A New Immigrant Group!
It should come as no surprise to anyone that one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in the country is highly educated Indians - and some not so highly educated, legal and otherwise. That is certainly evident here in Lykesboro, a very sleepy, rural place in the shadow of the Blue Ridge. If you go to the hospital, you likely will meet one or two on the medical staff. If you go over to the galactic headquarters of Lykes Widgetstores Inc (our economic claim to fame, after the Chicken Factory), you will find dozens of them in the IT department. For a while there was even a family of Indians, mom, dad and daughter, working the same shift at McDonalds. For awhile a very nice, though painfully shy, young man from India attended our Episcopal Church even though he is not a Christian. He stopped attending when he brought his Hindu bride to Lykesboro and started a family. Needless to say, he was a computer wiz working for Widgetstores.
For the most part these are fine folks who make significant contributions to our community. But compared to the Hispanics who are here in even larger numbers (about 1/10 of the county's population) they receive almost no notice. In fact, they are almost invisable! It was startling when I found a large group of Indian men playing cricket in one of our parks. It was the last thing I would have expected in a town like Lykesboro. Cricket!
And that is very interesting. What is it about Hispanics that worrys us Anglos so much more than any issue of, say, the Indic population? Is it simply numbers? That they are better educated? More legal? (I am not so sure about this as a fact) That they fly in at airports rather than walk? Religion?! It is a curious thing to me. I must admit that despite my interest in history, India is probably the part of the world I know least about, and therefore the least about its societies and peoples.
posted by Clemens @ 1:13 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I've often noticed large groups of East Indians and West Indians (ie, Caribbean folks) playing cricket together in a park here in Winnipeg. More power to them! It's much more civilized a sport than hockey, or rugby.
I think people who are worried about immigrants think "Hey, if we start to see too many Indians, we can just shut down the airport." It's the fact that Mexicans and other Spanish-speakers can just stroll (or sneak) over the border that scares people, I think.
That, and most people seem to understand that there are a WHOLE BUNCH of Indian and Chinese folks in this world, and that it's inevitable that you're going to see a diaspora of each just about everywhere. Even small towns have a Chinese restaurant.
And that is very interesting. What is it about Hispanics that worrys us Anglos so much more than any issue of, say, the Indic population? Is it simply numbers?
That is part of it
That they are better educated?
I think that is a big part of it, they are likely to already speak English which translates to them being more successful. If we start importing more poorly educated immigrants from India (or any other Asian country) in large numbers you will start seeing similar concerns.
Religion?!
If anything this is a point against them as many think they are Muslims (and in some cases they are-- this goes doubly for Sikhs). Though once you get talking with them, the non Muslims tend to be VERY anti-Muslim.
--Joey
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