Indian-Americans face discrimination regularly: Survey

Washington, June 9

Indian-Americans, who constitute the second largest immigrant group in the US, regularly encounter discrimination and polarisation, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

The report, ‘Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results from the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey', draws on the Indian-American Attitudes Survey (IAAS), a collaboration between the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins-SAIS and the University of Pennsylvania.

The findings of the report are based on a nationally representative online survey of 1,200 Indian-American residents in the US conducted between September 1 and 20, 2020, in partnership with the research and analytics firm YouGov, it said in a statement.

“Indian-Americans regularly encounter discrimination. One in two Indian Americans has reported being discriminated against in the past one year, with the discrimination based on skin colour identified as the most common form of bias.

“Somewhat surprisingly, Indian-Americans born in the United States are much more likely to report being victims of discrimination than their foreign-born counterparts,” said the report.

According to the report, Indian-Americans exhibit very high rates of marriage within their community.

While eight out of 10 respondents have a spouse or partner of Indian-origin, US-born Indian-Americans are four times more likely to have a spouse or partner who is of Indian-origin but was born in the United States.

The survey found that religion plays a central role in the lives of Indian-Americans but religious practice varies. While nearly three-quarters of Indian-Americans state that religion plays an important role in their lives, religious practice is less pronounced.

Forty per cent of respondents pray at least once a day and 27 per cent attend religious services at least once a week. The report notes that roughly half of all Hindu Indian-Americans identify with a caste group. Foreign-born respondents are significantly more likely than US-born respondents to espouse a caste identity. — PTI

2 charged for racist video targeting Patel

London: Two men were charged on Wednesday with sending a grossly offensive message related to a racist social media video targeting UK Home Secretary Priti Patel. The duo were summoned to court on May 29 and are next due to appear at Mansfield Magistrates Court in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands region of England, on June 29. PTI