A lot of the ethnic conclusions we are making are due to the self-selection aspect of immigration. The personality of those who emmigrate differs from those who stay, leading to erroneous conclusions about nationality being overly important. The Chinese are the entrepreneurial class in much of southeast Asia, but they were the adventuresome and ambitious ones who took chances by leaving their homeland. Economist Thomas Sowell has written a lot about the economic success of Jamaicans, Cubans, and others from the Carribean who find prosperity in NYC. In our southwest, OTOH, we attract the poorest, least-educated Mexicans and Central Americans that are not representative of most citizens of their home countries.
