The decade of the brown

Via the newstab a data heavy piece in Little India:

Census 2010 data shows that the Asian Indian population ballooned 69 percent from 2000, to 2,843,391. Thus far, the Census Bureau has released Asian Indian data only for those who reported a single race. When multiracial Indians (those who reported multiple racial identities) are factored in the Asian Indian population will top 3.2 million, according to Little India analysis.

Nearly 12 percent of the Asian Indian population in the 2000 Census was multiracial. Little India projects that the final count for the Asian Indian population, including multiracial Indians, will fall between 3.2 million to 3.3 million. The Indian population may well have touched 3.5 million, but an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Indians returned to India in recent years after the U.S. economy was jolted by the global financial meltdown.

The multiracial issue touches upon a debate that I had with two of this weblog’s co-founders ~2003: the demographic assimilation or involution of the Indian American “community.” I use quotation marks because I think that though there are commonalities and similarities it’s clearly a rather heterogeneous collection of communities, in the plural.Some of this population growth is clearly due to illegal immigration, driven in part by the fact that the Indian American community is large enough that it is viable to just “disappear” once you make it to American soil. Here’s a story about Indians from south of the border, though not Mixtec or Maya people as you might expect: More Illegal Immigrants From India Crossing Border:

Police wearing berets and bulletproof vests broke down the door of a Guatemala City apartment in February hunting for illegal drugs. Instead, they found a different kind of illicit shipment: 27 immigrants from India packed into two locked rooms.



Indians have arrived in droves even as the overall number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. has dropped dramatically, in large part because of the sluggish American economy. And with fewer Mexicans and Central Americans crossing the border, smugglers are eager for more “high-value cargo” like Indians, some of whom are willing to pay more than $20,000 for the journey.

Indians have flooded into Texas in part because U.S. authorities have cracked down on the traditional ways they used to come here, such as entering through airports with student or work visas. The tougher enforcement has made it harder for immigrants to use visas listing non-existent universities or phantom companies.



Many of the Indians apprehended are Sikhs, followers of India’s fourth-largest religion, who tell authorities they face persecution back home and want asylum. Applicants need to convince officials that they have a credible fear of persecution in India. If so, the case is referred to an immigration judge.

Such persecution was common in the mid-1980s, when the state battled a Sikh secessionist movement, Kumar said. But today the ruling party in Punjab is Akali Dal, a Sikh party, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also Sikh. “It’s all nonsense,” Kumar said of asylum claims.

These are not the poorest of the poor if some of them are managing to scrounge up $20,000, or were using visa overstays.

10 thoughts on “The decade of the brown

  1. I suspect the number of multiracials will be lower. Growth being driven by immmigration, not birth. So 12% multiracial in 2000 might be something like 8% in 2010.

  2. I suspect the number of multiracials will be lower.

    i think this is a good bet for the reason you give. the TFR for indian americans like most asian american groups is ~2.

  3. Nice to know these new data but also the important data of Indian Americans to note is their achivements :

    A joint Duke University – UC Berkeley study revealed that Indian immigrants have founded more engineering and technology companies from 1995 to 2005 than immigrants from the U.K., China, Taiwan and Japan combined.[18] A University of California, Berkeley, study reported that one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of valley hi-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs.

    Indians along with other Asians, have one of the highest educational qualifications of all ethnic groups in the US. Almost 67% of all Indians have a bachelor’s or high degree (compared to 28% nationally and 44% average for all Asian American groups). Almost 40% of all Indians in the United States have a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average.

    According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Indian American men had “the highest year-round, full-time median earnings ($51,094)”, while Indian American women had a median income of $35,173.[23]

    Indian Americans own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the United States, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion.[25] In 2002, there were over 223,000 Asian Indian-owned firms in the U.S., employing more than 610,000 workers, and generating more than $88 billion in revenue.[26]

  4. So many Punjabi illegals?

    Not surprising considering how poor Punjab’s economic prospects are:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576322330472250792.html

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576322352143277090.html

    “Nice to know these new data but also the important data of Indian Americans to note is their achivements :”

    Applause! Glad to know that a population largely drawn from India’s elite ranks is doing well. So what?

  5. @royalbob, are you just copy and pasting some study without providing a link or explaining the context of the data? You know that’s just plagiarism?

    Also, I’m not sure why people are so sure the population growth is not due to births, especially considering the now child-rearing age of many Indian-Americans from the last census?

  6. I wonder how many of them marked Pakistan and Indian, Sri Lankan and Indian,etc. causing them to be ‘multiracial’..

  7. due to births, especially considering the now child-rearing age of many Indian-Americans from the last census?

    the surveys of asian americans usually show low TFR (below replacement) except for a few small groups, like cambodian and laotian refugees (probably bangladehsi and pakistanis too). the fertility of hindu americans seems about replacement from pew religious ident survey. though if the population is peaking in fertility you are correct that the TFR can mislead. but anecdotally i think most people believe that this is due to massive immigration (you randomly meet lots of people who arrived in the 2000s in many large cities).

  8. Consider the fact that most immigrants have sponsored their parents & siblings after becoming citizens. Majority of them also went back to get married.

    Sikh youth did successfully file for political asylums up to 1994, with 80-90% of them being false claims. With years of political instability & rampant corruption, Punjab have been left behind in growth compare to most parts of India. Instead of States, most Punjabis are now migrating to Canada, Australia & New Zealand.

  9. The Asian American population is growing at a breathtaking pace. Their numbers nearly doubled between 1980 and 1990 and are likely to double again by 2011. The estimated 9.6 million Asian Americans in 1997 make up less than 4 percent of the total U.S. population, but their influence on U.S. society is accentuated by their geographic concentration in a handful of states and cities and their above average income and educational levels.