Grass not always greener on other side of ocean

• Source: Global Times
• [23:18 July 29 2010]
• Comments

Then there's the violinist who plays at the subway stations on my way to work, to whom I give some spare coins every day. We started chatting and became friends, but when I tried to interview him, he declined.

He said his relatives and friends in China thought he was working for a professional symphony in New York. He didn't want them to learn from the newspaper that he was actually playing in the subway.

Then there is the baby sitter who told her folks in China she was doing international trading. When she went back to visit home last winter, she bought a big diamond ring and a fur coat with her whole month's salary to show off her "luxury lifestyle" in New York.

These snippets may be easy to understand within the context of the "face issue" among Chinese. But they are misleading for people in China who only get to see one side of the American story.

Of course, many Chinese emigrants have achieved real success in foreign countries. But even the people with highly paid jobs, big houses and a comparatively worriless life have to face the loneliness, the "glass ceiling" and the insecure feeling of being a permanent guest, which may take at least two generations to overcome.

A report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation may have provided concrete evidence of this.

It found the majority of Chinese who moved back to China from the US between 2000 and 2007 had done so because they think the home country could provide more opportunities and also because they wanted to take care of their elderly parents.

Only 16.7 percent said they would come back to the US given a green card and equal work opportunities.

Of course, returned emigrants are a self-selected group, and don't represent the experiences of all emigrants, but it's still a sobering statistic.

But keep this in mind, even the best preparation cannot guarantee a regret-proof future. Because in essence, the drive to emigrate is a belief that the grass is greener on the other side, and wherever you are, you may always think you are on the wrong side.

The author is a New York-based journalist. rong_xiaoqing@hotmail.com