The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 12

Post 12 Th Lincoln Star Wednesday, June 12, 1985 v. Commeres' Savings- Indian immigrants big in motels SPARKS, Ca. AP)- As the sun sinks gives you more lor stoup money Higher Interest FDIC Protection Free Gifts 7 1 -month gnu Annual Rnto Effectlv Annual Yli-ld (q) 12- month Ho. fol if. Effsotiv Annual Yield Annual Rat month 0.08 Annual Rata lot," aid Motani, a former college professor whose Indian grandparents settled la East Africa in the 1890s.

THERE'S NO DOUBT in my mind that America Is the greatest country in the world. Those of us who ere here should consider ourselves very fortunate." Kiran Patel said Indians enter the motel business because It doesnt require a tot of experience, the entire family can participate and they often can secure assistance from the seller in buying the property. "Indians are hard workers," be said. "Families play an important role In making a success of tt." Among Georgia's S47 Asian Indians In 1980, an estimated 200 to 250 were listed as working in the motel business. In Albany, which has at least three Indian-owned motels, they have formed India Sports Club and regularly play cricket at the local junior college.

Jayram Patel pointed out that nearly every exit of Interstate 75 In Georgia -has an Indian motel owner. A major link between the US. heartland and the Florida beaches, 1-75 Is among the busiest Interstate in toe nation. "We do fairly good. Once you know everything, It's easy," he said, noting that he hopes eventually to buy a bigger motel near a city.

The profits are better than any other business." Rffontiv Annual Yield 9 Interest is compounded quarterly with a $000 minimum investment on 6 and IS month Certificates, and a $100 minimum investment on 30 month Certificates. Compare rates and call us today. 361,544 between 197 and 1980, according to Abraham. By the end of this year, he said, 500,000 Indians are expected to immigrate to the United States. A ASIAN INDIANS currently have the highest per-capita Income of an ethnic groups In the country, said Abraham, Because of their traditional emphasis on education, many Indians work as cot lege professors, engineers and scientists, but thousands have put their degrees aside to be Innkeepers fat rural towns like Sparks, a south Georgia farm com-' munlty of 1,300 that Patel calls slow to accept newcomers.

"They're very conservative people," Patel said. "They dont like too much foreigner! They dont even like people from North Carolina." Thousands of the Indian motel owners have the same surname, Patel, but are not necessarily related, according to Abraham, who joked that "the Patels own more motels than Hilton and Sherai ton combined." Patel is a caste name for a Hindu business class in' Gujarat, a state Iri' western India known for Its merchant-. entrepreneurs, Although Indian innkeepers are found in nearly every state, many have settled in California and in the Southeast cause of the warm climate. 't "We are warm blooded people," said Kiran R. Patel, the Oxford-educated owner of a 50-room motel in Athens.

"Most of us have had enough of that mis- erable weather up North," Nlzar Motani, aft owner of the 151-. room Sheraton Motel to Albany, the largest city in southwest Georgia, said many people in India, influenced by movies and television programs, view the United States as a land of "golden oppor- tunity." "People have an image of America as a place they should go to improve their over a pine forest, Jayram Patcl sits it toe front desk of his brick motel, await-' tog the weary travelers who pull off busy Interstate 75. Armed with a master's degree and an entrepreneurial spirit, Patel left his native India hi 197L He worked' as a chemist in New Jersey and Tennessee until he had saved enough money to buy the Sparks Inn In 1979L The first year was a little disappoint- tog," said Patel, noting that he and his i wife, Nila, sometimes had to work 24 hours a day while building a reliable staff of 11 "If the cook doesn't show up, you have to be a cook. You've got to be prepared for everything." The Patels, seeking what he described as "better opportunity," and their fellow Indian Immigrants have found a niche In the motel business. Indians In large numbers began enter-' tag the United States from Canada, England and Africa in the early 1970s.

Unlike some other immigrants, they had cash to invest At the same time, the Arab oil embargo had cut down on holiday driving In the United States. Many American motel owners sold their slumping businesses to the Indians, who were looking for businesses they could team quickly. ACCORDING TO one estimate, about 15,000, or 28 percent, of the nation's 53,829 motels and hotels are owned by Indians or people of Indian descent i "They just got in at the right time and began helping relatives," said Thomas Abraham, president of the New York-. based National Federation of Asian Indian Organizations In America. He's compiled a list of Indian businesses in the United States.

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