国际英语新闻:US Motel Industry Tells Story of Indian-American Immigrants

Roadside motels are a quintessential feature of Americana dating back to the 1940s and '50s. Even today they are a staple of the American highway landscape. Their story, the subject of a new book, tells an equally American tale: the immigrants life.

The U.S. motel industry, from small independent motels to large economy franchises, is now dominated by Indian-Americans, many of whom are gathering in Atlanta, Georgia this week for the annual convention of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. The convention has enough pull to draw big name speakers such as former President Bill Clinton, former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch and other well-known celebrities.

The phenomenon of Indian-American predominance in the motel industry is explored in the new book, Life Behind the Lobby: Indian American Motel Owners and the American Dream, by Pawan Dhingra, a sociology professor at Oberlin College.

“[Indian-Americans] own over half of the motels in the country,” Dhingra said. “But they make up less than one percent of the population, and since most of the hotel owners are from the Indian state of Gujarat, it’s a subset of one percent.”

Dhingra said Indian-Americans didn’t come to the United States with plans to take over the motel industry.

“The first ones referred to themselves as accidental hoteliers,” he said, adding that most, if not all, arrived in the U.S. with no experience in the business.

According to Dhingra, it all started with Indian immigrants who were working in agriculture in northern California. The workers lived in residential hotels, one of which was owned by an Indian immigrant. Others learned the business from him.

Many of the workers found that running a motel was a much better life than working in the fields and scraping by, said Dhingra. And running a motel turned out to be a good match for new immigrants’ skills. They could succeed with some basic maintenance and business knowledge, and didn’t need to be fluent in English. Moreover, said, Dhingra, Indian-Americans are just good at running motels.

“They're very good at cutting costs while providing a quality experience,” he said. “They do a lot of work themselves, have no staff other than family members and they often live at the motel.”