How many immigrants to the USA end up regretting it?

26 comments

  3. more than none but less than all, otherwise I couldn’t tell you. Maybe you could google up some opinion polls and see if this has ever been polled?

  5. My great grandparents must have liked it here because they didn’t return to Europe.

  6. I’ve personally only heard complains from 2nd generation or further on. I’ve not heard any immigrants themselves express regrets.

    That doesn’t mean it doesn’t ever happen, of course

  8. Probably some given how many there are.

    I’m the son of an immigrant, my father fled a dictatorship. He’s eternally grateful, did well for himself as a small business owner, and repeatedly makes sure that his kids know how lucky we have it.

    “The best decision of my life was marrying your mother. The second was moving to America.”

  9. A [survey by Public Policy in 2009](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED513490.pdf) asked what immigrants would do if they could “do it again.”

    71% said they’d still come to the US, 19% said stay in their birth country, and 6% said pick a different country.

    When asked about how they feel about life in the US, 34% were extremely happy, 53% somewhat happy, and 10% generally disappointed.

    Edit: I found a 2021 [Pew Research study](https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2022/01/RE_2022.01.20_NSL-Immigration_FINAL.pdf) that 84% of Latinos from Puerto Rico or another country would migrate to the US if they could do it again.

    A 2012 [Pew Research study](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2012/06/19/chapter-4-immigration-and-transnational-ties/) showed 76% of Asians would still immigrate to the US.

  10. I’ve definitely heard immigrants speaking about missing home deeply and that there were some aspects of their life that were much better in their country of origin, but it didn’t seem that it translated to overall regret.

    I’m really working with a sample size of about 8 though so idk.

  11. I’ve known a number of immigrants who eventually left and either went back to their original country or went somewhere else, but none of them said they regretted immigrating. More it was the right thing at the time but at some point the circumstances changed or they wanted something different so they made another move.

    I’m sure there are some who immigrate and then wish they hadn’t, but either it isn’t common or they don’t talk about it a lot to people they aren’t close to.

  12. I’m sure some. I usually only hear losers and edgy people who are children to immigrant parents complaining, thinking they’d be someone important and happier “back home”. I’ve heard this occasionally as an immigrant myself

  13. IMO, your answer is contingent upon the circumstances under which a given person came to the US.

    Somebody, like Frederick Trump, who came to the US in 1905, from Germany exchanging his passport in the process would most likely have a different view of the situation than my former roommate, who came not with one, but 2 silver spoons in his mouth.

    He’s now living the good life at a villa and vineyard in the western Cape in South Africa, having sold his dorm room startup to IBM, while we were at uni. I don’t think he ever finished his studies.

  15. One thing I know for certain, unless you have committed a crime, you are free to leave this country any time you want. None of those who were unhappy with it ever left, so it must be that big a regret.

  16. I’m a East Asian international student studying in a major Californian city. I’m thriving academically, and I was able to make decent money & gain experience from the internships. I’m not the most social person, but I have friends that I talk to regularly & I get dates every other week or so. I think Americans are very welcoming people and they would gladly make friends with foreigners like me, which I find very nice.

    Coming to America gave me so much opportunities to be successful & become a better person in general, so to be honest I have zero regrets. Of course, there are some homesickness + some “cultural cringe” moments here and there, but being open minded towards things can take you pretty far, in my opinion.

    That being said, a lot of other international students seem to suffer from loneliness, so some form of regret is definitely not uncommon. I assume living in more remote & conservative areas may affect them as well, especially if one is not white.

  18. Big time pot shop tried to build a tiny children’s arcade to exploit a legal loophole preventing their competitor from opening a location.

  19. As an immigrant, and someone who has grown up, gone to school with, and worked with immigrants from my ethnic background (South Asian. Also see r/abcdesis for a more nuanced look at the South Asian experience), out of the probably hundreds of immigrants I personally know, I couldn’t name a single person who regrets coming to the United States. That includes people whose homes were vandalized in the wake of 9/11 out of ignorance by Americans. Still they gladly accept that “payment” for the opportunity provided by the United States.

  20. I’ve met a lot of immigrants that express regret over the tax filing/paying requirements on all global assets. Including many that have renounced their citizenship because of it.

    I personally don’t have regrets about become naturalized but I must admit that it’s a huge pain and don’t rule out considering it in the future if things don’t change. Specially for my children.

  21. My immigrant ancestors came here from the 1630’s to the 1880’s. No Regrets. The Revolutionary War/Civil War/WW2 was all pretty tough, but they rolled with it.

  22. So thankful to have been able to immigrate to the united states. So sad to see the people born here do not realize how great of a country they have/can have.

  24. From the POV of an Indian (a large chunk of my friends are from there), they complain plenty about the US as compared to MyCountry (TM), but most of them only really have one big issue. Visas, it’s a pain in the ass for most of them due to the lottery system and they may have to go back despite investing in grad school here and setting up a life here.

  25. There’s absolutely nothing in the US stopping a person from returning to their home country, which means that the vast majority of immigrants living in the US are actively choosing to remain.

    It’d be interesting to know how the numbers stack up for those who immigrated, lived in the US for at least a few years with the intent or at least hope to stay permanently, and then left because they no longer wanted to live here (as opposed to people who got deported or who couldn’t convert a visa to a green card for some reason). But that would be an extremely hard survey to do since such people would be so spread out and hard to find.

  26. It’s a tricky thing and I don’t think there’s always a clear answer. My wife’s family back in her home country are somewhat well off (at least her mom’s siblings) and whenever we visit them it’s a really nice life, like going on yachts and them temporarily hiring a maid to look after my kids (in addition to their normal house staff) so we can relax and stuff like that. However, her parents were more upper middle class and while they did hire people to take care of stuff and live in a nice house, my wife didn’t grow up with as much privilege as her cousins. That being said, the U.S. is not perfect and there can absolutely be benefits of living in countries that are poorer than the U.S. if you’re in a group that is better off there.

    For my family, it’s also kind of tricky because in one sense there has been some successes, but also some bigotry faced. Also I see some similar situations have different outcomes between countries that are more similar. To give an example, I have an aunt who is disabled in the U.S. and hasn’t been able to work for years because of having cancer and being unable to do much. Her life flat out sucks, IMO, and the safety nets that are available in the U.S. are terrible. Contrast that with her cousin that has gone through a similar situation but lives in Germany and she seems much happier. However, I and other people I know with in demand careers that have U.S. and citizenship in E.U. countries have all come to the conclusion that we make a lot more money in the U.S. and we’re better off working in the U.S. for now because jobs in all European countries seem to pay a fraction of what you can get in the U.S. At least the last time I looked a mid-range or higher programmer in the U.S. can add a “1” in front of the salary that their peers in the U.K., Germany, etc. get. If it’s a cheaper country like Spain or Italy, you would make even less.

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