How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
nationalgeographic.com
How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
1–10 of 256 posts
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#2Is the author generalizing other South Asian immigrants as Indian Americans? Or is it factual that Indian-Americans do own 50% of motels in the USA? Because I have seen a lot of Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and even Arabs owning motel businesses across the USA. I am not cleared about this just from reading the article alone.
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#3This model has led to success for other immigrant groups in other industries.
> Many followed his advice. “They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, and profits went toward acquiring new motels. By the 1980s Gujaratis had come to dominate the industry.
The "killer app" here appears to be a lack of resources beyond established relationships. Because of this, whole families were willing to spend their time doing work that most Americans feel is not worth their time.
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#4Is the author generalizing other South Asian immigrants as Indian Americans? Or is it factual that Indian-Americans do own 50% of motels in the USA? Because I have seen a lot of Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and even Arabs owning motel businesses across the USA. I am not cleared about this just from reading the article alone.
> About half the country’s motels are now owned by Indian Americans. A majority of these owners are from Gujarat state’s industrious Patel community, leading them to be jokingly referred to as the Patel Motel Cartel.
They are mostly from one region of India.
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#5Is the author generalizing other South Asian immigrants as Indian Americans? Or is it factual that Indian-Americans do own 50% of motels in the USA? Because I have seen a lot of Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and even Arabs owning motel businesses across the USA. I am not cleared about this just from reading the article alone.
I think it safe to say they mean "Indian American" in a racial rather than national context, akin to "African American". So I'd take it to include people who have ethnic ties to the entire Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan and Bangladesh.
As a Canadian who has lived many years in the US, the casual use of racial descriptors still shocks me. I find is very discomforting to be asked my race on forms, to see national news talk about how different ethnic groups feel about this or that.
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#6[deleted]
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#7Is the author generalizing other South Asian immigrants as Indian Americans? Or is it factual that Indian-Americans do own 50% of motels in the USA? Because I have seen a lot of Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and even Arabs owning motel businesses across the USA. I am not cleared about this just from reading the article alone.
A NYTimes article from 1999 says it specifically Gujarati Indians, or those with the surname Patel.
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/04/magazine/a-patel-motel-ca...
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#8Is the author generalizing other South Asian immigrants as Indian Americans? Or is it factual that Indian-Americans do own 50% of motels in the USA? Because I have seen a lot of Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and even Arabs owning motel businesses across the USA. I am not cleared about this just from reading the article alone.
I think it safe to say they mean "Indian American" in a racial rather than national context, akin to "African American". So I'd take it to include people who have ethnic ties to the entire Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. As a Canadian who has lived many years in the US, the casual use of racial descriptors still shocks me. I find is very discomforting to be asked my race on forms, to see natio…
No, they explicitly mean Indian, even more specifically Gujarati Indians.
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#9This model has led to success for other immigrant groups in other industries. > Many followed his advice. “They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, an…
Could this apply, or have applied, to farms? I bet that would have a lot of interesting social effects.
Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels
#10TLDR: via aristocracy (a good version of it), more or less. IOW, the hard work of generations prior, with "compounded interest" of the hard work of each generation since.
This is definitely worth reading. This short and simple article has lots of lessons.