>>The funny (not in a humorous way) thing is that those who complain about every bit of "human rights violations" in USA will never mention or admit of what goes on in their own backyard.
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>Now put any other country in there instead of the USA and it will still be true :).
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>>Unless, as you just brought up with your links, you put their faces into it. When I immigrated to the USA it was for good and I don't look back. I don't read Russian web sites, don't listen to their on-line radio (unless some of my friends will point me to a bit of interesting news). So I am not up on what is going on in Russia these days; you seem to know more. I am more interested in what is going on in my local community (town, state) and major policy decisions of US government. (In my little free time I am much more interested these days in improving my Spanish skills; read many blogs of Spaniards, post comments, etc.)
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>I was a different kind of an immigrant, then. Never bought the "everyone wants to be an American" mantra - I wanted to be a good neighbor in the US, and my neighbors said (before they knew we were parting) that I indeed was. I want to be the citizen of the world, representing my neck of the woods in that diversity and multi-culti world. You wanted diversity? You got me.
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>>Dragan, as some other immigrants I met in this country (real minority), never seemed to have tried to adopt this country (USA) as their own.
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>True. Our two daughters who stayed, OTOH, are citizens and are taking part in their communities. My take was that I wouldn't be judged by how far native have I gone, but rather by what did I bring to the community. For our part, I think we managed to raise the price of real estate in our street by making our house and garden look above the standard, and hopefully setting some little trend in gardening.
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I am glad that your daughters stayed (for their sake) cause I can't imagine them having more opportunities anywhere else than USA. Plus, I think if you brought them back, just in a couple of years, they would kill you <bg>.

>>Some (again from my experience) felt that because they were high achievers in their professional field in the old country, they would be "owed" to get the same recognition in the new country. They never learned that in this country you have to work hard, learn to accept rejection and again rejection and then again, learn to hustle and sell yourself in order to get anywhere. They never learned the business skills in this country, even though their are brilliant in the technical or musical or artistic field.
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>I'm completely absent in that picture. I already had recognition here on UT before I came - actually, that's how I came. On each job I got, they already knew me, and I already knew the people who'd hire me. And I've already worked hard before, and during my stay. I had founded two software companies before getting to the US, and worked abroad too, so I already knew all I needed to know about the market. You won't find me complaining much about money, even if you read through all of my messages since 1999. That part simply doesn't apply to my case.
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>Again, I didn't leave because it was bad for me in any way - except in the part where I was running into the limitations of my legal status. Simply got out before I ran into any trouble. Had I stayed, I could have probably run into none for a number of years, but it just felt wrong.

I just wish that all the undocumented Mexicans had the same decency or respect/fear for the law as you did (I know I am going to get in trouble for this sentence <g>).