Rise of the Tiger Nation: Asian-American Success

Obviously it's a matter of degree. The poster is complaining about a real phenomenon.

The people who immigrate to the US are basically as somebody mentioned in this thread can pass the 'American high pass filter'. This is true. For a long time here in India, the only employment arena's were civil services(government jobs) where there was absolutely to growth, Medicine, Or Engineering. But either way you had to depend working on a public sector company, which are basically massive bureaucracies whose whole intention was to run a massive payroll for to provide people with jobs. So you had only a few options in your career as an Indian.

Obviously those Indians when they immigrated to the US prospered, there is a big reason for that. Starved for opportunities, growth and wealth here they pounced on anything and everything they got and made very good use of it. Its called 'milking the opportunity', however most people I know have told me although they got what they wanted, 'It was not worth it'- any Indian immigrating to the US is basically immigrating for his kids. His whole life is likely to go towards building that platform for his kids so that they can lead a better life. He has to start from a scratch, he needs to build a family, connections, social circles etc. Nearly everything you can ever imagine has to start from the scratch. And that is difficult you are likely to go into your late forties to early fifties doing that.

That scenario is rapidly changing today. Besides, most of the 'developing countries' you can talk of are doing very well today. Recently a relative of mine who has immigrated to US had to fly down due to a family medical emergency. He was shocked and surprised to how much Bangalore has changed just in 12-15 years. He even admitted that reasons why people left India to go the US are quickly drying out.

Indian is seeing a unique period in its growth, I mean the youth even a decade back used to look our growth story as a momentary spur and 'Nothing much is going to happen in this country' attitude. That is rapidly changing. More and more people I've met are confident about things here. There are start ups coming up all over the place, People are more open to taking risks. Basically the Indian economy and country as a whole is maturing rather rapidly. Infrastructure development is massive, and I can tell you in another 15-20 years India would have prospered so much it will make current day immigration decisions look bad.

Immigrants are usually self-selected hard working, smart and relatively rich (otherwise you can't afford to emigrate), risk taking people - because you'd otherwise have a lot of trouble surviving in America. Stating "Asian-American" success, is like stating "Harvard-American" success - your sample is already biased.

Reversion to the mean always kicks in. Give immigrant Asians 30 more years - and you'll see them well integrated and achieving the same as average Americans.

People centric exceptionalism is vastly overrated - what's more important is the wind at their backs (cheap resources/labour/stable society/technology convergence) and the benefits they receive when they are born (rich/schooling/health/connections).