Indian (south Asian) Americans - infos and cultural analysis

[GiCa]

INDIANS (south Asian) AMERICANS

About 4,000,000

51% Hindus
18% Christians
10% Muslims
5% Sikhs
2% Jainists

Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are Americans whose ancestry belongs to any of the many ethnic groups of the Republic of India. As the most socio-economically successful minority ethnic group in the U.S., Indian Americans comprise 4 million people, representing around 1.25% of the U.S. population as of 2015. Indian Americans are the second-largest self-reported single-race Asian ancestry group after Chinese Americans, and the country's third-largest Asian group alone or in combination with other races after Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans, according to 2015 American Community Survey data. The U.S. Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with the indigenous peoples of the Americas commonly referred to as American Indians (or Native Americans).

In the Americas, historically, the term "Indian" has been most commonly used to refer to the indigenous people of the continents after European colonization in the 15th century. Qualifying terms such as "American Indian" and "East Indian" were and are commonly used to avoid ambiguity. The U.S. government has since coined the term "Native American" to refer to the indigenous peoples of the United States, but terms such as "American Indian" remain popular among both indigenous and non-indigenous populations. Since the 1980, Indian Americans have been categorized as "Asian Indian" (within the broader subgroup of Asian American) by the United States Census Bureau.

While "East Indian" remains in use, the term "South Asian" is often chosen instead for academic and governmental purposes. Indian Americans are a subgroup of South Asian Americans, a group that also includes Bangladeshi Americans, Bhutanese Americans, Nepalese Americans, Pakistani Americans, Sri Lankan Americans, etc.

The Naturalization Act of 1790 made Asians ineligible for citizenship, with citizenship limited to whites only.

Indian immigration began in the mid-19th century, with more than two thousand Indians living in the United States, primarily on the West Coast, by the end of the century. The presence of Indian-Americans also helped develop interest in Eastern religions in the US and would result in its influence on American philosophies such as Transcendentalism. Swami Vivekananda arriving in Chicago at the World's Fair led to the establishment of the Vedanta Society. Many Punjabis migrated to the western US in the 19th and early 20th century followed by many other.

Prior to 1965, Indian immigration to the U.S. was small and isolated, with fewer than fifty thousand Indian immigrants in the country. The Bellingham riots in Bellingham, Washington on September 5, 1907 epitomized the low tolerance in the U.S. for Indians and Hindus. While anti-Asian racism was embedded in U.S. politics and culture in the early 20th century, Indians were also racialized for their anticolonialism, with U.S. officials, casting them as a "Hindu" menace, pushing for Western imperial expansion abroad. Although labeled Hindu, the majority of Indians were Sikh. In the 1923 case, United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the Supreme Court ruled that high caste Hindus were not "white persons" and were therefore racially ineligible for naturalized citizenship. The Court also argued that the racial difference between Indians and whites was so great that the "great body of our people" would reject assimilation with Indians.

It was after the Luce–Celler Act of 1946 that a quota of 100 Indians per year could immigrate to the U.S. and become citizens. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional Northern European and Germanic groups, which would significantly alter the demographic mix in the U.S. Not all Indian Americans came directly from India; some came to the U.S. via Indian communities in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Mauritius), the Asia-Pacific region (Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Fiji), and the Caribbean (Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, and Jamaica).

Indian Americans continuously outpace every ethnic group socioeconomically per U.S. Census statistics. Indian Americans, along with other Asian Americans, have attained the highest educational levels of all ethnic groups in the U.S. 71% of all Indians have a bachelor's or higher degree (compared to 28% nationally and 44% average for all Asian American groups). Almost 40% of all Indians in the United States have a master’s, doctorate, or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. Thomas Friedman, in his book The World is Flat explains this trend in terms of brain drain, whereby the best and brightest elements in India emigrate to the US in order to seek better financial opportunities. Indians form the second largest group of physicians (3.9%) after non-Hispanic whites as of the 1990 survey, and very likely much more like 10% in 2015.

[mustang981]

I agree with almost all of what's written there.

[GiCa]