“What country is this?” Many bemused Americans might ask that question as they go about their work and play. Whether shopping for vegetables among the hundreds of Korean-run greengroceries in Manhattan, or stopping for the night at one of the innumerable Indian-owned hotels in California, Americans are increasingly finding that entire businesses have acquired a foreign-born flavor. Indeed, through a process that is at times too slow to be noticed and at others astonishingly quick, industrious newcomers have been carving out miniature monopolies for themselves in corners of the U.S. economy. The latest immigrants are following an arduous and traditional path into American society. Throughout the country’s history, groups of newcomers have tended to cluster in certain jobs and then dominate their chosen fields by long and hard work. “This is a very common, recurrent phenomenon,” says Harvard Sociologist Daniel Bell. German arrivals with names like Schlitz, Busch and Miller became beermakers in the mid-19th century, for example, while Italians grew fruits and vegetables and produced wine. Immigrants flock to certain fields for a variety of reasons. The new occupations are often adaptations of what the immigrants did before. “People look for a match between what they can do and what offers an opportunity,” says Harvard Sociologist Nathan Glazer. “They try to find a niche, and what’s surprising is that there’s always a niche to fill.” Jewish tailors from Central and Eastern Europe became important in the American garment industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Chinese laborers, barred by discrimination from many occupations in the American West, found that they could become entrepreneurs by opening laundries. Newcomers often gravitate to a field because their countrymen are already there. The old-timers give financial aid and practical advice and generally make the arrivals welcome. Such support gives a sense of security in a foreign and sometimes hostile environment. The fledgling businessmen encounter varying degrees of resistance. In Texas, fighting broke out between Vietnamese shrimpers, who began arriving in force in the late 1970s, and the American fishermen who were already there. More often, the newcomers move into occupations that other groups are leaving. The immigrants are thus frequently like younger siblings who inherit the possessions of their older brothers and sisters. The arrivals are prodigious savers. Since their goals are to expand their businesses and provide their children with the education they will need to move up in U.S. society, the new entrepreneurs tend to live frugally. Instead of spending their earnings on flashy cars and other items, the immigrants use their income to invest in the future.
