At the time of the survey, more than half (55 percent) of Indian Americans reported that they had an immediate family member (spouse, mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter) currently residing in India. . Finally, Christians are more likely to self-identify as American without any hyphenation (9 percent versus 6 percent for Muslim and 4 percent for Hindus). Forty percent of respondents born in the United States report being a member of an Indian American organization, compared to 29 percent of those born elsewhere. The examination of partisanship, in turn, further distinguishes between partisan support in India and in the United States.43. Douglas Farrar, Cliff Djajapranata, Fiona Garguilo, Jessica Katz, Laura Lucas Magnuson, Lori Merritt, Tim Martin, Jocelyn Soly, and Cameron Zotter contributed design, editorial, and production assistance. Of course, the composition of ones social networks is likely to be affected by their location. Sixteen percent identify as a member of OBC and 1 percent each identify as Adivasi/Scheduled Tribe (ST) or Dalit/Scheduled Caste (SC). It appears that respondents social networks are more homogenous in terms of religion than either region or caste. . Sixteen percent of Indian Americans report being discriminated against by virtue of their Indian heritage. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. As the figure demonstrates, foreign-born Indian Americans are significantly more likely to have a spouse or partner who is of Indian origin and born in India. Many states have large immigrant populations from India. The objective of this inquiry is to assess to what extent Indian Americans associate with other Indian Americans relative to those from outside the community. The percentage of the population born outside the US varies widely from state to state. Taken together, more than three-quarters of Indian Americans place a high value on their Indian-ness. Around 22 percent state that their Indian identity is either somewhat or very unimportant.32. Seventy-four percent of Hindu respondents who report not identifying with a caste nevertheless know enough to be able to identify the caste identities of their social networks. The survey also asks respondents about their educational attainment, which provides insight into the socioeconomic profile of Indians in America. The number of naturalization applications has climbed in recent years, though the annual totals remain below the 1.4 million applications filed in 2007. Finally, the survey examines the identity of the person(s) responsible for engaging in discriminatory behavior. 16 Of those born outside of the United States, 80 percent were born in India. Forty percent of respondents report praying either several times a day or once a daysignificantly more than the 27 percent of the sample that attends religious services at least once a week. When it comes to online discussions of politics, 28 percent of U.S.-born citizens posted comments about political issues on an online forum, compared to 18 percent of foreign-born citizens and 14 percent of non-citizens. Roughly one-fifth lived in the Northeast (21%) and 11% were in the Midwest. The next two largest origin groups are Indian Americans, who account for 21% of the total (4.6 million people), and Filipinos, who account for 19% (or 4.2 million people). For instance, do respondents feel more Indian than American, more American than Indian, equally Indian and American, or neither Indian nor American? As one might expect, first-generation (foreign-born) and second-generation (U.S.-born) respondents approach this question differently (see figure 12). Most of these children are native-born themselves. The variation in respondents feelings of Indian-ness begs the question of how Indian Americans navigate multiple identities linked both to their country of origin as well as their country of settlement. This population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), certain legal nonimmigrants (e.g., persons on student or work visas), those admitted under refugee or asylee status, and persons illegally residing in the United States. In 2017, about 29 million immigrants were working or looking for work in the U.S., making up some 17% of the total civilian labor force. Clear differences along religious lines are evident in the responses to the question on the frequency of prayer (see figure 9). 12 Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur, and Milan Vaishnav, How Will Indian Americans Vote? 1 Remarks by President Biden in a Call to Congratulate the NASA JPL Perseverance Team on the Successful Mars Landing, White House, March 4, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/03/04/remarks-by-president-biden-in-a-call-to-congratulate-the-nasa-jpl-perseverance-team-on-the-successful-mars-landing/. Give Orange. Around 21 percent express no opinion either way. While the former report that a slightly higher share of their social network comprises people of the same caste, if one sets aside the dont know responses, the relative differences between caste identifiers and non-identifiers is marginal. As the number and/or concentration of Indian Americans in a geography increases, one might expect that respondents social networks might become more insular. . Eighteen percent of non-citizens reside in the United States on an H-4 visa, a category for immediate family members of H-1B visa holders. Figure 14 disaggregates the results by place of birth and citizenship status. Twenty-six percent of U.S.-born citizens report taking part in voluntary service compared to 18 percent of foreign-born citizens and 14 percent of non-citizens. He was previously a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow. Millions of people are polled annually as part of the American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau to learn more . How do Indian Americans perceive their own ethnic identity and how much emphasis do they place on their Indian-ness? Hover over a state to get the total foreign-born population and double click on a state to get top county estimates. The Census Bureau pooled together survey responses from between 2013 and 2017, allowing the bureau's statisticians to publish estimates of how many people in the foreign-born populations of each state and the District of Columbia came from various countries. Pew Research Center regularly publishes statistical portraits of the nations foreign-born population, which include historical trends since 1960. OCI status effectively functions as a lifetime visa and also grants recipients the ability to live and work in India on a permanent basis. In terms of regions, about two-thirds of immigrants lived in the West (34%) and South (34%). Of the non-citizen population residing in the United States, the survey finds that 80 percent of them would accept U.S. citizenship if offeredan important preference given that Indian law forbids dual citizenship. From the 1820s to the 1840s, approximately 90 percent of immigrants to the United States came from Ireland, England, or Germany. As figure 18 shows, 43 percent of foreign-born Indian Americans have a social network dominated by Indian-origin friends, compared to 25 percent of respondents born in the United States (adding up the shares of those who say all or most of their friends are of Indian origin). This could be the result of circumstance and context, or it could be the product of social distancethe relative distance that one feels toward members of an out-group (religious, ethnic, partisan, and so on) relative to members of ones own in-group. By the 1930s, Italians were the largest immigrant group in the nation and in nine states, including New York, Louisiana, New Jersey and Nevada. She holds a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania. The IAAS asks respondents, Which of the following best describes your personal group of friends? Respondents choose from a list of five possible responses (not counting dont know): that all, most, some, very few, or none of their friends are of Indian origin. The actual change is expected to come in 2055, when Asians will become the largest immigrant group at 36 percent, compared with Hispanics at 34 percent. The major findings are briefly summarized below. While we are grateful to all of our collaborators, any errors found in this study are entirely the authors. 52 Arthur G. Rubinoff, The Diaspora as a Factor in U.S.-India Relations, Asian Affairs: An American Review 32, no. However, the results point in the opposite direction. To produce the final data set, respondents were matched to a sampling frame on gender, age, and education. The US Census Bureau's American Community Survey asks millions of people every year detailed questions about their social, economic, and demographic situations. What are Indian Americans experiences with discrimination, and how do discriminatory practices manifest? Overall, 41 percent of respondents rate it as very important and another 37 percent rate it as somewhat important. The propensity score function included age, gender, years of education, and region. There is some evidence to suggest that there are vintage effects: the longer a respondent has spent in the United States, the less emphasis they place on their Indian identityperhaps a reflection of their gradual integration into their adopted homeland. Although the latter difference in perceptions of caste discrimination is tiny, it is nonetheless interesting given the lower degree of caste consciousness among U.S.-born Indian Americans. 2) Population estimates for stateswith an immigrant population under 2,000 persons are not provided due to insufficient sample size. Other regions contributing smaller percentages of immigrants included the Middle East and North Africa (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (5%), South America (7%), Central America (8%), the Caribbean (10%), and as well as Europe, Canada and other North America (13%). Sign up for notifications from Insider! 1615 L St. NW, Suite 800Washington, DC 20036USA Formed in 2021, we provide fact-based, non-partisan news. Just 27 percent say they are very comfortable having Republican friendshalf the number of Republicans who feel that way toward Democrats. The results are shown in figure 22. 2 (2016): 283301. Fewer than one in ten respondents (9 percent) do not participate in any of these seven holidays. This suggests that the evidence of polarization, while real, should not be overinterpreted either. 48 (2010): 99106. Conversely, second-generation Indian Americans born in the United States are more likely to embrace the terms South Asian American, Asian American, and the nonhyphenated American. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2023 Dallas Express. The states with the largest immigrant populations are California, New York, Florida, and Texas. Comments. For the 28 percent of respondents who perceive that polarization in India is impacting the diaspora community, the survey asks what specific features of Indias domestic politics are responsible (see figure 29). The IAAS asks respondents how they self-identify; after all, identities are liminal and individuals might identify with any number of identity categories. . A quarter said legal immigration to the U.S. should be decreased (24%), while one-third (38%) said immigration should be kept at its present level and almost another third (32%) said immigration should be increased. Vietnamese Americans are the largest Asian origin group by population in four states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Nebraska); Hmong Americans are the largest in Minnesota and Wisconsin; and Korean Americans are the largest in Alabama. (2022) By tidal93341. The data for this survey are based on a unique survey of 1,200 adults of Indian origin conducted between September 1 and September 20, 2020. What are the social realities and lived experiences of Indian Americans? . Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Business Insider identified the country of origin of the largest group of foreign-born residents in each state. And how might their self-conception influence the composition of their social networks? What is also striking is how relatively small the differences are between respondents who identify with a caste versus those who do not. Bookmark Quiz For Indian Americans, the past is not just a distant country. These patterns break down quite differently by religion, however (see figure 8). Stay up to date with what you want to know. About two-thirds of Americans (66%) say immigrants strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents, while about a quarter (24%) say immigrants burden the country by taking jobs, housing and health care. By the 1980s, Mexicans became the nation's largest immigrant group; by 2013, they were the largest immigrant group in 33 states. rise in the number from Central America and Asia. Devesh Kapur is the Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies and director of Asia Programs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Several Asian, African, and Central American countries also have large immigrant populations in various states. If the rate of population growth and influx of new immigrants from the region continues in the next couple of years, Asians will be the largest immigrant group by 2055 according to the Center. The length of ones stay in the United States also plays an important role in shaping self-identification. For those respondents who immigrated to the United States, over half (60 percent) arrived in the year 2000 or after (see figure 2).17 Seventeen percent arrived in the 1990s, 13 percent immigrated in the 1980s, and just 10 percent arrived before the year 1980. Despite being one of the largest immigrant groups in the United States, Americans of Indian descent were barely represented in politics. The national origins of such immigrant populations likewise differ significantly. The first table lists U.S. states and the District of Columbia by annual net domestic migration, while the second table lists U.S. states and the District of Columbia by annual net international migration. . Although Indian American is a contested category, the survey attempts to understand how respondents perceive the push and pull between different aspects of their identity. While immigration has been at the forefront of a national political debate, the U.S. public holds a range of views about immigrants living in the country. Indeed, the survey finds that in counties with more Indian American households, respondents are significantly more likely to say their social networks are dominated by fellow Indian Americans (see figure 17).39 This effect appears to be roughly linear, although there is a steep rise once more than 5 percent of households in a county are Indian American. Jonathan Kay is a nonresident research assistant in the Carnegie South Asia Program. Immigrants from Mexico have the lowest rates of English proficiency (34%), followed by those from Central America (35%), East and Southeast Asia (50%) and South America (56%). Among immigrants ages 5 and older, Spanish is the most commonly spoken language. YouGov maintains a proprietary, double opt-in survey panel comprised of 1.8 million U.S. residents who have agreed to participate in YouGovs surveys. The next largest origin groups were those from China (6%), India (6%), the Philippines (4%) and El Salvador (3%). The U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 44.8 million in 2018. To deselect, click outside of the U.S. map. From 1990 to 2007, the unauthorized immigrant population more than tripled in size from 3.5 million to a record high of 12.2 million in 2007. Eleven percent finished high school elsewhere, while only 8 percent had less than a high school education. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the United States' population. Can you name the largest immigrant groups from each continent in Norway? There is a separate table for the U.S. territories. 34 Badrinathan, Kapur, and Vaishnav, How Do Indian Americans View India?, 2022. For instance, the category Other Backward Classes (OBC) is common among Muslims, while Scheduled Castes or Dalits can also be found in Buddhist, Sikh, Christian, and Muslim communities. The English are the largest ethnic group among the 3.9 million people counted, though nearly one in five Americans are of African heritage. What is the largest immigrant group in America? Some 27% of immigrants were permanent residents and 5% were temporary residents in 2017. We do ask that you be kind. South Korea 16,244. The pattern is similar when it comes to caste, although nearly one-quarter of respondents claim they do not know what share of their friends belong to their caste group, suggesting that caste is a less salient category for a significant segment of IAAS respondents. In certain cases, these larger groupings consist of smaller denominations that have been aggregated upward. The immigrant population in the United States is extraordinarily diverse, with immigrants hailing from almost every nation. Nearly one in five (19 percent) identify this way, compared to 10 percent of Muslims and only 6 percent of Hindus. Given that only 5 percent of IAAS respondents report being victims of caste discrimination, any subgroup analysis must be interpreted with due care given the small sample sizes involved. Seventy-seven percent of foreign-born Indian Americans fall into this category, compared to just 40 percent of U.S.-born Indian Americans. Check your email for details on your request. Second, around one-third of Christians and Hindus and two-fifths of Muslims are situated in the middle, reporting that some of their Indian American networks are made up of friends of the same religion. 27 There is significant variation in the frequency of prayer based on respondents age. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 88% think immigrants strengthen the country with their hard work and talents, and just 8% say they are a burden. Only 43 percent of IAAS respondents believe that Indian American is the term that best captures their background. Indian Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the United States. They alone account for 4.6% of the civilian labor force, a dip from their peak of 5.4% in 2007. Followed by Cushite-Beja-Somali, Hmong, and Vietnamese. While the majority are immigrants, a rising share . Thirty-one percent state that they feel more American than Indian and 19 percent state the conversethat they feel more Indian than American. There is no variation at all based on duration of stay in the United States. Follow. California had the largest immigrant population of any state in 2018, at 10.6 million. Each year, more than 1 million immigrants enter the country. By region of birth, immigrants from Asia combined accounted for 28% of all immigrants, close to the share of immigrants from Mexico (25%). Immigrants from Mexico and Central America are less likely to be high school graduates than the U.S. born (54% and 47%, respectively, do not have a high school diploma, vs. 8% of U.S. born). 13Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur, and Milan Vaishnav, How Do Indian Americans View India? The interactive map below visualizes all of them based on their prior country of residence. However, whereas the earlier data looked at political leaders and organizations, this section reviews interpersonal attitudes. The reverse is true when it comes to identifying as Indian: the majority of Indian Americans who have lived in the United States between one and ten years (54 percent) feel most comfortable with this term, while that share declines to just 21 percent for those here for more than twenty-five years. 3 Immigration Commission, U.S. Senate, Reports of the Immigration Commission 349 (1911) cited in Sherally Munshi, Immigration, Imperialism, and the Legacies of Indian Exclusion, Yale Journal of Law & Humanities 28, no. Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey, How Will Indian Americans Vote? Country. The population of immigrants is also very diverse, with just about every country in the world represented among U.S. immigrants. 38 Badrinathan, Kapur, and Vaishnav, How Do Indian Americans View India?, 1213. Among all immigrants, those from South Asia (71%) were the most likely to have a bachelors degree or more. Minnesota has proportionally fewer immigrants compared to the nation as a whole, but we have long been a state shaped by immigration. Office of the Registrar General of India, Language: Indian States and Union Territories (Table C-16), Census of India 2011, Paper 1 (2018), https://censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/C-16_25062018_NEW.pdf. Given the fact that the majority of younger Indian Americans below age twenty-seven are born in the United States while the opposite is true of those above age twenty-seven, YouGov oversampled younger Indian Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-seven to ensure that the studys analyses can make inferences about generational differences within the Indian American community. Nationally, 38 percent (7 million) of children of immigrants in 2017 had a primary parent a from Mexico, 19 percent (3.5 million) from the rest of Central America and South America, and 43 percent (8 million) from other parts of the world. Americans were divided on future levels of immigration. Within strata, matches were selected by weighted sampling with replacements (using the person weights on the ACS public use file). 22 There is no one-to-one correspondence between Hindi and an Indian state of origin since the language is spoken across a broad swath of states, especially but not exclusively in north and central India. Comments. What do the social networks of Indian Americans look like? Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States.In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country in the world, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015. Generally, most immigrants eligible for naturalization apply to become citizens. However, the magnitude of the effect is modest. Report. If one restricts attention to respondents aged twenty-five and older, nearly 80 percent have either a college or postgraduate degree (compared to 73 percent in the overall sample). This map displays the top origin regions of immigrants in the United States (default view), based on 2009-2013 American Community Survey data. How Do Indian Americans View India? Interestingly, those born outside of the United States are most likely to say that they feel equally Indian and Americannearly one in two fall into this category (as do 38 percent of U.S.-born Indian Americans).35 A slightly higher share of U.S.-born Indian Americans (7 percent) than foreign-born Indian Americans (4 percent) claim that they feel neither Indian nor American. citizens. 20 According to the 2018 ACS, 73 percent of Asian Indian households are married-couple households compared to the national average of 48 percent. Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from US Census Bureau, NOW WATCH: Here's how the map of the United States has changed in 200 years. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. Here's How the Answer Got So Complicated, Time, March 12, 2020, https://time.com/5800209/asian-american-census/. You are leaving the website for the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy and entering a website for another of Carnegie's global centers. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. . Apart from attending religious services, the survey asks respondents how frequently they pray (outside of the times they attend religious services). Rankings only apply to origin countries that meet this criterion. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. As one might expect, both Hindus and Muslims are overwhelmingly comfortable having close friends who share their faith: 97 percent of Hindu respondents report being very or somewhat comfortable having close Hindu friends, and 96 percent of Muslims report the same. Click here for the second part of this series, an examination of how Indian Americans view Indian politics, and click here for the first part of the series, which explores how Indian Americans view U.S. politics. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. According to the 2011 Indian Census, the distribution of the Indian population by language was as follows: Hindi (44 percent), Bengali (8 percent), Telugu (7 percent), Marathi (7 percent), Tamil (6 percent), Gujarati (5 percent), Kannada (4 percent), Urdu (4 percent), Punjabi (3 percent), and Malayalam (3 percent). Washington, DC 20036-2103. This paper argues that while there is much that binds the community, there are also nascent signs that these common bonds are being tested as religious cleavages, generational divides, and political polarization invite fragmentation. This proportion declines dramatically for Hindus, with only 21 percent reporting regularly attending religious services. Immigrants often import social norms from their home countries to their newly adopted homes. Indian Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the United States. This final section examines how respondents relate to the Indian American community. In addition to asking respondents about their religious identity, the survey also asks them about the role religion plays in their life. Not only are Hindus less likely to report attending religious services, but they are also less likely to say that they pray. Just 9 percent of them hold the same views vis--vis the Congress. In the last few years, there has been much greater recognition of the discrimination faced by minority groups in the United States. These data suggest that the vast majority of the Indian immigrant population in the United States were already highly educated prior to arriving in the country. These views, in turn, are further affected both by selection effects (who emigrates) and political dynamics in the country of settlement. QUIZ LAB SUBMISSION This quiz has . The February 2021 IAAS study found several indications that polarization in India had successfully metastasized in the Indian American community in the United States. While the majority are immigrants, a rising share is born and raised in the United States. 10 Anna Purna Kambhampaty, At Census Time, Asian Americans Again Confront the Question of Who Counts as Asian. The tool also displays the share that all immigrants comprise of the state's total population. IAAS data confirm this finding. Mexico was the most often mentioned birthplace among respondents in 32 states who indicated they were born outside of the U.S. More than 11 million immigrants, or nearly 25% of all immigrants in the U.S., come from Mexico. Today, more than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the worlds migrants. The share of Indian Americans who pray either several times a day or once a day is slightly below the U.S. average (46 percent according to Pew survey data).26 Another 20 percent of Indian Americans report taking part in prayer a few times a week or once a week, while 11 percent pray at least a few times a month. In addition, the survey asks respondents whether, in the last twelve months, they have personally felt discriminated against. Other regions make up smaller shares: Europe, Canada and other North America (13%), the Caribbean (10%), Central America (8%), South America (7%), the Middle East and North Africa (4%) and sub-Saharan Africa (5%). Second, the survey asks respondents about their own lived experience with discrimination. This section reviews some basic characteristics of the social networks of Indian Americans. While 86 percent of Hindus report identifying with some kind of Indian identity, 71 percent of Christians and 52 percent of Muslims do the same. Mexico is the top origin country of the U.S. immigrant population. 2023 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. More than half a century after the passage of the historic 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which allowed for a new wave of Indian migration to the United States, the Indian American community has come of age. To probe this issue, the survey provides respondents with eight identity categories and asks them which of the following best describes their background. Immigrants convicted of a crime made up the less than half of deportations in 2018, the most recent year for which statistics by criminal status are available. To what extent do people of Indian origin encounter discriminatory behavioron what grounds and by whom? These numbers are actually a lower bound of Indian Americans educational attainment. See More by this Creator. Meanwhile, there was a rise in the number from Central America and Asia. One-quarter of all respondents self-identify as Indian while 7 percent choose the term Asian Indian.. They are more likely to say they are very comfortable having Democratic than Republican friends, and three times as many say they would not be comfortable having close Republican friends than close Democratic friends. El Salvador 17,907. The results are displayed in figure 11. Once more, U.S.-born citizens lead the pack with 22 percent of them reporting participation in this activity. As the number of Indian-origin residents in the United States has swelled north of 4 million, the communitys diversity too has grown. But self-identification as a person of Indian origin tells us little about the strength of a respondents Indian identity. Among all refugees admitted in fiscal year 2019, 4,900 are Muslims (16%) and 23,800 are Christians (79%). Formed in 2021, we provide fact-based, non-partisan news. A majority of Hindus (52 percent) report attending religious services once or twice a month or just a few times a year, while another 25 percent report seldom or never attending religious services. Figure 19 displays the responses to this question, collapsing five response categories into three for ease of exposition.