Cornering The Market

What causes an ethnic group to corner the market on some totally incongruous area of local business? I first noticed this when almost every H. Salt Fish & Chip shop in the greater Los Angeles area was run by an overworked Vietnamese couple. This hardly made sense as the British, as far as I know, had little or no presence in Vietnam. In Seattle, you will find many Sikh men working at car rental counters at Sea-Tac airport. Granted, the Avis royal red or Hertz cadmium yellow blazer looks great with a full beard and turban, but, really, WTF? Do they tell each other about the wonderful perks? "Sanjay, you can upgrade from compact to midsize and still get unlimited mileage. This is a very economical move." As a side note, the Sea-Tac parking structure is maddeningly symmetrical, making it far easier to misplace your car. And it's no good using a Sikh parking valet as a reference marker. Beard, turban, Avis blazer... it all blends together. And in Austin, every cab driver I met during my short visit was African. Notice I didn't say "African-American," but "African." And these are not engineering students from the local university making some extra rave party money. These are grown-ass men. What a quantum leap from eking out a living in your village and fighting off power-mad militia soldiers to driving visiting Asian businessmen around Austin looking for the perfect barbecue. I'm waiting for Uzbekestani immigrants to corner the market on Mexican ice cream carts.