Given that they theoretically have all the same opportunities Mexicans have, I wonder why it is they migrate to cab driving, and this in turn makes me wonder if cultural factors might not be on display.
As a group, Muslims are taught the doctrine of supremacy, that their faith and culture are better in an objective an ontological sense than all other creeds, and are destined to rule the world; or at least, that is the task given the faithful. I wonder if the idea of working for an infidel is simply something they cannot countenance. They work for someone as taxi drivers of course, but are largely on their own.
And I think too to some acquaintances I’ve known who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I remember one Ranger I knew saying something close to “The Will of Allah and the will to work seem to be at odds”. I remember someone posting about how the plumbers were completely indifferent to getting the hot and cold consistently on the same sides, or even matching up the red and blue, and wondering how such a sloppy and indifferent people could ever be made into a coherent and peaceful nation.
I wonder, to put it briefly, if they simply detest physical labor. As conquerors who took copious slaves, the default mindset of all Muslims, in my outside looking in view, is to want to be a part of a ruling and privileged elite, who by definition do not defile their hands with manual labor.
These are of course generalities based on my individual experience, which at that I cannot claim to be comprehensive. I cannot say I have researched this. I merely offer possibilities, of the sort most people are unwilling to offer.