Indian American - Definition and Overview

For an article on American Indians see Native Americans.

An Indian-American is a person who was either born in India and immigrated to the United States, or was born in the United States and has Indian ancestry.

Numbering at least 2.5 million, Indian-Americans account for slightly less than 1% of the total population of the United States. 2 million are either legal citizens or permanent residents, and an additional 500,000 to 1 million others work in the country and have been granted work-permits and visas, but are not citizens or permanent residents. Many Indian-Americans specialize in the fields of computers and medicine; while many others are engineers or other specialists.

There are many negative stereotypes about Indian-Americans, such as the idea that all Indians in the USA perform menial jobs like working at 7-11 or driving taxis. In fact, Indian-Americans are one of the most skilled ethnic groups in the United States (being dramatically over-represented in the field of medicine, for instance), and are actually considered to be the wealthiest group of immigrants in the United States.

See also: List of famous Indian Americans

Books on Indian-Americans

• The Karma of Brown Folk by Vijay Prashad of the University of Minnesota.