STUDY: Indians are slow to assimilate in America

The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in New York, recently released its first annual Index of Immigrant Assimilation. The report looks at immigrants of various nationalities, including Indians, and examines the extent to which they assimilate along economic, civil and cultural lines.

An article in The Washington Post explains the methodology of the study:

[It] used census and other data to devise an assimilation index to measure the degree of similarity between the United States' foreign-born and native-born populations. These included civic factors, such as rates of U.S. citizenship and service in the military; economic factors, such as earnings and rates of homeownership; and cultural factors, such as English ability and degree of intermarriage with U.S. citizens. The higher the number on a 100-point index, the more an immigrant resembled a U.S. citizen.

In general, the longer an immigrant lives in the United States, the more characteristics of native citizens he or she tends to take on, said Jacob L. Vigdor, a professor at Duke University and author of the study. During periods of intense immigration, such as from 1870 to 1920, or during the immigration wave that began in the 1970s, new arrivals tend to drag down the average assimilation index of the foreign-born population as a whole.

Economically, as you might have guessed, Indians had a high rate of economic assimilation. Which is to say that within a given number of years they quickly attained the same income levels as native-born Americans. See figure 4 to the right for a comparison of the different nationalities.

However, the composite index, which combines economic with cultural and civil indexes, shows that overall, Indians are much less likely to assimilate. Which is to say that while they earn money quickly, they're much less likely to, say, marry US citizens (cultural) or join the military (civic). Look at Figure 3, lower down to see how Indians compare to others.

The author of the study noted how Indians and Chinese have high levels of economic assimilation but were lower on the cultural index:

"Immigrants born in the Philippines and the Dominican Republic also show relatively high levels of cultural assimilation. At the other end of the spectrum, immigrants born in China and India show the greatest degree of cultural distinction from the native-born. It is interesting to note that both these groups show average or above-average levels of economic assimilation, a first clue that cultural assimilation is not a prerequisite for economic assimilation. The least economically assimilated large group, the Mexican-born, posts cultural assimilation levels nearly identical to those of Vietnamese immigrants, who are nearly indistinguishable from the native-born along economic lines."

More from the Washington Post:

The report found, however, that the speed with which new arrivals take on native-born traits has increased since the 1990s. As a result, even though the foreign population doubled during that period, the newcomers did not drive down the overall assimilation index of the foreign-born population. Instead, it held relatively steady from 1990 to 2006.

"This is something unprecedented in U.S. history," Vigdor said. "It shows that the nation's capacity to assimilate new immigrants is strong."

A possible explanation, Vigdor said, was that the economic expansion of the 1990s created more job opportunities at all levels, speeding the economic integration of immigrants. It could also be that because today's immigrants begin at such a low starting point, "it's easier to make progress to the next level up" of integration than it would be if the immigrant had to improve on an already high level of integration.

To see the cultural and civic indexes, read the Washington Post article or see the original study at the Manhattan Institute's website.

Comments

[Mayank Chhaya]

This finding is not surprising at all considering that Indians come from a country which for centuries gobbled up cultures brought by the invaders. With India rising economically, the prospects of immigrant Indians assimilating culturally have become even more remote. I would not be surprised if cultural assimilation will be inversely proportional to the Indian immigrants' economic success.

Mayank

[Kirit Desai]

The Assimilation criteria has its own shortcoming, so the perception, image & acceptance on this process will have its own limitations in seeing the real mixing of immigrant population & ever-changing appearance of the cultural melting pot of USA.

The following factors are used to measure cultural assimilation:
• Ability to speak English
• Intermarriage (whether an individual’s spouse is native-born)
• Number of children
• Marital status

Looking at those factors, Indians do far better than any other group and the perceptions carried by the studies.

The problem: even such studies demand complete imitation of western look (which was onetime American image of the past) and the character. As the assimilation imparts different cultures from around the globe (Asia, S. America & Africa) in recent period, the studies needs to change the litmus paper & the test both.

There is nothing wrong to have little differentiation in showing the strength of other old cultures when the main stream culture constantly changes by the virtue of heterogeneous society. The US population – immigrants & citizens with few more generations on the soil – represents the modern values derived from around the globe and that should be a major criteria for assimilation, not the color or dress or who he/she gets married to raise American children. One should look for the common bond that connects, not the superficial threads which might be missing for some good reason.

Kirit Desai

[Chinki Sinha]

It's not just Indians but many other groups that never do assimilate, at least not in the traditional sense.
I have been writing about refugees and working with many immigrant groups here in upstate New York and it's fascinating how they never let go.
A simple example is the high school prom. An Afghan girl let it go because she did not want to wear a gown, or go with a "date" to the event. That's not their culture, she said.
While it may not be such a big deal, it shows how "americanization" does not really work. Somali Bantu women have not given up their traditional attire even if that means going to the school gym (mandatory) in long gowns and head scarves. A teacher once told me it's so baffling to them how they guard their culture.
All the criteria mentioned in the study are hard to find among these groups. Intermarriage rarely happens. A somali Bantu man I once interviewed told me he would never marry outside his clan. When I asked him about American women, he said he did not like their short dresses and when drunk, they are noisy and talk too much. He had seen some women outside the bars here and found it strange.
He did get married to a Somali Bantu women, a cousin of his. It was an arranged marriage, he said.
About English, two Burmese Muslim refugees I know gave up on ESL classes to take up jobs at a local casino. When I asked why they did not want to learn English, they said they had no time and because they didn't need it except when they were shopping for grocery. For that, gestures and broken Englsih they picked up in refugee camps was enough. The only people they interact with is their own community.
Regarding marital status, Somali Bantu women still have more than one, tow or three children. In fact, men have more than one wife. Polygamy is illegal here. And when they apply for third-country resettlement, in this case to the United States, they divorce them. But once they are here, they often live together.
One rarely finds single women in such communities and marriages are often arranged by the family.
Coming back to the Indians, it's not surprising they don't assimilate. Many at the newspaper I work at have said the Indian community is pretty closed and rarely do Indian men marry outside their community.
And it's not just here. A Nigerian friend of mine told me how Indian men in her home country would seldom date Nigerian women and even if they did, parents often didn't approve of the relationship.
But it's also about how you assess the degree of assimilation. If you mean imitating the West, it's a restricted view.
I have been working on a project on integration at the school district here and many people I have talked to said the refugees or immigrants intrigue them and once they are here, they must learn the American ways.
One example is when the Burmese girls went to school wearing their traditional makeup, which is sandalwood powder that they adorn their cheeks with, the school freaked out. A facilitator was asked to tell the Burmese parents to stop sending their daughters with the powder on their faces because they were afraid of infections.
Well, the more you force groups to give up their culture, the more fierce they will get about holding on to it. And rightly so ...
In fact, they take new arrivals to the fire stations to show them the culture. In one instance, they held a screening of Happy Feet for the parents and the kids. It's noteworthy that most of them didn't understand what was going on and just kept staring blankly at the screen.

[charlie]

The problem with this study is the original data. It uses census data -- the Current Population Survey -- in order to reach the conclusions.

There is one big factor in CPS surveys of Indians living in the US -- it includes H1B workers. That is, it is throwing in an addition 250-300K people who are here on temporary work permits.

I'm not trying to start a fight that H1b workers aren't "Americans" but the reality is many of them will not become green card residents or citizens. That has it own set of burderns.

When you track back on the data, the only aspect of "assimilation" that Indians are not on top of is intermarriage, in particular that is marriage to US citizens.

Two things are driving that: large number of unmarried h1b workers (or H1b workers already married), and the tendency of some native born Indians males to marry brides from India.

When you examine "US born" indians, you find intermarriage rates (outside the ethnic group) in the 20% range for men, close to 40% for some female age groups. Overall, you might say 25%.

You also have the "divorce" factor; divorce rates are low so you are eliminating another major pool of people who tend to marry again. I'm just saying that in a population of 1 million, your "average" US population might have 40 marriages per 100,000, but Indians have only 25 marriages per 100.000 (numbers are for illustrative points only)

The study is VERY flawed if it concludes Cuban-Americans are the most assimilated. Go to Calle Ocho in Miami sometime and try to speak English. Assimilation tends to follow economics. Indians aren't marrying non-Indians in huge numbers, but 25% is staggering given historical US patterns.

[Vrinda Kadiyali]

For non-Christian Indians, marrying outside the group is to cross both a racial and religious line. Would the author fault Jewish Americans for not assimilating by marrying the majority Christians? There'd be firestorm of protest and allegations of anti-semetism. Talk of assimilation must be done carefully...

The other point of the study is that desis have low levels of military service, I doubt there are too many desi-origin policemen and firemen. Consider two alternative explanation. One is the one proposed by the study- lack of civil engagement. The other is that it's a function of educational achievements. So I'd like to know- how many graduate-school educated other ethnic groups (including whites) enlist in the army?

[Vikas]

Good points Charlie.

You also mentioned that "I'm not trying to start a fight that H1b workers aren't "Americans" but the reality is many of them will not become green card residents or citizens."

It's not that H1B workers will not become green card holders or citizens - most of them want to but about a million H1B visa holders and their dependents have been made to wait in a maddeningly long queue to get their green cards. The wait time period is over a decade for many of them. Congress has not been able to rectify this situation because of Democrats who want a "comprehensive" legislation, which is a code word for saying that "we will not let you fix the problems of legal immigrants unless you grant asylum to 12 million undocumented workers as well." If a Democrat ends up becoming the President of the United States in 2009, then this problem will only be exacerbated.

[Kirit Desai]

Chinki,

You have made some good points on your varied example of Somali, Nigerian, and Burmese. But one needs to look little differently on some larger blocks from China, India, and Japan etc. who have strong cultural heritage of their own and have certain differentiations from culture of Western countries that represents strong identity and assimilation index completely fails to recognize such differences.

Charlie has a good point on H-1 visa holders that makes a large portion of young Indian immigrants. They find lesser need to marry some one out of their criteria to complete the degree of assimilation as proposed here. If one looks at the other spectrum of current lot of Indian immigrants, most of them are grown up siblings/parents of Indo-American citizens. Most of them are married and do not fit in the criteria of marriage in the index.

That’s why the index is flawed to recognize the true measurement on the assimilation. If the assimilation (melting) pot is small & narrow to absorb all colors of cultural fusion (be it western or non-western), then one needs to use a bigger pot that truly represents all the cultures, not just the rate of the process which would keep changing as there are more cultures to come to represent American melting pot now than one homogeneous Western culture of the past.

What co-workers at your newspaper complain about on “Indian marrying outside” is rather short sighted on understanding a non-western culture which has a huge imprint on the globe for centuries. You need two hands to clap when it comes to a meeting of any two dominant cultures on the serious issue like marriage. One would certainly see a drastic change in second & third generation where we already see the marriage outside the community becoming more common at a very rapid rate.

When you quoted: “But it's also about how you assess the degree of assimilation. If you mean imitating the West, it's a restricted view.” …., my point is already missed in translation. I precisely pointed that any expectation for imitation of one culture (Western here) alone would not only skew the measurements but snap-shot with insufficient parameters would not be correct on any view of so-called melting pot for the future. As long as we keep looking for merging one-way only, the society would be more susceptible on exploiting the differences than adding strength on more common denominators.

Kirit Desai

[charlie]

RE: marrying outside the group and religion. Yes, that is a driving cause. Again, a fault of the report is that it doesn't relate the the idea of Generation 1, Generation 2, Generation 3. Most Indian are 1st generation (born outside the US). there is a large pool of Gen 2, and much smaller pools of Gen 3 (and 4,5, 6 in certain areas)

Generation 1,in American history, almost NEVER marries outside the group. The only difference between Indians and previous immigrants is jet travel makes it easier to bring a bride into the US after you arrived.

They study then bashes Gen 1 immigrants across the board for not marrying outside their group.

Military Service: There are actually quite a number of Indians in the military. I can think of at least 10 off the top of my head. The key there is FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL. Indians are cheap enough to take that deal and run with it. I am not sure the original study (I looked at in a month ago) factored military service as an assimilation vector.

Again, the study is very flawed. Designed to point out the dangerous of HIspanic integration. Through misleading numbers, Indians are "not assimilating" while Bobby Jindal is running for VP. Sigh.

[Sonia K. Saini]

Interesting, although it seemed very methodologically flawed. For example, they look at economic assimilation/success separately from service in the military. However, those who are drafted into the military are disproportionately from low-income communities. Not joining the military doesn't mean that one hasn't "assimilated," but, in the case of many Indian Americans, means that they won't necessarily fall into military recruitment traps because they can afford to go to college, etc. Just one thing that came to mind when I read the email...

[tariq thachil]

I agree with charlie-- also I'm surprised others don't find this kind of mathematical indexing of assimilation both patronizing and deeply flawed. The idea first of all reduces American culture to joining its military, speaking English, or marrying U.S. citizens-- is this not a horribly monolithic idea of the supposed melting pot? if 'assimilating' means 'homogenizing' then what statement is that making about America?

[charlie]

sonia, NOBODY is drafted into the military. Yes, it is mostly people w/o college degree who enlist, but that is a much regional (i.e they are rural) than economic. In terms of officers (who need to have a college degree) I don't think there is an economic bias there.

However, I would agree with you if you look at where Indian-Americans live, and then compare them to their neighbors and who is enlisting in the military, you would find that low military participation across the board. Suburbs are not where people are signing up.

[Meenal Pandya]

The whole idea of assimilation needs redefining. Assimilation, by its very nature, is slow and happens at different levels. Immigrants from India come from a very solid upbringing that is immersed in religion and culture. They also come by choice - as opposed to being driven out of the country due to some political or economic reasons - which means that they have maintained much stronger ties to their home country. The whole process of immigration is relatively recent which means it is helped a lot by modern technology which keeps the connection with India stronger and thereby reducing the need and desire to assimilate.
I wonder if this study takes any of this into account.

Meenal Pandya

[exsqueezeme]

an indian on an average is a man of many parts...but it's a lousy assembly job. physical exertion is the key to assimilation followed by music. all the confusing, criss-crossing metrics measuring finances, oral english, xenophobia etc., would square up with physical exertion. physical is the key to personal confidence and the success with women comes from music. some of the attitudes reflected in the comments recall pre aviation days when 'seven seas' kept india and U.S. apart. it was during those days of 'seven seas' in 1923 that bhagat singh thind's application for U.S. citizenship was denied by the congress, after U.S. supreme court had granted it, on the grounds that even though sufficiently aryan, thind didn't fulfill publicly understood definition of Aryan. If this were the case today, some scholar in senegal or kyoto would enlighten the U.S. congress about 'aryan.' in other words, assimilation is a different beast than it used to be. The beast is all over the place and needs to be physically fit.

barrel chested scott of wipro travels every other week from PA to bangalore to keep his job going. a fast changing socio-political dynamic makes the mawkish complaints listed above irrelevant. key to assimilation is not how you live but how you look on the street. that's where you put on your real face instead of the mask you wear indoors. put some muscle on your shoulders and chest. That will fix your speech as well.

moral: look at your women. they don't realize that while some of them may look attractive in slacks, that doesn't hold true for BULK of them.