In the DR most of the business man I mean the rich people never finish the elementary school. The professional works for them for a miserable salary.
Same in the US (except its highschool).
In the DR most of the business man I mean the rich people never finish the elementary school. The professional works for them for a miserable salary.
Now he is back in NY washing dishes waiting for his next tax return.
JJ
First factor that Dominican's do not take into account when moving here. Costs of living, they believe they will be able to live on the same US$400.00 a month they used to in the DR. But when they see in NY that they have to pay a US$1,000.00 a month for rent in a low level dump apartment, and after that they have to pay electricity, cable, gas while earning a 12 an hour wage doing hard labor then they start to appreciate what they had in the DR, that's the stage when some of not-so-good ones start messing around with illegal activities.
But there's some other cases when both husband and wife works and contain their costs intelligently & they can build a future for themselves.
In my case the move to the US has been positive as I snatched a good job in my area (IT, Networking) with a company that is growing real fast and is the leader on its market niche. My dilemma now consists on holding off temptations of spending money on useless stuff instead of saving it for something more important later on. I would never would have grabbed a job like this in the DR (at least the pay grade, I had far more responsibilities in the DR than I do here), but I came over here prepared, I know acceptable english, have a CCNA and working on a CCNP and over 5 years of experience working in the IT field in the Dominican Republic (which believe it or not, it is equally advanced as is it here, at least in the big private companies and banks).
Bachata, I saw that you took the first step on certificating yourself on auto mechanics and I commend you for that, and your english has gotten better which should be enough to work on the field and fill reports. Once you get your certifications and get a job based on that, you just start working again based on you experience in the DR and I will assure you everybody will be impressed.
We have to look at HOW Dominicans do learn:
1. Movies - good old Hollywood makes it look easy - the USA is the land of opportunity. Other countries same story...........
2. Returning Dominicans go out of there way to show the people at home how successful they are! It is expected. So all those neighborhood kids look up to the visiting heroes. And often it is not real - it is illusion as well.
3. Ex pats - we make it look easy. We are rich and we choose to come here to live - we have air conditioners and jeeps and a nice life style. How did we get that - by living outside the DR.
4. Tourists - if you can afford to come on vacation and spend 1,000's of dollars on a vacation you must be rich. And where do you live - not here. So the lesson is to get rich you have to live somewhere else.
Is this based on fact? Of course not. It is an illusion. Those who come on vacation may have worked their asses off for 2 years to afford this. Yes it costs a lot to live in US or England or wherever but Dominicans do NOT see this.
Some expats who retire here have worked their whole lives to be able to retire here. It is not something locals can really relate to. They only see the expat as the HAVES.......
And they do not get the truth about Dominicans living abroad. It is NOT easy.
It is the old - The Grass is Always Greener ..............
The way for a Dominican to make money is to come to the US for a summer and stay with three other people in some tiny room and bust their butts for about 20 weeks. If they work 60 hours a week or more they will not have time to spend their money and they can go back to the DR and take the rest of the year off.
I worked on a farm several years ago and they had a dozen or so Jamaicans working the fields on an guest visa exchange program. It's been around since WWII when the US farm boys went off to war. Now, no one in the US wants work that hard for the wages they pay. They put them up in a common house, they live on pidgeon peas and rice with a little meat and not allowed to go to bars. But they made $8/hour tax free and worked up to 80 hours a week starting with planting peas and finishing with picking apples and pumpkins.
When they go home at the end of the 20 week season, they can buy a small house, start their own business or both. But it's brutal work most days and it takes more skill than most people give credit. The farm owner had tried to hire farm local kids at times but they all quit or got fired after a day or two. Most of the Jamaicans were in their late 30's early 40's.
Good Morning, an aspect of emigration from a Spanish speaking Caribbean location is the 5 million + Puerto Ricans with birth right US citizenship who choose to stay in PR with a lower wage structure and standard of living. Why?
Good Morning, an aspect of emigration from a Spanish speaking Caribbean location is the 5 million + Puerto Ricans with birth right US citizenship who choose to stay in PR with a lower wage structure and standard of living. Why?
Ezequiel, that would be 3.7 million, 3,700 millions equals 3.7 billion or about half the population of the world.Puerto Rico only has 3,700 millions living in the Island.
Good Morning, an aspect of emigration from a Spanish speaking Caribbean location is the 5 million + Puerto Ricans with birth right US citizenship who choose to stay in PR with a lower wage structure and standard of living. Why?
We have to look at HOW Dominicans do learn:
1. Movies - good old Hollywood makes it look easy - the USA is the land of opportunity. Other countries same story...........
2. Returning Dominicans go out of there way to show the people at home how successful they are! It is expected. So all those neighborhood kids look up to the visiting heroes. And often it is not real - it is illusion as well.
3. Ex pats - we make it look easy. We are rich and we choose to come here to live - we have air conditioners and jeeps and a nice life style. How did we get that - by living outside the DR.
4. Tourists - if you can afford to come on vacation and spend 1,000's of dollars on a vacation you must be rich. And where do you live - not here. So the lesson is to get rich you have to live somewhere else.
Is this based on fact? Of course not. It is an illusion. Those who come on vacation may have worked their asses off for 2 years to afford this. Yes it costs a lot to live in US or England or wherever but Dominicans do NOT see this.
Some expats who retire here have worked their whole lives to be able to retire here. It is not something locals can really relate to. They only see the expat as the HAVES.......
And they do not get the truth about Dominicans living abroad. It is NOT easy.
It is the old - The Grass is Always Greener ..............