Asian Indian immigrants
Asian Indian immigrants constitute a significant and growing demographic in the United States, representing the largest Asian-alone population, with nearly 4.4 million individuals as of 2020. Their immigration history can be traced through three main waves: the first wave in the early 20th century primarily involved Sikh laborers seeking employment, followed by a second wave after the 1965 Immigration Act, which favored skilled professionals and family reunification. The third wave began in the early 21st century, leading to a notable increase in their numbers.
Historically, Asian Indian immigrants faced various challenges, including anti-Asian legislation that restricted their immigration and naturalization rights. Despite these obstacles, many Asian Indian immigrants have achieved high levels of education and income, often working in fields such as medicine, science, and technology. This demographic has also contributed substantially to the U.S. economy through remittances sent back to India, totaling around $89.4 billion in 2021.
Culturally, Asian Indians maintain distinct identities tied to their regional, linguistic, and religious backgrounds, fostering vibrant communities across the United States. Recent trends indicate an increase in undocumented immigration from India, influenced by factors such as economic challenges and sociopolitical conditions back home. Overall, Asian Indian immigrants continue to play a crucial role in American society, contributing to its diversity and economic vitality.
Asian Indian immigrants
SIGNIFICANCE: The Asian Indian diaspora followed three waves of immigration to the United Stateshe first wave occurred in the first decade of the twentieth century, the second during the 1970s, and the third during the early twenty-first century, when the highest level of immigration from India occurred. Accounting for nearly 4.4 million people in 2020, Asian Indians constituted the largest Asian-alone population in the United States.
Although most immigration from India to the United States occurred during the early twenty-first century, the earliest signs of international migration from India occurred after 1830when Indian merchants, sailors, and indentured workers traveled on East India Company ships to North America. The 1900 U.S. Census reported 2,545 Hindus whose birthplace was listed as India settled in the United States.
First Wave of Immigration1900s to 1920s
Between 1907 and 1917, thousands of Sikh landowners and peasants left the Punjab in northern India for the western shores of North America to seek employment and higher wages. First immigrating to Vancouver, Canada, Punjabi Sikhs settled in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California to work on the Western Pacific Railroad. Legally prohibited from bringing their wives and families, some young, male Sikhs married Mexican womencreating a Mexican Hindu culture. The small Sikh immigrant community remained faithful to its religious and cultural practices and established temple settlements for other Asian Indian travelers.
Leaving employment at railroad yards and lumber mills, by 1910 Asian Indians began contracting for agricultural jobs in Californiawhere there was a dire need for farmworkers. Comfortable and experienced working in the fields, Asian Indians moved from working as day laborers to being tenant farmers. Transacting bank loans, Indians purchased acreage. By 1914as prosperous landownersthe Asian Indian immigrants started moving inland to central California to establish independent ethnic agrarian communities. Hard-working and English-speaking, the Asian Indians posed little threat to the socioeconomic fiber of the region. However, by the 1920s, hostilities toward the growing number of “Asiatics” escalated as competition between Asian immigrants and White workers increased.
Anti-Asian Legislation
As early as 1905, an association known as the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL) organized to oppose Asian immigration. It launched an anti-Asian crusade not only towards Chinese and Japanese immigrant populations, but the three thousand new Asian Indian immigrants who recently arrived in California. After years of fighting for congressional legislation to limit immigration, the exclusionists were successful in adopting a series of laws that led to turning away hundreds of Asian immigrants. The Immigration Act of 1917also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Actrestricted immigration from Asia. Soon afterward, the Supreme Court ruledin United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923)Indians were not included under the “statutory category as White persons.” Consequently, Indians were denied the naturalization rights to and previously naturalized Indians were stripped of their U.S. citizenship.
Seven years later, the Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of new immigrants to two percent of the number of people from their country who were already living in the United States. Over the next twenty years, the number of Indians in the United States dwindled to fewer than 2,500. In 1946, the Luce-Celler Bill reinstated naturalization to Asian Indians and allowed an immigration quota for Indians and Filipinospproximately 6,000 Indians entered the United States between 1947 and 1965.
Second Wave of Immigration1965-1990
The tides turned under President Lyndon B. Johnson when he signed into law the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965also known as the Hart-Celler Actlifting the national-origin quotas system and issuing visas on the basis of preferred skills or family reunification. The initial post-1965 immigrants were professionals and their familiesafter the mid-1970s, the Asian Indian immigrants moved into small business ownerships and self-employment ventures in restaurants, travel agencies, and motels. Almost 40 percent of all Asian Indians who entered the United States after 1965 arrived on student or exchange visitor visas. By 1990, the Indian population had increased to 786,694.
With the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990, preference was given to immigrants with high technology-based skills, advanced degrees, and exceptional professional talents. Contributing to the “brain drain” in India, colleges throughout the United States hosted a significant number of Indian studentsmaking India one of the top five sending countries. By 2000, Asian Indians constituted the fourth-largest immigrant community in the United States.
Immigration in the 2000s to 2010s
The Asian Indian immigrant population increased by 38 percent between 2000 and 2005becoming the third-largest immigrant population in the United States. By 2016, it was the second-largest after Mexican immigrants. In addition, Indian immigrants were the largest immigrant population in nine US states as of 2015. The 2010 census found that there were 3.18 million ethnically Indian people in the United States, making them also the third-largest group of Asian Americans, after Chinese and Filipino Americans. Asian Indians have attained the highest level of education and the highest median income among all national origin groups in the United States. By 2016, 40 percent of Indian immigrants held a graduate degreecompared to less than 12 percent of American-born citizensand the median household income was over $100,000more than twice the United States national median income. More than 40 percent of Indian immigrants are medical professionals, scientists, or engineers concentrated in metropolitan areas across the United States.
Entering the United States English-speaking, highly educated, socially and professionally connected, and geographically mobile made Asian Indian assimilation fairly smooth. Asian Indian immigrants tend to identify themselves not with the Indian national origin group but with their particular regional, linguistic, religious, or professional subgroups. After arrival, Bengalis, Punjabis, Marathis, and Tamils tend to maintain their languages, religious practices, foods, and dress.
In the 2010s, there was an increase in undocumented immigrants from India, with the Pew Research Center reporting in 2014 that roughly 500,000 unauthorized Indian immigrants in the United States represented a nearly 43 percent increase over the number in 2009. India overtook China as the largest source of undocumented immigration to the United States from Asia. The majority of Indian immigrants, however, arrived in the country legally.
Asian Immigration in the 2020s
In 2024, the United States was the final destination for approximately 20 percent of the world's migrants. An estimated 42 million of the population of the United States had been born in other countries. According to 2022 data, Mexico retained its historical top spot as the country of origin for 23 percent of immigrants in the U.S. The next top three countries, however, were AsianIndia at six percent, China at five percent, and the Philippines at four percent.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2023, the Asian Indian alone population had become the largest Asian alone demographic group in the United States with a population of 4,397,737 by 2020which represented an increase of more than 50 percent over 2010 figures. The US Census also reported Asian Indian immigrants represented the second-largest immigrant groupjust behind Mexican immigrants. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 2.7 million foreign-born immigrants from India in 2021composing 6 percent of the total U.S. foreign-born immigrant population. Four out of five of these immigrants had a college degree, and 80 percent had a spouse of Indian origin. Though Indian immigrants historically had low numbers of undocumented individuals in the U.S., the number of Indian immigrants apprehended while attempting to cross the US–Mexican border illegally totaled 18,300 between 2021 and 2022. The prior year, this number was only 2,600. It was speculated this steep increase may be attributed to difficulties gaining lawful immigration to the US following the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, persecution in India of non-Hindus, and the low number of job opportunities available in India. Also indicating the increase in Indian immigrants, 44 percent of Indian immigrants entered the U.S. after 2010compared to 28 percent of all immigrants.
Indian immigrants lived primarily in California, Texas, and New Jersey, and were primarily employed in the management, business, science, and arts industries. While around 37 percent of all immigrants in the U.S. worked in these industries, 79 percent of Indian immigrants worked in these fields. From those jobs, a large portion of those salaries were sent back to India. In 2021, this numbercalled remittancetotaled $89.4 billion or 3 percent of India's gross domestic product.
Elected Vice President in 2021, Kamala Harris made history as the first Indian American elected to the office. In July 2024, Harris replaced incumbent President Joe Biden atop the Democratic Party ticket in the 2024 U.S. presidential elections. She was likewise the first American of Asian descent to run for president as a major party candidate.
Perhaps in response to Harris' candidacy, data showed voting registration among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders showed a sharp uptick in 2024. These groups, in fact, formed the largest increase of all racial communities in the United States. Another attributing factor was the 2024 elections were among the first opportunities for first-generation Asian Americans and their American-born offspring to vote in U.S. elections. These trends first showed themselves during the 2020 elections. A final factor was the polarizing figure of Donald Trumphis motivated both detractors and supporters alike to head to the polls in larger numbers as a result of his candidacy.
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