There is a long-standing tradition of different immigrant groups arriving in the U.S. and specializing in one particular type of business. Think, nail salons run by people from Vietnam or Gujarati Indians owning motels and hotels.
Yemenis are another immigrant community that has largely clustered around one industry, in their case, bodegas and small grocery stores. There are thousands of these shops all over the country, despite Yemeni-Americans only making up around one-fortieth of one percent of the U.S. population, according to the last census.
In the past 9 years, a new business success story has been built on top of that foundation: Yemeni coffee houses.
Today on the show, why some immigrant groups concentrate in a single industry, while others spread out to work in all sorts of jobs. And what it’s like for the next generation to try to expand on their parents’ success.
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Today’s episode of Planet Money was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Jeff Guo. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Keith Romer, and fact-checked by Dania Suleman. Engineering by Cena Loffredo and Travis Hagen. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
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