And in any case, not being "uniformly positive" doesn't require being uniformly negative. They may consider the U.S., overall, a better place to live, while on the whole still giving it very mixed scores.
I talk to a lot of them through my job, and almost all of them would prefer to return to their country if it were safe to do so. That is one reason you see so many Chinese going back.
That's a bit like "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
I never suggested otherwise. In fact, I actually wrote the equivalent. "Almost all the time, it turns out that whatever it is that they're complaining about is less important to them than something that they get where they currently are. Often they're embarrassed by what that says about their priorities."
> But a decent number of immigrants to the U.S. do leave again later. There's a particularly large number of Chinese immigrants who've returned to China in the past 10 years.
In other words, they see the US as making it possible for them to get ahead enough so that they can live in China the way that they'd like.
I've no doubt that being rich in China is more appealing to many than upper middle class in the US.
Then why are they still here?
When someone says that things are better somewhere else, I always ask why they're not at that somewhere else. Almost all the time, it turns out that whatever it is that they're complaining about is less important to them than something that they get where they currently are. Often they're embarrassed by what that says about their priorities.