You Shouldn't Be Assimilating

Take pride in the culture that made you YOU. There is no need for you to assimilate.

A typical expat trope is that when you move to a country, you should assimilate.

Here's a revised version of your text with corrected grammar:

"Do as the locals" or "When in Rome, do as the Romans," as they say.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say, "No, you shouldn’t." "Do as the Romans" is a quote often used to suggest maintaining the status quo.

First, let's start with my definition of expat vs. immigrant. It is highly debatable, but typically, an immigrant is going from a country where they are objectively poorer to a country where they can objectively become richer.

On the other hand, an expat is typically going from a richer country to an objectively poorer country in order to leverage their income or wealth. By most standard definitions, expats are temporary, but even if you remain permanently, you are still most likely leaving your home country for reasons of arbitrage rather than looking for opportunity.

Historical context: (This is not meant to promote the idea that you are some kind of king, conqueror, or god in a foreign country). This article isn’t from the point of view of someone grandstanding or looking down on other countries or people. It's simply an alternative viewpoint based on vague historical examples. This isn't to promote the idea that you are going somewhere to conquer a people, but rather from the realistic idea that if you are an expat, you are moving to a country for arbitrage reasons. You intend to live a better lifestyle in some way or another using your income from your home country.

Reason 1: Wealth, Arbitrage & Work Ethic

Of course, you can find a million people saying Latin America isn't poor. There are rich people in Latin America too. But I’m not talking about the rich and wealthy there. I’m talking about YOU compared to the country's average.

75% of Colombians make less than $1050 USD a month. You are not the average.

As a matter of fact, if you want to bring up the rich of one country, those are perfect examples of people that are arguably NOT assimilated. In order for them to build that level of wealth, they are essentially doing the exact opposite of what the average person is doing.

Secondly, if you look at the wealthy of most Latin American countries, they are immigrants. Those families brought outside skills and work ethics in.

Here are some of the richest people in Latin America by country:

Brazil - Jorge Paulo Lemann - Swiss Immigrant

Mexico - Carlos Slim - Lebanese Christian Origin

Colombia - David Vélez - Mother is British

Venezuela - Juan Carlos Escotet - Spanish

Argentina - Marcos Galperin - Jewish lineage - parents wealthy and he studied in the U.S.

Let's take Mexico for example.

Despite working the most hours, Mexico has the least productive workers. Americans also work long hours compared to the world, but the productivity rate is much higher.

Argentina's inflation is so bad that there is a black market for currency. In general and objectively, the Latin American lifestyle does not promote a strong work ethic. It's on the extreme of "work to live."

I am not promoting the other side of the coin where many Americans believe they live to work. There should be a balance, but if you "assimilate" and fall too far into the Latin American lifestyle, you will never get anything done, and the lifestyle you expected to live based on your arbitrage may disappear..



Lack of rules & Corruption
Objectively, Latin America exhibits a disregard for rules and apathy toward change in this day and age. Anyone who has lived in Latin America long enough will realize that while their home countries may not be the most efficient, bureaucracy is often slow-moving but still light-years ahead of Latin America. Not only do you have to deal with the average worker gatekeeping information, hoping they can feel a little better about their job, but administrations can blatantly be corrupt and get away with it.

There are slight benefits, such as when police are corrupt and you can get away with bribing your way out of trouble or expediting processes, but that doesn't mean it’s "right." Moreover, Latin Americans know how bad the issues are, but they often refuse to make changes and will go to threatening lengths if the issues are brought to the attention of foreigners. It's wild that some of these concepts are baked into the culture.

What you should do

Learn the culture -

Learn the culture so you can be most aware of how things work. You should be able to pick and choose the parts of the culture that benefit you. There's no reason to completely abandon your home culture. Most people already do this on very low levels. You drive German cars, enjoy French food, listen to foreign music.

You make your money in one culture and enjoy leisure in another.

Learn the language -
Simply put, if you’re reading this blog, you should be a person of many skills. Not only will learning the language help you in casual conversations, but if you at some point choose to do business in another country, understanding and speaking the language to some level of fluency will be extremely helpful.

Some of my foreign friends have opened up businesses here. Some of them have been successful, some of them completely fail. The ones that fail are the ones that have very little language fluency and are relying on a local business partner or their wives to manage employees.

The ones that are successful have learned the culture and the language and have figured out how to manage their employees efficiently using lessons they learned back home.

A good book I recommend everyone read is The Culture Map. Its a great book on learning how different cultures think in business and personal settings.

In The End

I know there are people who say, "Why would you move to a different country if you want to assimilate?" My personal stance is that assimilating in total is dumb. You should understand the culture and be able to pass in and out of it, but the experiences that made you the great person you are should not disappear.

You shouldn't be going to a new country to start a new life. To me, that implies that you failed at your old life. You should be going somewhere because you enjoy the place overall and it complements your life. If you find a great girl, that's a bonus, but it's not the sole reason to leave.