The Politics Of ‘Aunties’: Immigrants From India In The US

The phenomenon of Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley

The United States was founded by migrant-settlers, and although for a long time representatives of Anglo-Saxons, Jews, a few Slavs and, since a certain time, a proportion of Blacks, Irish and Latin Americans dominated politics there, now the situation is beginning to change. Migration policy has been significantly liberalized in the last two decades, which has led to strong flows from Latin America, Africa and the Asian region. Hindus significantly dominate among the representatives of the latter, which is facilitated by strong demographic pressure in India itself.

If in 2000 one million 900 thousand immigrants from India lived in the United States, then by 2019 there were four million 606 thousand of them. Now it is the second largest Asian group in the United States after the Chinese and accounts for more than 20 percent of all Asians. They live mainly in the Midwest and the Atlantic coast. Most of them are in New Jersey (42%), Michigan (31%), Georgia (30% of all Asians), New Hampshire (30%), Pennsylvania and North Carolina (29% each), Maryland (24%), Kentucky (22%) Texas and Kansas (20% each).

Although some Indians have already assimilated and represent the second or third generation, many others came on work and student visas and are just entering U.S. politics.

It is significant that Indians among all Asians have the highest indicator in terms of education – 75% have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Since 2001, half of the H-1B visas, which require a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, have been issued specifically to Indians. That is, their arrival was facilitated by the very foreign policy of the United States, designed to attract educated migrants.

During this time, the Indians have achieved significant success.

According to the US statistical agency Pew Research Center for May 2024, Indian Americans are frequently the highest-earning Asian origin group when looking at different steps on the income ladder. For example, they top the list when looking at those who belong to the lowest 10% of households and the top 10% of households by earning levels.

The lowest level is 22.6 thousand dollars per year, and the highest is 222.7 thousand (the average is 89 thousand).

There are Indians on the Forbes list of billionaires. In the top ten there are the CEO of Zscaler, Jay Chaudhry (Net worth: $8.3 billion), a former co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Indus Entrepreneurs ,Vinod Khosla (Net worth: $5.3 billion), the founder and CEO of Symphony Technology Group Romesh Wadhwani (Net worth: $5.1 billion), Rakesh Gangwal (Net worth: $4 billion) from IndiGo, India’s largest low-cost airline and InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., Niraj Shah (Net worth: $2.8 billion) from the Shah Family Foundation, co-founder and CEO of Workday Inc. Aneel Bhusri (Net worth: $2.3 billion), venture investor Kavitark Ram Shriram (Net worth: $2.3 billion), Vista Equity Partners president Brian Sheth (Net worth: $2.2 billion), the president and chief executive officer of the computer networking company Arista Networks Jayshree Ullal (Net worth: $1.43 billion), businesssman Bharat Desai (Net worth: $1.27 billion) and the CEO of Google Cloud Thomas Kurian (Net worth: $1.2 billion).

If there is a large business in the United States, which is represented by Indians, then, accordingly, there is an Indian lobby. In 2002, businessman Sanjay Puri established the India-US Political Action Committee (USINPAC), which dealt with a wide range of issues, including increasing visa quotas.

In 2013, the House of Representatives had a single Indian American member. Ten years later, the US Congress includes five Indian Americans and they are all from the Democratic Party.

These are Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Ami Bera and Ro Khanna of California, Shri Thanedar of Michigan. and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. Nearly 50 representatives of Indian descend are in state legislatures.

Vice President Kamala Harris, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who also announced that he would run for president of the United States, also belong to this group.

Moreover, after Harris was nominated for the presidency, there was a clear surge in activity among American Indians. Indian American Impact, a group that mobilizes voters and candidates from South Asia, recently launched a website desipresident.com with the slogan “Kamala ke Saath”, which means “With Kamala” in Hindi.

Varun Nikore, executive director of the AAPI Victory Alliance, says that “a large part of the ethos right now amongst Indian Americans, particularly, is we want a fighter. And we see that in Kamala Harris.” He also notes that that within the community her candidacy has inspired a “whole new crop” of stakeholders interested in getting involved. He notes the new group is largely women, specifically older women not traditionally associated with politics or campaigns known affectionately as “aunties.”

It should be noted that Indian Americans have served under both President Trump (over 80 including Nikki Haley, Seema Verma, Ajit Pai, and Raj Shah) and President Biden (over 130 including Neera Tanden, Vanita Gupta, Kiran Ahuja, Indian Americans have also grown rapidly in the number of candidates running for political office, and, relatedly, in campaign fundraising.

The preponderance of Indians among Democrats is probably due to the fact that there are many white Christians among Republicans and the corresponding rhetoric, and since Indians are pagans, they do not feel very comfortable in this environment.

Although Nikki Haley represents the Republican Party, attacks on her and Vivek Ramaswamy in the Democratic press are noticeable in this regard.

Meanwhile, the wife of vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, Usha Chilukuri, also has Indian roots (in addition, she is a Hindu by religion). Until recently, she worked at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson and has good references from colleagues.

Usha is the daughter of Indian migrants, so this fact can also be used by Republicans during the election campaign. At least, she often accompanies her husband at political rallies.

In foreign policy, American Indians are focused not only on India. Shri Thanedar recently declared his support for Israel. In general, mutual support for India and Israel and the promotion of closer ties between the United States, Israel and India is a popular topic among Indian-American politicians in the United States, regardless of their religious views (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists).

On the other hand, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party is the main beneficiary of fundraising in diasporas. And the US is no exception.

Based on these trends, it can be predicted that the United States will continue to attract millions of migrants from India, so there will be many first–generation Indian Americans here over the next decades. However, the number of Indians in the second and even in the third and fourth generation will also continue to grow as the children of immigrants settle and assimilate into American society.

This will change the demographic landscape of America, as Indian families have more children than white Americans, and will have a certain political effect, including stronger ties between India and the United States.

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