It may be xenophobic, but whether it's a lie is separate from that and it may or may not be. Unpalatable assertions can still be true.

For what it's worth, "fake it till you make it" is far from being universally seen as positive, and (car) salesmen are seen as one of the most untrustworthy and least liked professions (just above telemarketers and members of congress). [1]

1: https://thehill.com/business/3812900-here-are-the-most-and-l...

Do you have an alternative explanation? Or is your stance that it just couldn't possibly be immigrants?

Maybe academic cheating is related to people pursuing a degree more like a passport to riches than a vocational pursuit.

I mean, the whole reason why people also lie in other areas. Which also explains why people of “low trust” societies might lie more rather than “it’s in the culture of those dirty foreigners”.

> if Americans don’t celebrate lying on positive euphemisms like “fake it till you make it” or “being a good salesman”

Most Americans that I know don't consider those phrases to reflect positive values at all. They're used disparagingly against people who really think like that.

Either you live in some bubble or you're just lying lol.

Well, we all live in bubbles, don't we? That's why it's interesting to have a glimpse into other people's bubbles, and be reminded that our own experiences are often not representative of the whole.

Ya true, just some bubbles are smaller than others.

Fwiw I've usually seen "fake it till you make it" in 2 contexts: 1. Disciplines in which skill development requires overreaching beyond one's current skill level eg musical improvisation 2. In reference to confidence eg many software developers experience imposter syndrome and have to pretend to be more confident than they actually are in order to be taken seriously, even if they are the most skilled in the room

Similar experiences have been reported by people who came from these places