Even though I grew up surrounded by a sizeable community of Asian Indians it is still a culture I know very little about. It was interesting to learn about the culture through my outside research and my interview with my neighbor, Nimita Kommogu. I learned a lot about the various waves of Indian immigration as well as the significance of the visa process. I also gained a more in-depth understanding of what it means to grow up Indian in California.
The history of Indian immigration to the United States was surprising because I did not realize how recently the immigration began. Widespread India migration to the United States did not truly begin until 1965. Between 1820 and 1960, less than 15,000 Asian Indians were allowed to legally enter the United States (Das, 135). This changed in 1965 with the Immigration and Nationality Act, which started the increased flow of Indian immigrants (Keely, 162). It is important to note that Indian immigration was restricted by level of skills. Only men and women "with professional skills needed in American society could emigrate from the Indian subcontinent" which drastically changed the makeup of the immigrants (Das, 139). Indian immigrants before the 1960s immigrated primarily to California and Western states. (Li, 168) However, as more immigrants move here, the Indian population has spread out and now has significant populations on the East Coast too. (Li, 168) There is a predominant trend of Indians, as well as other Asians moving to suburbs instead of urban areas. This is especially relevant in California where large communities of Indians have begun to characterize certain suburban cities.
I interviewed my neighbor Nimita, who goes by Nate, for my paper. She identifies as American Indian...
... middle of paper ...
... wealthy or being in the middle class. Nate explained that the majority of Indians that were allowed to immigrate, especially in earlier years, had to be well off. This made me think more about various stereotypes and what we associate with different ethnicities and how these may come from historical or social events. If Indians were allowed to immigrate with different skill levels or without needing to be well off would the perception of Indian’s in the United States be different? How many other stereotypes of various ethnicities were created by similar happenstances? These questions, though hypothetical, help situate my thoughts about Indians in the United States as well as different ethnic communities. It is interesting to think about what might have been and how much of my perception of the world has been affected by things that have never even crossed my mind.
It had previously been the policy of the American government to remove and relocate Indians further and further west as the American population grew, but there was only so much...
Chowdhury, Nahrin. "The Assimilation Of Bengali Immigrants In The United States." Conference Papers -- American Sociological Association(2005): 1-20. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Immigration is, and has been, never a fair game for the people who do not possess certain privileges. Broadly for the poor and for the people of color, but specifically for people of color, immigration (and perhaps life thereafter) was a site of struggle, then and now. It is not an imagination; however, it is a daunting truth that many of the immigrants live by, both during the turn of the twentieth century and the immigration in the later twentieth century until now. At both times, some were able to assimilate and fully achieve the American status, while some did not, and people who were allowed full incorporation were people with certain privilege: the racial privilege. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, race was
Race figured prominently in the development of immigration policies in the U.S. It had been most important characteristic used to determine whether or not one would be considered an American for many years. Predetermined by earlier race relations between Americans of the European and African descend, the black and white paradigm was challenged with an arrival of Asian Indian immigrants. Their dark skin hue and Aryan ancestry put this group of immigrants in an ambiguous position in regards to the right of U.S. citizenship. It is through a case-by-case process of determining one’s eligibility for naturalization that the difference between white and non-white categories had been clarified, contributing to the justification of social inequality and the formation of unassimilable groups of Asian immigrants.
In the years from 1860 through 1890, the prospect of a better life attracted nearly ten million immigrants who settled in cities around the United States. The growing number of industries produced demands for thousands of new workers and immigrants were seeking more economic opportunities. Most immigrants settled near each other’s own nationality and/or original village when in America.
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
Indians were expected to fail. “... we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world.” Indians were not treated right many
In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and famine, and make a better life for themselves. Forgetting their origins as persecuted and excluded people, the older and more established immigrants became possessive about their country and tried to exclude and persecute the immigrant groups from non-western European backgrounds arriving in the U.S. This hostile, defensive, and xenophobic reaction to influxes of “new” immigrants known as Nativism was not far out of the mainstream. Nativism became a part of the American cultural and political landscape and helped to shape, through exclusion, the face of the United States for years to come.
Many people do not realize that Indian people are around us everyday. They could be our neighbors, our bus driver, or anyone that we see on a daily bases. In Thomas King’s essay “You’re not the Indian I Had in Mind,” and his video “I’m not the Indian You Had in Mind,” he exemplifies the stereotype that many people make about Indians. King mentions in his essay that people always would say to him, “you’re not the Indian I had in mind,” because he did not look like the stereotypical Indian. Through King’s essay and video, I have been educated about this stereotype that I was unaware of. Since I now have an understanding of how unrealistic this stereotype is, I now can educate friends and family members on this issue.
While the media and educational institutions use the term “Native American” at times this term has been controversial.
Generally, the Second Great Migration proved to be an impactful event in American history that shifted the balanced of race in northern cities. There are both positive and negative outcomes from this transition that are directly related to the discrimination faced by minorities in American society. As more awareness reaches the public, hopefully these outdated perceptions can be altered to benefit those who have been restricted from obtaining greater
According to Deloria, there are many misconceptions pertaining to the Indians. He amusingly tells of the common White practice of ...
Ethnic immigration in America has been a topic of much research, where sociologists attempt to understand why immigrants choose to permanently settle to the US, especially from Latin America and Asia. Some come for the chance at a better life, and others come for family reunification. In the case of Michael, a 2nd generation American whose parents emigrated from the Philippines, it was both. Michael discusses the struggles his family experienced, his self-identification, educational achievements and goals, along with reasons why his parents chose to immigrate and permanently settle within an ethnic enclave of Los Angeles. Immigrants may be cast in a harsh light, with some natives fearing they may replace American culture with their own, crime, or fear of hurting the economy. However, Michael’s life experiences demonstrate that he is like most immigrants who come to America; in reality, they are actually assimilating to American culture in an upwardly mobile
...which has caused the changes in American culture in two centuries. It can be approached from many different views. Instead of America being a nation, we can redefine it as a multicultural society; or the lasting establishment of positive action for immigrants based on their race; or immigrant are seen as the big promoter of the America culture because they get into intermarriage relationship that expand their culture mix with American culture as the population increase. The Immigrant has been blamed of decline in educational and environmental standards in areas dominated by Hispanics. At the turn of the century a wave of new immigrants Jews and Italians were believed to be too different to assimilate into American cultural life. Today the same fears are raised about immigrants’ from Asia and Latin America, as their counterparts were in previous historical time.
Even though the initiatives were successful in creating a generation of Indians with confused identities, it did not succeed in eliminating the remnants of the Indian culture. These children did not become white as anticipated in the euro-American experiment, which was a major failure. This experiment suggests that every individual adapts to behaviors and beliefs in a new culture while maintaining those associated with their own culture that is learned through enculturation as a