Indiana's immigrant population
Indiana's immigrant population reflects a complex history shaped by both domestic migration from the southern United States and international immigration. Historically, the state has higher percentages of residents with southern origins compared to other Midwestern states, making it culturally distinct. While the foreign-born population has generally been lower in Indiana than in neighboring states, significant changes began in the late 20th century, particularly with an influx of Mexican immigrants due to economic challenges in Mexico. By 2021, roughly 5.6 percent of Indiana's population was foreign-born, with major immigrant groups including individuals from Mexico, India, and China. The Indianapolis metro area serves as a primary destination, housing a diverse immigrant community that also includes populations from Myanmar and the Philippines.
As of 2022, the foreign-born population increased to approximately 422,600, comprising 6.2 percent of the state's residents, many of whom are involved in essential sectors like manufacturing and services. Despite challenges, such as rising poverty rates among immigrants, they contribute significantly to Indiana's economy, making up around 7.9 percent of the labor force. The immigrant community continues to grow, enriching the state's cultural and economic landscape.
Subject Terms
Indiana's immigrant population
SIGNIFICANCE: Because of Indiana’s history and geographical location, its population has a higher percentage of people who originated in the American South than any other midwestern state. Indeed, Indiana is politically, culturally, and linguistically the most “southern” midwestern state. In contrast, international immigration has had less of an impact in Indiana than in most other states. In 1880, only 7.8 percent of the state’s residents were foreign-born, compared to 23.0 percent in Illinois and 14.0 percent in Ohio.
After the United States (US) won its independence in 1783, most of what would become the state of Indiana was considered the property of Indigenous Americans, as stipulated by the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. However, between 1800 and 1810, Indians made land cessions in the extreme southern part of Indiana and again in 1838, when the Potawatomi people were forcibly removed from the state, in defiance of earlier treaty provisions, and removed to Kansas. Their removal made desirable land available to Kentuckians and other southern American settlers before many international immigrants arrived.
European Immigrants
The Swiss were the first substantial group of overseas immigrants to enter Indiana. They settled in Switzerland County along the Ohio River in the extreme southeast part of the state. Swiss surveyors arrived in 1796, and a colony was founded at Vevay in 1803. In the mid-2020s, Vevay still held a Swiss wine festival, with the fifty-second anniversary of the event celebrated in 2024.
Germans formed the largest immigrant group to come to Indiana before the late twentieth century, but they were not as numerous there as in many other states. Germans began a colony at New Harmony in 1814. However, they were gone by 1825, and their land was sold to Robert Owen and a group of British utopians. Political problems in Germany in 1848 and the scarcity of agricultural land led to the arrival of more Germans later. Many of these immigrants settled in the state's southeastern part, near the Swiss. German speakers so heavily populated that part of the state that a traveler reported leaving a boat at Madison in 1846 and going north for almost eighty miles without hearing anyone speaking English. German immigrants were most prominent in Indiana’s Ripley and Dubois Counties but were outnumbered by American Southerners and Ohioans.
Indiana’s German residents began moving toward the state’s cities in later decades. In 1850, Germans constituted 14 percent of the population of Indianapolis, where Germans became enough of a political force to make public school instruction in German optional. In Fort Wayne, skilled German workers were recruited for local industries. By the late nineteenth century, that city’s population was said to be 80 percent German. German organizations—Turners Clubs and singing societies—remained active in Indiana in the mid-2020s.
Other Indianans of German extraction were not international immigrants. Long-established Amish communities maintained a separate existence and spoke the German dialect called Pennsylvania Dutch. According to the Migration Policy Institute, that dialect was still spoken at home by around 8.5 thousand Indiana residents in the 2020s.
Late Twentieth Century and Mexican Immigration
In 1960, only 2 percent of Indiana’s residents were foreign-born, and most were Germans. However, the state’s immigrant mix began to change during the 1970s. Failures in Mexico’s economy drove many Mexicans north, searching for work, and some of these people found their way to Indiana. Although fewer Mexican immigrants came to Indiana than to other midwestern states, they brought a fundamental change to the state’s ethnic composition. By 2021, foreign-born residents constituted only 5.6 percent of Indiana’s nearly 6.8 million residents.
Between 2000 and 2021, Indiana's foreign-born population grew by 103.4 percent, exceeding 379,407 people by the end of that period. However, the immigrant population remained a relatively small 5.6 percent of the total state population. These immigrants came primarily from Mexico, India, and China. The Indianapolis metro area was a major destination for these immigrants. According to a report by the American Immigrant Council in 2020, 354,348 immigrants lived in the city in 2018, 70 percent of whom identified as Hispanic or Latino. In addition to Mexican, Indian, and Chinese immigrants, significant immigrant populations in Indianapolis included those from Myanmar (formerly Burma) and the Philippines. Eight percent of the state's population spoke a language other than English in their home in 2019.
In 2020, a number of Congolese, Haitian, Afghan, Sudanese, and Syrian refugees, as well as refugees from Myanmar, were resettled in Indianapolis. This led to Indiana having one of the largest Burmese communities in the country. By 2021, 379,407 residents of Indiana were foreign-born, or 5.6 percent of the 6.4 million population. These individuals accounted for around 7 percent of all business owners and 13 percent of individuals employed in computer and math-related fields. Between 2000 and 2021, the number of foreign-born immigrants in poverty increased by 71 percent, putting 13.5 percent of these individuals below the poverty line.
As the 2020s progressed, the number of foreign-born residents in Indiana increased. According to the data collected in the 2022 American Community Survey, analyzed by the American Immigration Council, Indiana’s foreign-born population rose to 422,600 individuals, or 6.2 percent of the state’s population. Mexico remained the overwhelmingly top country of origin for Indiana’s immigrant residents. However, immigrants also came from India, Nigeria, China, and Myanmar. Of the state’s immigrant residents, 276,100 individuals worked in Indiana’s workforce, comprising 7.9 percent of its overall labor force. Immigrant residents worked in transportation, warehousing, manufacturing, construction, and professional and general services. Of Indiana’s foreign-born residents, 180,300 had become naturalized US citizens. In 2022, Indiana had 100,400 undocumented immigrant residents.
Bibliography
Blakely, George T. Creating a Hoosier Self-Portrait: The Federal Writers’ Project in Indiana, 1935-42. Indiana UP, 2005.
Carmony, Donald F. A Brief History of Indiana. Indiana Historical Bureau, 1966.
"Fact Sheet: Immigrants in Indiana." National Immigration Forum, 3 July 2019, immigrationforum.org/article/fact-sheet-immigrants-in-indiana/. Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.
Haller, Charles R. Across the Atlantic and Beyond: German and Swiss Immigrants to America. Heritage Books, 1993.
"Immigrants in Indiana." American Immigration Council, map.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/locations/indiana. Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.
"Indiana." Migration Policy Institute, 2022, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/state-profiles/state/demographics/IN. Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.