Culminating the History of a Diasporic People: Indian Immigrants and their Place in the United States

The above clip from Aziz Ansari’s Netflix show alludes to a universal experience Indians have in America; since race is most often viewed through a polarized lens, as either black or white, there is no real room for diverse ethnic groups such as Indians. Left out of the racial dichotomy, Indians are usually pushed into the “Asian” category in terms of race. However, even that label does not do Indian Americans justice, considering the term “Asian” in the United States is widely understood to reference east Asians (or more specifically, people of Chinese descent). In essence, the Indian population is outcast in the sense that it does not completely fit in anywhere on the typical American spectrum of race. Despite being misfits in traditional race discussions, Indians are one of the most rapidly growing and successful immigrant groups in the United States. Obtaining high levels of education in India, continuing education in the United States, and working hard in the fields they are a part of, Indian immigrants are forging their own paths and identities. In the following website, we attempt to briefly outline Indian immigration history, while identifying and underlining the characteristics that define Indians in America.

California became a favored location amongst Sikhs who were immigrating to the United States post-1910 because it had many of the same crops and agricultural products as those found in Punjab, allowing these early immigrants to perform farm work with ease. The familiar weather and food found in California allowed immigrants to have some reminder of home, thereby making their transition a bit easier. Although the Indians were able to adapt to their new location and integrate themselves into American society through agricultural work, many Californians (especially nativists) were not accepting of their newly arrived peers. Indians were constantly vilified by both politicians and the media, who perpetuated negative stereotypes and generalized increased Indian immigration in California as the “Hindu Invasion”. Such hostile media portrayals insinuated that the increased presence of Indians in California was unwelcome, something both Californians and Americans should be wary of.

It is not surprising that the top two neighborhoods of residence for Indian immigrants are Richmond Hill and Jackson Heights, considering the resources and ethnic make ups of these neighborhoods. One of the largest pull factors for Indian immigrants to neighborhoods like Jackson Heights is how similar to home it feels. For instance, Jackson Heights (commonly known as “Little India”) has a bustling shopping area where items like Indian clothing, groceries, and jewelry are readily available. Without these resources, it would most likely be harder for immigrant families to keep up a connection with their culture, whether that is through the food they cook at home or the clothes they wear outside. The large presence of Indian immigrants in the neighborhood which calls the “Little India” market place home has established a form of an ethnic enclave. As seen in Figure 1 (below), Indian immigrants tend to settle in neighborhoods adjacent to one another and concentrate in one, large area of New York City in Queens.

Considering most stores in areas like the Jackson Heights marketplace are owned and operated by Indian immigrants, there are many connections and relationships that could be forged by walking through or living in proximity to the market. In this manner, living in areas that already boast an established Indian community affords immigrants both a sense of belonging and opportunities to thrive financially (e.g., immigrant owned businesses in the marketplace prefer to employ other immigrants). Richmond Hill is very similar to Jackson Heights in its ethnic composition and growing Indian marketplaces, although it is easier to own homes in the more suburban Richmond Hill due to its location being further from Manhattan. Additionally, in both Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill, there exists an abundance of houses of worship which allow immigrants to freely practice their religion. Home to numerous Sikh, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist houses of worship, Jackson Heights allows immigrants the freedom to walk into their preferred house of worship, mingle with other members of their community, and maintain some aspects of their life in India. Overarchingly, the strongest reason that Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill are attractive neighborhoods for settlement is the existence of established Indian communities which help ease transitions from Indian to American life and allow immigrants to keep crucial parts of their identity alive.

Ethnic enclaves facilitate an easier transition into American life and do more good than harm. Ethnic enclaves are necessary because they provide immigrants, uprooted from their home countries, a sense of home and familiarity in America. When people are around their own community, with a common language and common traditional practices, they are able to (in a way) skip the mother-tongue/English language barrier and thrive regardless of their English proficiency. In this manner, they can immediately begin to work and make their own salaries to become independent. There is no middle man between themselves and American society. Furthermore, enclaves provide constant ethnic representation which contributes to a feeling of belonging, as minorities are more likely to trust each other and consequently reach out for help when needed. Otherwise, there is a large chance many immigrants would be outcasts or mentally upset because they have received and continue to receive messages that they don’t belong in this country, even if they have already made sacrifices too large to divest.

Early Indian immigrants, largely Sikhs from Punjab, faced challenges upon their first steps into the United States. Thousands of Sikhs were barred from entering the country at the Angel Island –a detention facility-like immigration station where immigrants were held for weeks, months, and even years on end. Carvings in walls of detention barracks by immigrants are especially powerful: they affirm the existence of immigrants who needed to tell their own stories in a country that marginalized them through detention.

Angel Island was a physical manifestation of increasingly hostile and exclusionist ideologies and legal changes that were happening throughout the country.The 1917 Immigration Act barred immigrants from specific regions in Asia, including India, from entering the United States. Moreover, the Supreme Court case United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923) furthered the notion that Indian immigrants were not welcome in the United States. The Supreme Court decided that Thind was not eligible for naturalization because the Naturalization Act of 1906 (which granted white individuals and their African counterparts citizenship) did not apply to him. Thind had attempted to apply for citizenship under the Naturalization Act by arguing that Indians could be classified as Caucasian (considering their Aryan lineage) and were therefore allowed to naturalize. The court, disagreeing with his statement, stated that “White” and “Caucasian” were not synonymous and ruled that Indian immigrants could no longer become citizens at all, while invalidating all prior grants of citizenship.

The discrimination Indian immigrants experienced in the United States is analogous to hardships the Chinese faced as they attempted to integrate into American society. As John Higham noted in “The Origins of Immigration Restriction, 1882-1897: A Social Analysis”, immigrants are often used as a “demoralized tool of privilege” (79). The Chinese were accused of taking jobs away from Americans when in reality they were occupying jobs that no one else wanted. In a similar vein, Sikhs were accused to be “invading” California, when in reality, they were simply trying to forge sustainable lives for themselves within the region. The fear that these two immigrant groups inspired within the general population caused restrictions to be passed on their immigration into the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was unique because it was the first instance in which a particular ethnic group was barred from entering the United States. The Act applied specifically to Chinese laborers, who Americans viewed as being competition in the shrinking job market. The Act itself stems in part from European laborers’ fear that their Asian counterparts constituted a threat at a time of fierce competition during the California Gold Rush. This was similar to how Sikhs served as competition within the agricultural The Immigration Act of 1917 in many ways mirrored the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, considering both discriminatory legislative actions restricted immigration to America for immigrants of particular backgrounds who were perceived as being undesirable. The ignominious Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1917 were essentially a racially charged manifestation of general American anti-foreign sentiment that continues to be furthered today. Social issues such as labor competition and fear of inadequate land supply (amongst other resources) have long contributed to the growing American anti-foreign sentiment.

The Ethnic Queue Model describes how ethnic groups continue to be socially mobile and reorient themselves in society over time as their occupational preferences change. Early Indian immigrants were not well educated, resulting in a tendency to work as farm hands and reside in rural locations in America where unskilled labor was in demand. However, as Indian Americans began to place more emphasis on education, they started traveling to more urban areas and dominating both the science and technological sectors. Therefore, the second generation of Indian immigrants were obtaining jobs that were highly desired and competitive, while their ancestors occupied jobs that were considered less desirable. It is remarkable that Indian immigrants have managed to climb up the social ladder and attain financial success within American society in spite of the adversity and prejudice they often experience in their day to day lives.

It is important to note that the fear of competitive immigrants and their subsequent stereotypical portrayal as dangerous anarchists has persisted even after the Chinese Exclusion Act. The fear that immigrants are stealing jobs and threatening the status of “Americans” is one that, albeit more than a century old, still exists today. For instance, post-9/11 racism is evidence to the repeated stigmatization of immigrants, as many Muslim or South Asian Americans and immigrants were subsequently ostracized from society. Still today, Donald Trump’s rhetoric (and election) attests to the widespread belief that immigrants are not to be trusted or welcomed into the United States with open arms. Exclusion, especially of just one nationality or ethnic background, is not the answer to American labor or standard of living issues. Pushing people away from safety or a better life is not where American values should lie, even if there has been a history of marginalization and racism in this country. Trump’s restrictive immigration policies seem to be a repeat of history, whether that history is the Chinese Exclusion Act or a more general distrust of immigrants that has been constructed time and time again. It will be particularly insightful to look into the parallels between today’s political climate and the discrimination we know Indians have faced in the past to observe whether history will repeat itself. Considering Sikh immigrants were ostracized and discriminated against in California during the early 1900s because they were perceived as a threat to the American-born workforce, it would not be surprising to see an uptick in anti-Indian sentiment in the upcoming years. Compounded with the fact that we are living in Trump’s America today, where anti-immigrant rhetoric has become the mainstream line of thought and restrictive legislature towards minority groups (i.e., the Muslim ban) has already been implemented, there is a large probability that Indians could be targeted in the near future. In the final analysis, we are seeing changes in today’s political landscape that are not dissimilar from xenophobic changes from the past, and it is important to keep an eye out for how these changes affect the lives of Indians in America.