But as an example, think about people like Andy Grove and Rep. Tom Lantos (California). Both were holocaust survivors (and Grove had to flee Hungary during the revolution in 1956). Both came to the US with basically pennies to their names, and both did spectacularly well.
You could add George Soros as another example of someone who fled the Holocaust and was very successful. Santos, Grove, and Soros are Jews, and European (Ashkenazi) Jews have average IQs of about 115. I think this is an important factor explaining the success of Jews in the U.S. and around the world. It is possible that Jews evolved high intelligence because of the adverse circumstances they faced over centuries. Here is an NYT article discussing such research:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/science/03gene.htmlResearchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes
By NICHOLAS WADE
New York Times
June 3, 2005
A team of scientists at the University of Utah has proposed that the unusual pattern of genetic diseases seen among Jews of central or northern European origin, or Ashkenazim, is the result of natural selection for enhanced intellectual ability
The selective force was the restriction of Ashkenazim in medieval Europe to occupations that required more than usual mental agility, the researchers say in a paper that has been accepted by the Journal of Biosocial Science, published by Cambridge University Press in England.
The hypothesis advanced by the Utah researchers has drawn a mixed reaction among scientists, some of whom dismissed it as extremely implausible, while others said they had made an interesting case, although one liable to raise many hackles.
"It would be hard to overstate how politically incorrect this paper is," said Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard, noting that it argues for an inherited difference in intelligence between groups. Still, he said, "it's certainly a thorough and well-argued paper, not one that can easily be dismissed outright."
<rest of article at link>
