Don't come to America if you …

By Dan C. Pak

This article is especially written for the people who want to come to America and stay here for good.

Let us get right to the point. The first thing you need to know is: Don’t come to America if you are afraid of long hours and hard work. In the United States, “working” doesn’t involve just 8 to 5 for immigrants; it means a lot more than that.

One day I asked the owner of a restaurant if she closes her business on holidays. Her spontaneous answer shocked me: “Chinese stores never close.” If taken literally, one would miss the point. Chinese stores do close occasionally. However, this declaration of determination that is unafraid of long hours doing menial jobs, compressed into this short phrase, and announced in a peremptory tone, should not be dismissed lightly.

Chinese immigrants to America preceded the other Asians by several decades. They constitute the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans today.

In 2010, the U.S. census bureau reported that there were 3.3 million Chinese Americans in the United States. The brave souls from China in the 19th century had formed the foundation for future generations through hard work. They were not afraid of backbreaking jobs as miners, laborers, domestic servants and launderers, along with numerous other grueling occupations. Sacrifices for the sake of off-spring have now borne many fruits. The Chinese descendants who have occupied prominent positions in all aspects of American life are too numerous to quote in the limited space.

In contrast, with exception of the independence movement leaders who are enshrined in our memory with respect, the Korean immigrants are relatively newcomers.

In 1970, it was reported that about 39,000 Korean immigrants were in the United States. The number rose steadily over the next forty years. According to the U.S. census bureau, 1.7 million people of Korean origin were in the country in 2010. It represents the second largest number of Koreans living overseas, exceeded only by those living in China.

Many of them are small business owners with dry cleaning establishments, restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, and department stores, along with careers in various other occupations that require hard work and long hours.

The next message is equally simple: Don’t come to America if you expect your kin folks to take care of you indefinitely. In 1992 when a race riot ravaged the streets of Los Angeles, a young Korean immigrant wife who lost her husband in the melee was seen crying her heart out.

Television viewers throughout the United States shared her anguish as she haltingly narrated her story of how she and her husband worked so diligently for many years to build a small business, only to see it destroyed overnight. This tragic story from the Korean community in America does not end there though.

Early settlers blazed the trail with sweat, tears, and blood. Later, some of them sponsored their brothers or sisters to come to America. Several years later, schisms developed between the trailblazers and new arrivals. The early comers had been baptized with American individualism. Yet, the concept is often alien to the new arrivals. They expect their relatives to endlessly look after them and support them. Understanding that individualism is not egotism is a point that does not always seem to register with new group.

Fallings out between family members might not make headlines, but they are nevertheless tragic in their own way. Unmotivated immigrants find it especially difficult to survive if they find themselves out in the cold.

To summarize, while America is still the Land of Opportunity, just getting to these shores is no guarantee of success. While others may be waiting for you and even offer you a temporary helping hand, you will soon realize that you are on your own once you put your foot on American soil.

So don’t come to America if you are not willing to work hard and make it on your own.

The writer is a Korean War veteran and retiree from an American firm. He wrote a book “6 25 50: A Generation Comes to America" (2008) in paperback and two more last year in E-book format.