We Aren’t Lazy, We Are Just Not Buying The American Dream

By: Preethi Gopyshankar 

Image courtesy of HRD Connect "Generational Tension" Generational tensions linked to lower workplace productivity in the UK and US - HRD (Accessed July 24 2025).

From a young age, I noticed how many adults in my life worked labour-intensive jobs to support their families – often leaving before sunrise and returning home late at night. Weekdays in my house were quiet as a child; I would spend the afternoons doing homework, reading chapter books, and occasionally working on the Costco curriculum books my parents bought to help improve my school performance. 

The sacrifices my family made so that I could receive a Canadian education never went unnoticed. I realized that to earn their approval and to make all their hard words meaningful, I had to succeed. I became an eager learner at school, tried my very best in every subject, though I naturally excelled in some more than others. The more I pushed myself to be a well-rounded student for my parent’s sake, for my parents, the more unhappy I grew with myself. I began to wonder if my relentless pursuit of good grades mirrored my parents’ sacrifices: giving up their studies, working unfulfilling jobs, not out of passion, but out of necessity, for survival and the hope of a better future for their children.

However, I came to realize their sacrifices had given me options they never had. For them, success meant achieving the American Dream–a symbol of stability. Because of the foundation they built, my generation now has the freedom to pursue something more. We can aspire to lead lives that are meaningful and authentic to who we are. Choosing a path of happiness and self-discovery isn’t a rejection of their hard work; it’s a way of honoring it by refusing to  repeat the same, unfulfilling path. Generation Z isn’t lazy; we’re simply daring to dream beyond survival. 

In this blog post, I explore the impact of immigrant sacrifice and the pursuit of the American Dream. How does precarious employment impact the physical and mental health of immigrants? In what ways do these lived experiences fuel toxic competition and distort our perception of success? Finally, I share Gen Z’s take on the American Dream—are we breaking the cycle and redefining it in the process?

Sacrifices made, price paid

Many immigrant families arrive in Canada filled with hope for a better life – desperate to provide for their families at any cost. Often, they accept the first job available, which is typically  precarious or low-skilled service work. This line of work has a detrimental impact on physical and mental well-being; yet, the widespread fear of job loss and financial instability among immigrants makes it difficult–if not impossible–to leave such employment behind. 

Frontiers in Psychiatry conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate the work experiences and mental health issues of Canadian immigrants employed in precarious work. Their findings reveal the poor environmental conditions immigrants often work in, which involve increased exposure to toxic chemicals, confined spaces, and cold/inclement weather (Shankar et al., 2024). These conditions lead to headaches, body aches and injuries, making it unmotivating for employees to attend work. Furthermore, precarious work is physically demanding as it involves repetitive work, heavy lifting, and prolonged standing. This leaves employees susceptible to sprains, body aches, and exhaustion (Shankar et al., 2024). The physical toll of precarious employment causes immigrants to experience stress, fear, sadness, anxiety, and other symptoms. Participants also reported bullying, harassment, racism, and discrimination from supervisors and coworkers (Shankar et al., 2024). 

Evidently, the pursuit of a better life in Canada comes with a significant personal cost for immigrant families. The constant unpredictability of precarious work leaves many immigrants in a state of chronic stress. The persistent exposure to discrimination and workplace hostility, adds to this stress, making it difficult to find support in their work environments. As a result, the aspiration for a better life is overshadowed by daily struggles to endure and adapt. 

Despite these challenges, immigrant workers remain resilient. By enduring dangerous conditions, ignoring personal goals, and absorbing emotional wounds, they represent the steep price paid in pursuit of the American Dream. This constant struggle often leads to decreased confidence, as immigrants feel compelled to tolerate whatever they come across to prove their worth to their employers and coworkers. Even after moving on to more stable jobs, the scars of these early experiences linger, shaping their outlook on work and success. 

The Hidden Cost of Competition

My weekends as a child were much more eventful. My parents signed me up for countless extracurriculars: tutoring, ice skating, martial arts, Bharatnatyam dance lessons – to name a couple. Each extracurricular was an opportunity to gain an edge over our own cultural community and the broader Western society. 

Sometimes we would attend social gatherings, and they were always charged with a subtle undercurrent of competition. The uncles would be outside, discussing politics, cricket games, and the latest restaurants they’ve opened. The aunties would talk about vacation plans, their children’s achievements, and the antics of their husbands. Even as a child, I could sense the silent judgment of accomplishments and status. 

On the car ride home, my parents and I would debrief the evening – commenting on the selection of food, the size of someone’s house, or the new cars parked on the driveway. I remember being eleven and gazing in awe at a family friend’s shiny Mercedes, only to learn from my parents that the uncle worked night shifts to afford it. That revelation stuck with me; there is a significant cost to winning these status games – but when will enough be enough?

Vox released an article on “What the American Dream looks like for immigrants”, exposing how upward mobility both inspires and exhausts first and second-generation immigrants who chase it. Through collecting experiences from immigrants across generations, the article explores how success often comes with emotional burnout, toxic competition, and the relentless pursuit to belong in an environment that privileges whiteness. Multiple stories in the article reflect how immigrant parents view prestigious careers (ie. doctor, lawyer, engineer) as the only pathway to achieve respect and financial stability. I personally connected with the first story, illustrating the experience of Dharushana Muthulingam, a fellow Sri Lankan second-generation immigrant. She recalls a chat between her father and a Laotian man, each boasting about their children’s acceptances to elite post-secondary institutions. This casual conversation reflects the subtle but intense drive to outperform your immigrant peers. Dharushana also speaks of succumbing to “toxic model minority expectations”, where immigrants in the U.S are expected to be hardworking, smart, and financially successful. Due to these expectations, she had to postpone her dream of being a writer for medical school. This additionally fuels the pressure to conform to white middle-class ideals as well as overachieve your peers, at the cost of mental health and personal fulfillment.  

Moreover, sociologist Rajika Bhandari explains that when immigrants arrive in the U.S, they leave behind their degrees, careers, social networks, and cultural capital (ie. language, norms, reputation). They are forced to start from scratch and are determined to align with White America to prove their value. Success becomes an external endeavour; it involves buying suburban homes in “respectable” neighbourhoods, sending children to good schools, pursuing prestigious careers, and displaying material successes. 

Overall, the pursuit of the American Dream is a performance that never ends. It perpetuates burnout, financial strain, and emotional fatigue among first and second-generation immigrants. Many of the voices in the article wonder if the American Dream was worth it and what was lost in this relentless pursuit. 

Is the American Dream Worth It? Gen Z’s take:

Work smarter, not harder. This is the philosophy that symbolizes my generation’s approach to life and work. We noticed that society valued the American Dream and measured success in terms of how hard you worked and what you owned. Thus, many of us saw our parents and Millennials centering work as their main priority, sacrificing their personal time, health, and joy for financial stability and status. Now that we are entering the workforce, we are daring to ask: Is the American Dream worth it?

I came across an intriguing Macleans article titled “You’re Wrong About Gen Z”, written by Stephanie Bai, a fellow second-generation immigrant Gen Z. She notes that Gen Z is often labelled as lazy or entitled for not buying into society’s standards for success, and argues that our experiences have led us to be this way. After watching the generations before us give it their all in the workforce, we became ambitious students who spent sleepless nights chasing after good grades and took on multiple extra-curricular opportunities to gain an edge. We aimed high to please our parents and society, but lost personal time and suffered from burnout.  But we are starting to realize that getting a degree, landing a job, and climbing the corporate ladder no longer guarantees financial security or happiness. 

Bai highlights the stories of Gen Z entering the workforce, overcoming the effects of burnout by demanding flexibility and fair compensation from their employers. These demands indicate that we define success much differently than the generations before us. The pandemic has prompted us to re-evaluate the importance of work-life balance, hobbies, and spending time with loved ones. “Quiet quitting” and the growing popularity of unionization show that we aren’t reluctant to work hard, we’re just refusing to let work consume our lives. 

As the Dead Poets Society beautifully puts it:

“Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for” (Dead Poets Society, 1989). 

We are not satisfied with mere survival; we want to thrive by pursuing “noble pursuits”, but also experience poetry, beauty, romance, and love that make life worth living. 

Honouring the Past, Breaking the Cycle 

To conclude, our parents followed the American Dream so that they could provide the safety and stability we have today. Moving to a foreign country, they have endured hardship so we can have choices, and their legacy deserves respect and gratitude. But to truly honour their sacrifices, we learned from their struggles. We are not repeating the same cycle of relentless pursuit to prove our worth. Instead, we are setting boundaries, leaving jobs that don’t respect our well-being, and requiring fair compensation and flexibility from our employers. We make their sacrifices meaningful by establishing a new American Dream, where we are building well-balanced lives, filled with joy and authenticity. 

References 

Bai, S. (2023, February 16). You’re Wrong About Gen Z - Macleans.ca. Macleans . https://macleans.ca/society/gen-z-hustle-burnout-work-life-balance/

Petersen, A. H. (2021, June 28). What the American Dream Looks like for immigrants. Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22548728/immigrant-american-dream-middle-class

Shankar, J., Chen, S. P., Lai, D. W. L., Joseph, S., Narayanan, R., Suleman, Z., Ali, H. M. A., & Kharat, P. (2024). Mental health challenges of recent immigrants in precarious work environments — a qualitative study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, Article 1428276. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1428276