India, a developing nation which came out of the dominating hands of colonialism, isn’t showing the signs of progressivity nowadays. Owing to dismissive economic decisions and poor vision of the political authorities of India, the GDP of the nation has grown with the least rate in the Southern Asia segment. However, the statistics reveal a whole different picture as the population from a low-income, developing nation with weak human capital is the producer of the most educated and highest income group of immigrants in the U.S. in a single generation.
By almost every measurable variable, Indian-born immigrants in the United States are “outliers,” said author and University of Pennsylvania professor Devesh Kapur. Devesh, in his speech at D’Amore-McKim School of Business’ Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern University, expressed that the dominance of Indians in the employment sectors, education, and pay over even native U.S. citizens is worth appreciating. Hugh Courtney, Dean of the D’Amore-McKim School of Business quoted, “Indians, and India more generally, are having an enormous impact on emerging markets. This is a broad topic that we’re excited to be able to tackle.”
Kapur elucidated, “Unlike other immigrant groups and even prior Indian immigrant groups, this last generation has immigrated primarily through employment-based visas”. He presented other data that exemplifies a plethora of ways in which this group and the generation before it are outliers among the U.S. population. Every 4th out of 5 Indian-born immigrants live in counties that have a median household income that’s way higher than the aggregate in those areas. Indian-born immigrants are more dispersed across the U.S., compared to immigrants from any other Asian country. This group is among the most Democrat-leaning political group of any large immigrant group—which Kapur speculated was due to anxiety over the “evangelical turn” of the Republican Party.
Kapur concluded, “Indians have done very well in the U.S., but why they’ve done well has nothing to do with the fact that they’re Indian.”
Harminder Singh