Minority Industries

A University of Chicago Ph.D. dissertation by Martin Mandorff ... shows that ethnic specialization is remarkably widespread among US immigrants. The following table from 2000 census data shows the leading specializations.

(the OVER is how many times more likely immigrant group x is to be in industry i than are other immigrants; * is for self-employed and ** is for employees).

In explanation, Varadarajan notes:

70 percent of all Indian motel owners — or a third of all motel owners in America — are called Patel, a surname that indicates they are members of a Gujarati Hindu subcaste. … ”In some American small towns they think ‘Patel’ is an Indian word for ‘motel.’”

{Patels are members of a caste called} vaishyas, or traders, who were once employed to calculate the tithes that were owed to medieval kings by farmers in Gujarat, an Indian state on the Arabian Sea.

And all of this happens without any central planning. Thanks for the tip, Aid Watch.