developing an inferiority complex. The disease is terrible not because of the reasons for its occurrence (you can learn a language, get documents, find a job, and earn money at home), but because it leads to a loss of dignity and faith in oneself, which practically deprives a person of chances of success.

2. Social downshifting

If the bank account does not please the eye with a six-digit number, and the specialty does not imply a work invitation to the United States, at first you will have to work hard and not always honorably.

In the United States, the cost of living is high, which means that you can eat through the savings of two generations here in a few months. Since you don’t want to spend the emergency reserve, consecrated by your 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.

Among visitors without money and language, professions are popular, the owners of which rarely get into the Forbes stories: handyman, construction worker, waiter, cleaner, nanny, hostess, loader, taxi driver and security guard. Many of them have already managed to achieve something at home - albeit with the help of acquaintances, luck or entrepreneurial abilities - but they already occupied a certain social level, which they now have to say goodbye to, moving to the bottom of American society. Not everyone can stand it.

3. Stress level

Stress is the body's natural response to problems, and in limited amounts it is even beneficial as it helps mobilize. However, the stress that an immigrant faces is several times greater than normal work or school stress.

Difficulties in finding a job, adapting, renting an apartment (which you are in no hurry to rent due to a lack of credit history), opening accounts, getting insurance and surviving in a new environment can lead to a level of experience that is dangerous from a clinical point of view. More than once I have seen immigrants who collapsed with fever and other somatic manifestations of stress, simply because they could not cope with emotions.

Such "beginner stress" has a double destructive power: it is not only unpleasant in itself (like any super-strong stress), but it 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 moving, a person closes in himself and fights with an illness, which often takes the form of depression. And already depression is a clinical condition that practically does not go away without serious treatment.

I talked about my experience of dealing with stress and depression in a separate article.

4. Level of happiness

Every year I read the Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse Research Institute. A 2017 report shows that North America accounts for nearly half of the world's wealth.

But does this mean that Americans and local immigrants are 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 that come with material wealth.

The rise in living standards that usually accompanies moving to the United States (unless the 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 that depends on many factors, a person can evaluate it only after the fact. Many immigrants notice after a while that there was more joy in their lives before moving. So isn't this the main thing?

5. Social inclusion and language

Have you ever felt invisible, incapable of even minimal social interaction? If not yet, welcome to the wonderful world of the non-English speaking immigrant.

Language is not only a method of communication, but also a basic component of personality: if you cannot speak fluently, you become a dull version of yourself. Not long ago, at a party, you could generate a joke in a split second that arouses sympathy for the whole company, and now you have to express yourself at the intellectual level of a three-year-old child and with the agility of a centenary turtle.

Not knowing the English language deprives you of the possibility of full-fledged social integration. Old Maslow will not let you lie: as soon as you are fed, healthy and protected, you need love and recognition, which are difficult to find in a new country.

6. Difficulties of legalization

Legalization in the United States is not only the problem of guns, drugs and same-sex marriage that you hear about in the news, but also the immigrant's obtaining the necessary documents: work permits, social security numbers, resident cards and citizenship.

Immigration opportunities are different for everyone: someone wins the lottery, someone receives an invitation to work (and an immigration visa), someone joins a relative who has already become a US citizen. It is much more difficult for those who begin legalization already in the United States. The possibilities of such people are limited, and they, as a rule, have to look for a partner for marriage, apply for political asylum, or - it's scary to say aloud, but I have to - stay in the United States illegally.

I wrote in detail about the methods of legalization in the guide to immigration to the United States.

Such people remain 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 cannot be called anything other than a tragedy: a person loses the most valuable and limited resource - years of life.

7. Costs of retraining

I know several professions that are universal throughout the world: programmer, prostitute, chef, taxi driver, waiter. But what about doctors, lawyers and engineers, whose skills and abilities are tied to a particular country, laws, regulations, technology and language?

They have a long and not always cheap retraining process ahead of them. It will be lucky if he is limited to testing and obtaining a license, but some specialists will have to go through the entire training process and master a whole layer of new knowledge.

The cost of retraining is a pure waste of time, money and effort aimed at obtaining a profession that you already own, but in a new country. For some people, these costs can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars (think of a lawyer or surgeon, for example) and are an important factor in deciding whether to move.

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 to solve typical problems and habits. A person begins to acquire connections at school, continues at the university and finally forms the environment when entering adulthood.

An immigrant, unless he comes to the soil prepared by his relatives, is forced to look for contacts anew.

Which clinic is better to go to? 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, deprived of a huge array of "metadata", a person in any case feels less protected.

9. Contradictions and security

Despite the apparent prosperity, the United States is a country full of contradictions and conflicts: 325 million people share one territory, but different political beliefs, religious views, cultural background, skin color and ethnic origin. And although the American society, built on the principles of respect and tolerance, digests most of the problems, some still creep out, including in the form of crime and terrorist acts.

The problem of mass murder in America is exaggerated by the multiplier effect of the media, but it still exists. In terms of homicide statistics per population, we rank next to Albania, Niger and Turkmenistan.

This is not to say that it is dangerous in the USA. But we can say that it is not safe in the USA.

10. Homesickness

If you do not value your homeland, and have only read about nostalgic feelings in books, the best way to experience both the first and the second is to become an immigrant. Longing comes at different times, but for most, sooner or later it still happens.

Homeland is not only a territorial unit on the world map and an entry in a birth certificate, but also a whole complex of socio-cultural 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 - good or bad - are most likely related to your homeland.

Many Russians, after moving to America, deny their involvement in culture and the presence of a Russian matrix, but this does not prevent the Russian matrix from staying in them and from time to time casting a voice in the form of bouts of mild nostalgia.

Moving to the USA is probably the biggest decision of your life. For it to be true, you cannot build it on illusions.