I'm not sure that's true given that immigrants are 80% more likely to start a business than people born in the U.S.[0]. That's the case in almost every country[1].
Wouldn't that fit the second criteria since many first generation immigrants don't have the requisite language skills to compete with the native population for middle class jobs.
A fair amount of immigrants are less likely to have resources like capital or relationships to accommodate a different path so parent is likely right that they are somewhat forced onto path of entrepreneur.
[0] https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/05/09/immigrants-are-80-more-...
[1] https://hbr.org/2021/08/research-why-immigrants-are-more-lik...