It’s not necessarily because of low barriers to entry. In fact, over the past decade the barriers became unbelievably high, as policymakers and predatory lenders spent years artificially inflating the price of a taxi cab medallion — the city permit required to own a yellow cab — pushing many taxi drivers into spiraling debts that have led to multiple taxi drivers committing suicide.
But despite all that, the barriers are even more prohibitive in many other sectors, pushing immigrants into situations where they become vulnerable to all manner of exploitation, be it taxi medallion debt to ride hailing platform companies taking 25-30 percent of their revenues.