The influx of Indian immigrants to the United States came in three waves. According to an article by the Columbia Business School, Indians are the largest source of new immigrants in the U.S. demographically. The first wave of immigrants came after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965; mostly educated doctors, scientists and engineers. The second wave comprised the relatives of those people in the 1980s. The third wave constitutes the ‘brain drain’ of the 90s, or mostly people who worked in the IT sector.

Of those Indians, Gujaratis make up 20% of the population. Among the Gujaratis, the Patel community thrived in the motel business by employing and expanding motel chains within themselves. They also started working in fast-food chains like Dunkin Donuts or Subway.

One of the Patels who migrated in the 90s was Neepa Patel. She was 17 years old when her family migrated to Atlanta in 1999 from Anand, Gujarat. It wasn’t a sudden decision. Neepa’s family had applied for a visa more than ten years prior and their file was finally processed in 1999.

Similarly, Yash Patel and his family migrated to the States in 2013, just after he finished high school. They came to Detroit in search of better opportunities, leaving their clothing business and a large group of family and friends.

More recently, in 2019, Aayushi Patel and her family moved to the United States where she could pursue residency after completing medical school in India. Her father sold his successful pharmaceutical business back in Anand, India, and flew to Atlanta.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 brought significant changes to immigration policies and included immediate family members of U.S. citizens for the first time. They also created a green card lottery system through which people were awarded permanent residency status. As a result, there was an increase in immigration and the foreign-born U.S. population rose from 7.9% to 11.1% from 1990 to 2000.

All three of them, who are not related despite sharing the same last name, have similar stories of their parents wanting to move to America to provide better opportunities. Each family left their homes, businesses, friends and families and resettled for a better life. All three of them already had relatives who had moved to the States more than ten years ago and had applied for their green card, and as soon as their file was processed, they also migrated to America.