The meaning of the word diaspora is a group of people who live outside the area where they have lived for a long time or in which their ancestors lived.[1]In other words, they are migrants who have left their homeland in search for better economic opportunities, or greener pastures. Another reason might also be political and military unrest in their own nation, which they seek to avoid.
There are a large number of Indian citizens who live in the USA, and often become citizens there. They go there for new work opportunities, or, if they can afford it, to live there permanently. There are many reasons behind this movement of the people.
By Indian diaspora it is meant Indian Americans or Indo-Americans whose ancestry belongs to any of the many ethnic groups of the Republic of India. IndianAmericans comprise 3,456,447, representing around 1% of the U.S. population as of 2016. Indian Americans are the country’s third-largest Asian groupalone or in combination with other races after Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans, according to 2016 American Community Surveydata. 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).
POPULATION, EDUCATION AND INCOME:
Immigrants from India first arrived in the United States in small numbers during the early 19th century, primarily as low-skilled farm laborers. In recent decades the population has grown substantially, with 2.4 million (around 24 lakh) Indian immigrants resident in the United States as of 2015. This makes the foreign born from India the second-largest immigrant group after Mexicans, accounting for almost 6 percent of the 43.3 million foreign-born population.
The majority of Indian immigrants are young and highly educated, and have strong English skills. Many work in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. From 1980 to 2010, the population grew more than eleven-fold, roughly doubling every decade. In 2013, India and China supplanted Mexico as the top sources of newly arriving immigrants in the United States.
The Indian people who live in the USA are generally better educated and linguistically versed than the native American (born and raised on American soil) and Filipino American populace. Indian immigrants have much higher educational attainment compared to the foreign and US born populations. In 2015, 77 percent of Indian adults (ages 25 and over) had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 29 percent of all immigrants and 31 percent of native-born adults. Notably, among college-educated Indian immigrants, more than half had an advanced degree.
The foreign born from India participated in the labour force at a slightly higher rate than the overall immigrant and native-born populations. In 2015, about 68 percent of Indian immigrants ages 16 and over were in the civilian labour force, compared to 66 percent and 62 percent of the foreign- and native-born populations, respectively. Indian immigrants were roughly twice as likely to be employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations, at 73 percent, compared to the overall foreign- and native-born populations, at 31 percent and 38 percent, respectively.
The average or median household of Indian-born people or Indians by descent residing in the USA is much higher than that of the overall foreign and native-born populations. Households headed by Indian immigrants have a median income of $107,000 (around Rs. 80,00,000), compared to $51,000 and $56,000 for overall immigrant and native-born households, respectively. Just 7 percent of Indian immigrants lived in poverty in 2015, a much lower rate than the foreign-born population overall and the U.S. born (17 percent and 14 percent, respectively).
[To be continued in Part II.]
[1]According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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