Yes its definitely harder for a new immigrant to understand the cultural norms required to work in a law or media (i think plenty work in "business"). But the fact that a field requires a particular cultural background makes it less meritocratic. Hiring people who are "like you" is the furthest possible thing from meritocracy. Technology work is generally pure logic, which is pretty universal and universality breeds meritocracy. In terms of the degrees being harder I don't have hard evidence, but having done some humanities and some math I think its pretty obvious which type of work is more complex.