That's fair criticism, Reinoe. But my wife is Aisian, and her crowd come here with nothing (as she did), yet I see them all enter middle-American society in a short time, usually 5-10 years.
They work several jobs, and concurrently get degrees in medical sciences, often Nursing but sometimes Physical Therapy. And then they still work three jobs! Only for a lot more money! And I'm not exaggerating here. They also work extremely well and cohesively as family units. When the wife is working one job and going to nursing school, the husband is working two and three jobs! Then the father goes to nursing school when the wife is done! Even the kids work hard! The eldest take care of the house and the youngers. Everybody works hard. And they remind me of my family in decades past, and even today they seem to get similar results.
Part of the good I saw in my wife when she I first met her, was the qualities she shared with my grandfather (as crazy as that sounds). She got off a plane, knowing no one but having a contact for work as a live-in nurse, and set-off to work long hours in this foreign land, sending nearly all her money back to her elderly and sick parents back in Asia.
I'll also share this with you:
I'm the eldest son, and 4 years older than one of my brothers, and 5 and 6 years from the other two. When I was a kid I was responsible for them. At 12 or 13, when my parents weren't around the house it was considered my responsibility to keep an eye on them and keep them and the house in order. Even as I got older, and my brothers got into troubles outside of the house, my parents came to me first to find-out why wasn't I looking out for them. And it's exactly the same in my wife's Asian culture. They will sacrifice everything, even sell their house to provide that first kid an education, but then that kid is expected to help the next one in line, and then #2 is expected to help #3, etc. Then in due time, everyone does their best to help the parents in their old age.
And that's *exactly* the way my family is, too. We bring our dying elders home to die, and make the sacrifices they earlier did for us, whether grandparent, uncle, or parent.
This I believe works even in difficult situations, but you've got to stay together and work hard & selflessly together. When you've got multiple adults and kids all working hard, each doing whatever it is they can do best and within their means, all contributing and cooperating, you're going to have successes if you continue to work hard, think smart, and stay out of self-caused trouble (i.e. crime, drugs, illegit pregnancy).