It wasn’t uncommon in the 80s-90s to meet an Eastern European, Asian or Jewish immigrant who came from a STEM background but for a variety of reasons couldn’t work in their field once they moved to the US so they worked as store clerks or taxi drivers.
Perhaps the differences your talking about isn’t cultural but rather dependent on what economic and education class the immigrant parents came from.
To add to this; See this article & paper > https://news.ku.edu/2020/06/18/study-shows-african-immigrant...
> https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19376812.2020.17...
> The paper contrasts Nigerian newcomers with those from Somalia, whose work ethic is similarly strong, but whose lack of education hurts their employment prospects here.
> The authors wrote: “Overall, African-born immigrants aged 16 and over have a higher rate of employment (69.2%) relative to the foreign-born population (63.1%) and the general US population (59.9%).”
The study also notes significant differences between Nigerian immigrants, who mostly come from that country’s south, and Somalis. For one thing, with its history of British colonization, many more Nigerians speak English upon arrival in the U.S. than do Somalis. That makes the Nigerians’ transition easier in almost every respect.
“For the Nigerian-born immigrants, the proportion that possesses at least a bachelor's degree is 60.5%,” Chikanda said. “But when we look at the Somali-born population ... that's about 15%.”