Asian Indian Immigrants in America: Factors Related to Adjustment

Abstract

Asian Indian immigrants did not come to the United States in sizable numbers until the U.S. Immigration Act of 1965.The term Asian Indian refers to people who are originally from India.This group of people has only been cursorily discussed in American research, which has generally concentrated on other Asians such as Chinese and Japanese Americans, who started arriving around 1860 and 1880, respectively.Psychologists also have not paid much attention to the social and psychological adjustment difficulties that these new Asian Indian immigrants may have been experiencing or to the possibilities of research related to their adjustment difficulties. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ASIAN INDIAN IMMIGRATIONThe U.S. Bureau of the Census reported in 1981 that there were 362,000 Asian Indians in the United States; they were the fourth largest Asian population, following Chinese Americans (806,000), Filipino Americans (775,000), and Japanese Americans (701,000).The change of growth in the Asian Indian population is considerable: There were 12,296 Asian Indians in 1960 and 51,000 in 1970 (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1975).Under the Immigration Act of 1965 the national origins quota system ended, and it became possible for professional Asian Indians and their families to enter the United States as immigrants under various categories, and naturalized Asian Indian citizens could sponsor the immigration of their brothers, sisters, and parents.The percentage of change in immi-