I have first time arrived to US in 1994, over 20 years ago.
Immigration was HARD back then. I mean that's what at least everyone in US I knew was saying. Nothing was easy.
First of all, you really had to WORK. You had to literally WORK, WORK and WORK.
If you had a full time job, you had to be busy every single minute of the 40 hours.
I would say, in many aspects working was harder back in early/mid 90's than it is today:
Morale was high, expectations were high, if ANYTHING someone got at store was of poor quality (including customer service), you would hear people say "Do this right! this is AMERICA!" Those were magic words, manager would run up to you and get things fixed right away.
Studying at the college was difficult, even at community college. Students there were well prepared, teachers highly demanding and overall sense was that you were in for some serious competition.
People, as a rule, struggled for years before settling in. Especially those who had no English or had poor command of English.
Even if they were highly qualified professionals they had to take menial jobs (dish washing, dirt cleaning, fast food) until they learned proper English and could apply for better jobs.
BUT!!!!!!!! Once you tried, everything worked out !!!! Once you had proper English, there were endless opportunities and plenty of white collar jobs.
After couple of years immigrants were becoming choosy and rejecting a lot of job offers, selecting only the best.
Temp agencies would make an appointment, take your application and find you a job, all in one or two days
Jobs used to be advertised on newspapers, there was no internet and no idiotic "key word" schemes to by-pass a robot and get to HR.
You could actually pick up the phone, call to a hiring manager and get a job interview on the spot!
There were no redundant tests and repeated interviews, with calls after 3rd(final ) interview advising that you were great, just not good enough to be selected. No! If you were a good candidate, all it took was ONE interview, and you were told , right there and then "You are hired!"
Three to four bedroom houses used to cost $100,000-$150,000 in a suburb of a megalopolis, which was the best place to be , safe , sound and prestigious.
That means $600-$900 monthly mortgage payment was buying you your own house.
Once you finished your studies in college or specialized school, jobs were abundant! College degree were getting you a $40K job, as a fresh out of college graduate, no long suffering road to find a job, just some hard work and dedication (a month or two after graduation), and you were hired.
Those who went to IT schools, got MS certificates in a matter of few months, were sought after on monster.com and elsewhere.
I know guy, an immigrant with not perfect English, who studied for 4 months and got a $45K offer, with ZERO work experience.
$45K when 3 BR detached family house was costing $100,000 (the same house in the same location today costs over $350,000, so do the math and figure what the buying power of 45K used to be).
Yes, life was hard and difficult, you had to struggle, you had to work your @ @ $ off, but there was a reward if you tried. Things actually WORKED!
Those who come and say "Oh you have to be prepared, as an immigrant, life will be difficult the first few years", I want to say "DUH!"
As if I wasn't an immigrant, as if I don't know what immigration is. No, dear friends, what we have today is not an ordinary immigration experience as it used to be when ECONOMY WAS GOOD. As hard and difficult it was then, it is nothing today like it was then.
Today we are squirrels in the wheel, we are in a sperm competition for an egg, there are hundreds of us for each vacancy out there, we are NOT moving forward, we are right where we stand, no matter how much effort we make and how fast we try to run. We just get exhausted and run out of steam, because there is no forward movement! And we will get old, as other poster said, and not even benefit from any improvement by the time it happens (and IF it happens in observable future, which is a big IF there).
Please, be realistic. there is a serious issue, problem with current state of economy. There is an enormous , abnormal oversupply of labor force and extreme scarcity of white collar jobs, and this has all started with recession. On top of that we have sky-high real estate costs , while wages get depressed (due to oversupply of labor and scarcity of jobs) , and those of us who are still employed are having to do the job of three (because firms, to cut costs, downsized and put more work on the shoulders of fewer workers) , morale is low,quality of product and customer service is low, people are not happy, crime rate is high (I don't care about statistics, if I see in a "good neighborhood" a bulletproof glass at the gas station and seller who is hiding behind it at night, scared of every customer, I know it's not as safe as it used to be and people are afraid for their safety).
Things are not working. Students pay a lot more for school ( colleges used to cost $19K per year, today they charge $40K per year), they graduate with huge loans and are depressed in this market where they spends months to get a job (and this is US I am talking about, which is still better than Canada as far as economy is concerned).
No, this is not ordinary immigration experience. This is an experience of life during some serious recession, folks. And in Canada you can't even get an interview after applying for a job (at least in US you will get one or two interviews per week if you apply for as many jobs, and eventually you will get some job offer, may be not the best, but something you can hang on to until you find a better one, and you don't have to drive taxis or flip burgers if you have white collar qualifications and good command of English).
This is not hard, this is just not working. Two different things, IMHO.
