Exploring the impact of immigration in Oxford
By Katie Szekely
Miami University journalism student
Inside one of Oxford’s newest restaurants, Little India, the walls are lined with murals, plants and streamers. As the phone rings and orders come in, music plays and staff chat. Navgit Singh, Little India’s owner, opened the restaurant on Valentine’s Day this year.
Originally from India, Singh came to the United States in 2002 to live with his family. His uncle had worked in the restaurant industry for years, and Singh was inspired to follow in his footsteps.
“My uncle was in the business so I started working with him when I came to the U.S.A, so I was working in his restaurant,” Singh says. “I’ve been doing the same work since I got here.”
Singh, who now lives in Monroe, opened his first restaurant in Fairfield, but always wanted to open a location in a college town. Oxford became the place where that dream came true.
“We wanted to open one here a long time ago, like four or five years ago, but the rent was too high,” Singh says. “Eventually this space opened up and it was a reasonable price so we took over.”
Signh says that, so far, the reception from the community to Little India has been positive.
“The reception has been really good, we were surprised actually,” Singh says. “It’s mostly been just word of mouth and people in the community coming in and telling their friends about us.”
Oxford as a community prides itself on the diversity of cuisine and experiences that can be found in the town. Enjoy Oxford, a nonprofit organization that works to promote the city, touts Oxford’s “small town dining with global flavor.”
Kim Daggy is the executive director of Enjoy Oxford. She says the organization works to make sure the community connection in the town is strong.
“We try to help out anyone that is new to our community,” Daggy says. “We work with many organizations throughout town to help connect people with resources and get them involved.”
While not officially affiliated, Enjoy Oxford often partners with Miami University and other organizations to advertise and throw events that help connect the community.
Miami hosts a variety of Global Friendship Programs to help build relationships between international students and community members.
One specific program is the Global Neighbors Program, in which Oxford community members are matched with an international student to help share cultural experiences.
Miami’s Director of International Student and Scholar Services, Molly Heidemann, helps to facilitate this program and others like it.
“We match international students either with a domestic student or a family in the community for cultural exchange or just family and friendship purposes,” Heidemann says.
Heidemann says the process of getting to the United States from a foreign country can sometimes prove difficult.
“It can be pretty daunting to come to the US because the officers are really scrutinizing everything,” Heidemann says. “ The officer is kind of just trying to determine if everything adds up and makes sense. Sometimes they do get denied and have to try again and see if they can answer the questions better and sometimes they eventually are successful.”
Miami professor Leping You came to the United States for college as a teenager. She completed her masters and doctoral degree at the University of Florida. After graduating with her masters, she went through a difficult hiring process in the public relations field.
“For international students most of the companies wouldn’t support your work visa so that’s why if they know that you are not a green card holder they wouldn’t invite you for an interview, like first round interview or second round interview,” You says.
“So that’s why like international students like me or most other international students who don’t have green cards or work permissions they have to apply to tons of jobs and most of the time they wouldn’t hear many responses from the hiring managers because of their status, like immigrant status.”
After working in New York City, and briefly Hong Kong, she decided she wanted to return to academia, eventually getting hired at Miami University in 2020.
Since being in Oxford, You has noted some cultural differences within the town, compared to other cities she has lived in.
“In my first few years when I started teaching classes I was always looking out for minority students and there were only one or two Asian students or one or two Black students in my classes,” You says. “I believe that I haven’t had any Latino students in any of my classes here so far. I feel like, ‘Wow this is very homogeneous.’”
While it has taken some adjustment, You has come to appreciate some of the small-town aspects of Oxford, especially when it comes to her professional life.
“It’s a good place for doing research,” You says. “It’s very work-friendly.”
In Ohio, the immigrant population makes up 6% of the workforce, working in a variety of industries.
Immigrant business owners and entrepreneurs, like Singh, help to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, according to the American Immigration Council. In 2018, 9% of business owners in the Cincinnati/Middleton area were immigrants. In the same year, 30,432 immigrant business owners accounted for 6% of all self-employed Ohio residents.
Singh says he is still working to improve his restaurant. He has plans to expand the kitchen and is thinking about offering a buffet-style dining experience when students return in the fall.
“I used to come here and visit friends that were at school,” Singh says. “Back then there were two or three restaurants, like Krishna, but they closed. I saw the post for this space on Facebook and I said ‘Let’s give it a try.”
