The recent murder of 10-year old Aaron Vu during a robbery at a nail salon shocked Miami.
It also brought to light a more positive story–the story of Vietnamese Americans who have embraced an entrepreneurial spirit to train in the nail industry, save enough money and then open their own shops.
Forty percent of the nail technicians in the United States are from Vietnam, according to statistics quoted in the Miami Herald from Nail Magazine.
“They have been able to come to the United States, work hard, climb the ladder and live the American dream,” said Alfred Osborne, senior associate dean at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business.
“The nail industry will help stabilize the lives of so many Vietnamese from Vietnam to America,” said Hieu Truong who opened a shop in 2006. “But with the second generation — for example, my children and my staff’s children — they are not going to choose a career in a nail salon, because they will have a diploma and will be good in English, so they can find another good job.”
You can read about how Vietnamese Americans gravitated toward the nail industry in the Miami Herald from Nail Magazine.
