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Coming into their own

Indians arrived in America at a higher rate than any other group between 2000 and 2005. N ow members of the long-established community say Indian-Americans are finding their voice.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 23, 2006

EDISON, N.J. - The train station billboards tell it all.

Local travel agents promise the best airfares from New York to Bombay. Shagun Fashions sells dazzling Indian saris. And DirecTV offers "the six top Indian channels direct to you."

Roughly every third person who lives in Edison, a New York suburb, is of Asian Indian ancestry. And although a steady stream of Indians has settled in the United States since the 1960s, immigrants positively poured into the country between 2000 and 2005 - arriving at a higher rate than any other group.

Not only is the Indian community burgeoning, it's maturing. Increasingly, after decades of quietly establishing themselves, Indians are becoming more vocal in the American conversation - about politics, ethnicity and many other topics.

"I've been studying the community for 20 years and in the last four or five years something different has been happening," said Madhulika Khandelwal, president of the Asian American Center at Queens College in New York. "Indian-Americans are finally out there speaking for themselves."

Roughly 2.3-million people of Indian ancestry, including immigrants and the American-born, now call the U.S. home, according to 2005 Census data. That's up from 1.7-million in 2000.

They have big communities in New Jersey, New York, California and Texas, and their average yearly household income is more than $60,000 - 35 percent higher than the nation overall. Indian-Americans, along with Indian expatriates worldwide, sent about $23-billion back to India in 2005, World Bank data show.

Reema Desai, an immigration lawyer, has lived in New Jersey since she was 3, and said she sees many signs of positive change compared to a generation ago.

"We've made an impact in all sorts of things, and now you even have people knowing about our holidays and our culture," she said. "Things are different now. We're more visible."

[Last modified October 23, 2006, 02:06:49]