From: bjag@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bharathi Jagadeesh)
Subject: Re: Immigrants Getting Jobs
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 19:16:52 GMT


Ron I've been listening to your posts with interest because you're a lot
like me, i.e. Indian-American, brought up in the united states, and I've
even had some of the same cultural conflicts (i.e. people asking you how
much you make) as you have.  

This most recent post really troubled me, though. First, let's start with
the statement you make "He was short on specifics, typical of most
Indians."  You've complained in other posts about white americans assuming
that you're not a citizen merely because you're of Indian ancestry, i.e.
complaining about generalizations made without evidence.  You're doing the
same thing here. How can you possibly have met enough Indians to say
"Typical of most Indians" about anyone?

Now, going back to the question of immigration, Indians are able to get
Green Cards in the US now for precisely the same reasons that our parents
were able to get Green cards in the late sixties and early seventies:
because there is a serious shortage of engineers and doctors, particularly
doctors willing to work in rural or less populated areas. And, there's a
serious shortage of qualified engineers and scientists. In fact, 25% of
graduate students in Ph.D. programs around the country are foreign
students. This isn't because the government gives foreign students
preference! NIH training grants, other sources of funding aren't even
available to foreign students. 

You're submitting to the same old myth that the David Duke supporters buy
into, i.e immigrants ar taking jobs away from Americans. They don't. They
take jobs that Americans are unwilling to do and jobs that Americans aren't
qualified for. America offers a lot to its immigrants. You and I can attest
to that. But the immigrants offer a lot to America as well. Our parents can
attest to that. 

If I go back to some of your other posts, I have to admit  that I've had
some of the same problems that you have. I've often assumed that Indian
doctors and engineers are wealthy Republicans, i.e. out only for their own
gain. In fact, the one politically active Indian-American I remember from
high school joined the Young Republicans and ROTC when she graduated. If
anything, reading this network has made me realize how wrong I've been in
making generalizations without taking the time to learn about people. There
may be Indians who are very wealth oriented, but there are also ones who
care about human rights, about world affairs, about international
development, about inter-racial strife; in other words, about all of the
things that I care about (I'm referring here to other people's posts--thank
you for showing me the diversity of opinion)

Just because you haven't met the Indians with the same value system as you
doesn't mean that you should generalize about the group. There are many of
us who don't fit the mold the mold that you seem to have cast.
-- 
Bharathi Jagadeesh/bjag@nwu.edu
Who is that who mumbles in the dark/ who is it that draws his veil across the
stars/ Langston Hughes
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian.american