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Why do so many asians work in pharmacys?

Serious question. I noticed that in nearly every pharmacy I've ever been to (whether it's independent or part of a supermarket or whatever) it seems to be entirely run by asians and hardly ever white people.

Also a lot of asians seem to enter the field of medicine or pharmacology more than other fields, why is this?
Think it largely stems from the upbringing and parents, It is quite common in a lot of cultures for professions such as a Lawyer, Doctor, Engineer, Or accountant (insert similar regulated profession here) to be promoted above other options as the route to financial security.

There's also the stereotype of Asian parents being quite pushy when it comes to getting good grades coupled with a general attitude for doing well in life that is sadly vacant amounts the majority of my peer group (19 year old, White British here).

I'm not sure whether Asian kids do actually achieve higher grades than the average but this could correlate quite nicely with the entrance to Medical school or pharmacology degrees which put people in good stead for a job in a pharmacy.
Original post by megadanny1

I'm not sure whether Asian kids do actually achieve higher grades than the average but this could correlate quite nicely with the entrance to Medical school or pharmacology degrees which put people in good stead for a job in a pharmacy.


I think that the Chinese and Indians achieve better than the average but Bangladeshis and Pakistanis don't.
They certainly do.
LMAO
Reply 4
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TheBBQ
21
Original post by Protégé
I think that the Chinese and Indians achieve better than the average but Bangladeshis and Pakistanis don't.


Absolutely true.
Original post by UniMastermindBOSS
Serious question. I noticed that in nearly every pharmacy I've ever been to (whether it's independent or part of a supermarket or whatever) it seems to be entirely run by asians and hardly ever white people.

Also a lot of asians seem to enter the field of medicine or pharmacology more than other fields, why is this?


Because they know how to pluralise 'pharmacy' correctly. They are quite rare in that regard.
They couldn't become a doctor
Reply 7
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Talus
7
Original post by UniMastermindBOSS
Serious question. I noticed that in nearly every pharmacy I've ever been to (whether it's independent or part of a supermarket or whatever) it seems to be entirely run by asians and hardly ever white people.

Also a lot of asians seem to enter the field of medicine or pharmacology more than other fields, why is this?


There's a huge huge aspect within these cultures that favours studying sciences over humanities. It stems from the idea of status- people who are high academic achievers and manage to become Doctors and Engineers are considered to be rich and intelligent, two of the most valued characteristics within such cultures.

In very generalising terms, it boils down to making the offspring more desirable for marriage - families will want their sons and daughters to marry rich and intelligent people rather than those with "no future or chance for a stable job".

It also stems from the idea that the UK will always need Doctors and Pharmacists because people are always ill, so are less likely to racially discriminate with job offers than a non-medical based job.

^this by no means is my own opinion; this is just what I've gathered from people I've spoken to about it.
I'm sure there are some data sets out there that could be analysed to investigate which nationalities tend to be pushed towards different careers although I suspect that the reasons why would not be apparent in the data. I'm sure there is a paper on the subject out there somewhere.

Agree with poster above.
(edited 8 years ago)
As an Asian myself, it's due to upbringing and from that upbringing, Asians tend to achieve high grades thus, opportunities like medicine and dentistry and law and engineering, etc, are open to them.
My parents pushed me from the beginning to work hard at school, and I sort of get the motivation from that but they don't mind what I do in the future as long as it's a stable job, but I am going into the medicine section because I do genuinely want to do that.



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Because they want to.
Reply 11
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riq23
8
Original post by Nav_Mallhi
Because they want to.


no
Original post by riq23
no

ok
Because there are so many private training facilities in India; it also has something to do with taxation but I'm not into economics enough to explain it. This is all Googleable stuff; understand Indian gov't, understand the government of the country of which you're inquiring the number of Indian and other Asian pharmas, then understand economics of imports, and loans from the government to IPA for example (IPA=Indian Pharmacist Assoc), etc. and then understand how to put it all together :yy:
probably couldn't get into medicine
Original post by gr8wizard10
probably couldn't get into medicine


Lol true


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Original post by UniMastermindBOSS
Serious question. I noticed that in nearly every pharmacy I've ever been to (whether it's independent or part of a supermarket or whatever) it seems to be entirely run by asians and hardly ever white people.

Also a lot of asians seem to enter the field of medicine or pharmacology more than other fields, why is this?


all entirely on the upbringing of our parents, if a family is all in the career of medicine that may also lead them to study for medicine an example of this would be university of Manchester; many asians attend there to study medicine
am asian myself

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