Immigrants and locals
8+ years since we moved to another country.
I had enough time to make friends in the new country and observe a lot of people in different situations, both other immigrants and locals.
I overgeneralize, but to make the point clear:
- Immigrants are often better at understanding the country than locals.
They compare, observe, try to understand, try to fit in, and absorb all the cultural differences. That develops a crazy mental flexibility.
For locals, their country is like water for the fish.
- For immigrants to be equal, they need to work at least twice as hard. That becomes a habit.
Ironically, locals rarely notice that due to the language/mentality barriers. It is one of the reasons for envy: “Why does this barely-speaking folk live better than me?”
- Immigrant kids also keep that drive to succeed as their parents.
Our daughter passed the local language exam with excellence. That was better than many kids of locals.
We, if not consciously, but subconsciously help our kids to reduce any gap with the locals.
I suspect all the difference will fade with the kids of my kids.