<p>“In one part, you claim that the poor(est) do not really immigrate to the United States, and that the immigrants (at least in the case of India) are upwardly mobile.”</p>
<p>Not at ALL contradictory. My grandfather (whom I never met) was well-educated. He was a Lithuanian-Jewish silk trader who after World War I ended up in Turkey with a Turkish passport. He couldn’t get into the U.S., not because he was Lithuanian, nor Jewish, nor Turkish, but “Oriental”. He went to Canada, where he had absolutely nothing, changed his name to something French-like (he spoke French), and came to the U.S. as an illegal immigrant (as a French-Canadian). He had literally nothing but the clothing on his back. But definitely, definitively upwardly mobile.</p>
<p>The Patels who came to America often had virtually nothing, and most were poor (but usually educated) back in India. A cousin would give them a loan to take over a motel, thousands of which were failing all over the U.S. and so would cost very, very little (one of my friend’s parents took over a motel on the edge of the desert outside Bakersfield, California in the late 1970s - you can imagine what it was worth), and by dint of hard work - day and night (and living in one or two of the rooms and hence saving on rent), would first make ends meet, and then work their way up. This story has been repeated thousands of time throughout America, not just by Indians, but folks like my “Oriental” grandfather, Vietnamese grocers, Chinese dry cleaners, etc. They almost never came from the poorest classes back home (when they did, such as Hmong and Mien people who have come here, they usually have a very difficult time of it), they often have traditions of education or business acumen, and they make a go of it. And yes, in the first generation, the kids often do qualify for Pell Grants.</p>
<p>(If you are really interested, this is a good read: <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Patels-Gujurati-Community-History-United/dp/0934052395[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Patels-Gujurati-Community-History-United/dp/0934052395</a> )</p>