Negotiating Ethnicity: Second-Generation South Asian Americans Traverse a Transnational World

Abstract

policy recommendations for improving the reprehensible condition of the Brazilian disadvantaged.This book would have benefited from some additional editing (e.g., several inconsistent statistics, repeated sections, and some tables without sources). Despite this minor quibble, the author makes a major contribution to the understanding of race relations, making this book required reading for anyone interested in the topics of race or Brazil.

Immigrant Indians’ identity in second-generation Asian American context: interpretation of ethnicity, gender and religion

“…According to H-1B holder interviewees, it was not only the male skilled workers shifting to the US, but also their whole family moved with them. Purkayastha (2005a, b) demonstrates the struggles of highly skilled Asian Indian women within the context of immigration policies, work place and household experiences which provide insights into investigating further into the assimilation measures of Indian American women. Until 2015, it was legal to live in the US under H-4 visa, but work permit was not granted.…”

“…Mishra (2016) shows that how desis including Indians divide within their ethnic identity in different professional, political subgroups in terms of class, gender and religion as in H-4 and H-1B visa holders and Mar Thoma Christian communities for their advantage. Purkayastha (2005a, b) shows that in the first decade of the 21st century, the second-generation Indian Americans' ethnic identity is formed by their racial status not as "white" or "wholly Asian" but as their connection with family members across the globe and their being ethnic consumers of global consumer industry which provides the context of multifaceted identity of Indian Americans in this paper. Most research including Purkayastha (2005a, b) show that Indian Americans are still racialized even after completing the assimilation measures, including membership in non-Indian civic bodies.…”

“…Purkayastha (2005a, b) shows that in the first decade of the 21st century, the second-generation Indian Americans' ethnic identity is formed by their racial status not as "white" or "wholly Asian" but as their connection with family members across the globe and their being ethnic consumers of global consumer industry which provides the context of multifaceted identity of Indian Americans in this paper. Most research including Purkayastha (2005a, b) show that Indian Americans are still racialized even after completing the assimilation measures, including membership in non-Indian civic bodies. Some scholars including Kibria (2000) opine that the assimilation measures are wrong.…”

“…One group who came from non-Indian ethno-geographical setting mostly identified themselves as "Indian Americans," taking ethno-national identity, while the other group from Indian ethno-geographical setting proclaimed to be "Asian Americans," using pan-ethnic Asian identity. The interviewees told about historical, religious and phenotypic differences which continue to racialize them in Asian American identity of immigrant Indians largely non-Indian setting due to culture shock even after fulfilling assimilation measures including membership in non-Indian civic bodies, as described in Purkayastha (2005a, b). The US Census did not recognize Indians as "Indian Americans" as opposed to the other Asian subgroups like South-East Asians and East Asians (Kibria in Schachter, 2014).…”

One and Many Asian America: Intra-Asian Ethnic Boundaries and Intermarriage

“…Such significance of racial-cultural similarities in pan-ethnic conceptualization could be found in the South Asian marital cluster. In addition to their shared experiences of racialization, South Asians share culturally specific marital decisions, behaviors, and practices (Leonard 2011;Purkayastha 2005). Yet, for other Asian ethnic groups, cultural interpretation of racial similarities may not be as straightforward, in which case, they may rely on cultural traditions like the Lunar New Year celebration, which was originally a tradition shared mainly among those of Chinese, Vietnam, and Korean descents but increasingly becoming a pan-Asian tradition in the United States in recent years (Lam 2020), to forge a sense of cultural-racial likeness in establishing the parameters of "pan-ethnic us."…”