Gujarati Americans

Gujarati Americans
ગુજરાતી અમેરિકનો
The language spread of Gujarati in the United States according to U. S. Census 2000
Total population
1,330,000(2015)[1]
350,000 (2015)[1] - 434,264 (2017)[2][3] people speak the language in the USA
Regions with significant populations
New Jersey, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia[4]
Languages
English, Gujarati,[5] Hindi,[5]
Religion
Hinduism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Jainism[6][7]
Related ethnic groups
Indian Americans, Asian Americans

Gujarati Americans are Americans who trace their ancestry to Gujarat, India. They are a subgroup of Indian Americans.

Gujaratis have achieved a high demographic profile in many urban districts worldwide, notably in India Square, or Little Gujarat, in Bombay, Jersey City, New Jersey, in the New York City Metropolitan Area, United States, as large-scale immigration from India continues into New York,[8][9][10][11] with the largest metropolitan Gujarati population outside of India.

The highest concentration of the Gujarati American population by a significant margin, with over 100,000 Gujarati individuals, is in the New York City Metropolitan Area, notably in the growing Gujarati diasporic center of India Square, or Little Gujarat, in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Edison in Middlesex County in Central New Jersey. Significant immigration from India to the United States started after the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965,[12][13] Early immigrants after 1965 were highly educated professionals. Since US immigration laws allow sponsoring immigration of parents, children and particularly siblings on the basis of family reunion, the numbers rapidly swelled in a phenomenon known as "chain migration". Faith plays a big role in the rapidly growing Gujarati community in North Texas, which has three large Hindu temples. Census numbers showed that from 2000 to 2010, the population more than doubled, going from 49,181 to 106,964 for Collin, Dallas, Denton, Rockwall and Tarrant counties. Richardson has a long-established Gujarati population, and it was there that a group of businessmen founded the India Association of North Texas (1962). Changes in recent years have been more drastic.

Given the Gujarati propensity for entrepreneurship and business enterprise, a number of them opened shops and motels. Now in the 21st century over 40% of the hospitality industry in the United States is controlled by Gujaratis.[14][15][16] Gujaratis, especially the Patidar samaj, also dominate as franchisees of fast food restaurant chains such as Subway and Dunkin' Donuts.[17] The descendants of the Gujarati immigrant generation have also made high levels of advancement into professional fields, including as physicians, engineers[18] and politicians. In August 2016, Air India commenced direct, one-seat flight service between Ahmedabad and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, via London Heathrow International Airport.[19]

  1. ^ a b Parth Shastri (January 4, 2015). "Gujaratis 6% of Indians, but 20% of US Indians". TNN.
  2. ^ "Most widely-spoken Indian languages in the US, 2017". Atlas. September 24, 2018.
  3. ^ Bhattacharya, Ananya. "America's fastest growing foreign language is from south India". Quartz India.
  4. ^ "Gujaratis 6% of Indians, but 20% of US Indians". Times of India. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Migration Information Source — Indian Immigrants in the United States". Migrationinformation.org. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
  6. ^ "Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths". Pew Forum. 2012-07-19. Archived from the original on 2013-07-16. Retrieved 2014-08-11.
  7. ^ "Pew Forum — Indian Americans' Religions". Projects.pewforum.org. 2012-07-18. Archived from the original on 2014-09-04. Retrieved 2014-08-11.
  8. ^ "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2013 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2014-06-18.
  9. ^ "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2012 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  10. ^ "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2011 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  11. ^ "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2010 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  12. ^ Keely, Charles B. (May 1971). "Effects of the immigration act of 1965 on selected population characteristics of immigrants to the United States". Demography. 8 (2): 157–169. doi:10.2307/2060606. JSTOR 2060606. PMID 5163987. S2CID 36538373.
  13. ^ Khandelwal, MS (1995). The politics of space in South asian Diaspora , Chapter 7 Indian immigrants in Queens, New York City: patterns of spatial concentration and distribution, 1965–1990 - Nation and migration: - books.google.com. Philadelphia, USA: University of Pennsylvania. p. 179. ISBN 0-8122-3259-3. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  14. ^ Kalnins, Arthur; Chung, Wilbur (2001). Greve, Henrich R.; Baum, Joel A.C. (eds.). Multiunit organization and multimarket strategy (1 ed.). New York: JAI. pp. 33–48. ISBN 0-7623-0721-8.
  15. ^ Staff, W. S. J. (11 June 2012). "Why Indian Americans Dominate the U.S. Motel Industry". Blogs.wsj.com. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  16. ^ HIRAL DHOLAKIA-DAVE (Oct 18, 2006). "42% of US hotel business is Gujarati". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 February 2015. Gujaratis, mainly Patels, now own 21,000 of the 53,000 hotels and motels in the US. It makes for a staggering 42% of the US hospitality market, with a combined worth of $40 billion.
  17. ^ Rangaswami, Padma (2000). Namaste America: Indian Immigrants in an American Metropolis. University park, PA, USA: Pennsylvania State University press. p. 285. ISBN 0271--01980-8.
  18. ^ Dave, Shaily (2021-02-20). "My Experience as a Gujarati Student in the States". TheBossMonk. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  19. ^ Ashish Chauhan (August 15, 2016). "Air India launches Ahmedabad to Newark flight". The Times of India. Retrieved September 8, 2016.