








almost 159,000 Asian-Indian residents, up from 60,000 in 1980. Wyoming boasts the smallest population of Asian Indians  240 but it is also the first state in the nation to elect an Asian Indian to its legislature, Republican Nimi McConigley. Throughout the U.S., well-educated Asian Indians are assuming positions of power.
As with most recent immigrant groups, Asian Indians tend to live in and around major metropolitan areas. New York City, home to more than 106,000 Asian Indians in 1990 (1.2 percent of the city s population), had the largest population. It is followed by Chicago (54,000), Los Angeles-Long Beach (44,000), and Washington, D.C. (36,000). Asian Indians are an especially strong presence in Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, New Jersey. They accounted for 2.3 percent of its population in 1990, the largest concentration of any metro area. They also made up 2.1 percent of the population of the Jersey City metro.
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PROFESSIONALS AND ENTREPRENEURS
In many cases, the first wave of an immigrant group consists of affluent people. Asian Indians are a classic example of this rule. Among Asian Indians in the work force in 1990,30 percent were employed in professional specialty occupations, compared with 13 percent of all U.S. employees. Twenty percent of foreign-born Indian professionals are physicians, 26 percent are engineers, and 12 percent are post-secondary teachers, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies. Asian Indians are slightly overrepresented among managerial and sales/technical/ clerical workers, and underrepresented among service and blue-collar workers according to the 1990 census.
 The earlier immigrants came because of their qualifications. They had no trouble getting green cards or profes sional posts,  says Dr. Madhulika Khan-delwal of the Asian/American Center at Queens College in Flushing, New York Indeed foreign-born Indian professionals are highly qualified: more than 67 percent
hold advanced degrees. And 2 the 14,000 American-born As aged 25 and older hold post degree accreditation.
  The more recent immigra: two ways,  says Khandelwal fessionals among them, thos, ter s degrees or even medical doctorates, are not always : jobs in their chosen profess country. They are faced wit) staying in India and working sionals, or emigrating to A working in trade or service jo not suit their qualifications.  wave also includes lower-mid< dians who tend to work in se: tries, usually with members tended families, says Khande
United States immigration p< on family reunification, so it is ing that the qualifications of have changed over the past de< ing to the Center for Immigra Many find positions in famil nesses or work in service ind as taxi driving until they m money to pursue more lucrati More than 40 percent of New 40,000 licensed Yellow Cab South Asian Indians, Paki Bangladeshis. But most see th ing phase as a transitional pe: matize them to the U.S. and 1 the money they need to get s
Many Asian Indians are se The number of Asian-Indian-nesses increased 120 perce 1982 and 1987, according t available Survey of Minority-1 ness Enterprises released bj Bureau. Dollar receipts for nesses increased 304 percent five-year period.
 Asian Indians dominate in such as convenience and static says Eliot Kang of the New based Kang and Lee Advert specializes in marketing to Asi:
Kang points out that Asia tailers get an edge on competi ing their resources and forrr tions, which enables them tc
36. Asian-Indian Americans
Indian Density
and sell at lower prices. "Large family networks and family financing give these busi-
India is home to almost 1 billion, but much of the country is still rural.
(population per square kilometer of states in India, 1991)
Ten Indian states have more than 10 million residents.
state		state	population
u ar Pradesh 			 139,112,287	Madhya Pradesh		.... 66,181,170
Bihar 		QC 17A AAA		.... 55,858,946
Maharashtra			 78,937,187	Karnataka 		.... 44,977,201
West Bengal			 68,077,965	Rajasthan		.... 44,005,990
^Bhra Pradesh			 66,508,008		.... 41,309,582
Sonnes: H/. Infomap Private Lit!.. Sen Delhi, India	p. (mappingsoftware).
Fall. Churrh, ^population statmtw.); ArrVww 2. ESRI, Redlands. CA^nopp^-----------
 Asian Indians dominate in some trades, such as convenience and stationery stores. 
nesses a chance to grow and expand. And because so many family members are involved, Asian-Indian businesses can flourish in labor-intensive sendee industries. 
The Census Bureau tallied close to 30,000 Asian-Indian-owned service businesses in 1987. Retail establishments ran a distant second, at slightly more than 9,000. Asian-Indian ownership of hotels and motels is the standout example of Indian penetration into the service segment. In 1994, 7,200 Asian-Indian owners operated 12,500 of the nation s 28,000 budget hotels and motels, according to the Atlanta-based Asian American Hotel Owners Association.
ONE MARKET, THREE SEGMENTS
The median income for Asian-Indian households is $44,700, versus $31,200 for all U.S. households, according to the 1990 census. Not all Asian Indians are affluent, however. Dr. Arun Jain, professor of marketing at the State University of New York in Buffalo, divides the market into three distinct segments. The first, the majority of whom immigrated in the 1960s, is led by a cohort of highly educated men who came to this country because of professional opportunities. Most are doctors, scientists, academics, and other professionals who are now in their 50s and at the peak of their earning potential. Jain estimates that their average annual income may top $100,000. The
Asian Indians may save at least 15 percent of their income.
wives of these high-powered professionals usually do not work outside of the home and are not highly educated. These wo-
183
6. ASIAN AMERICANS
men may have no more than a high school education, and a good portion do not speak English fluently, says Jain. Among this group, the majority of children are in college or about to marry and start families of their own.
The second segment includes immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 1970s. Like the first segment, the men are highly educated professionals. Yet unlike the first wave, many are married to highly educated women who work outside of the home. Their children are college-bound teenagers.
The third segment is made up of relatives of earlier immigrants who have been sponsored by established family members in this country. They are often less well-educated than members of the first two segments. This is the group most likely to be running motels, small grocery stores, gas stations, or other ventures. In this group, Jain also includes the majority of Asian-Indian Ugandans who fled that regime in the 1980s and have established themselves in this country.
Lifestyle and generational differences set the three groups apart, at least to some extent. People in the first segment are thinking about their children s marriages, while those in the second are about to put their children through college. Men in the first segment may be looking toward retirement, while the men and women in the third group are trying to establish themselves in successful busi-
nesses.
Generational distinctions are only part of the story, however. India has nearly 1 billion residents separated into 25 states and 7 union territories, speaking 15 official languages.  We are like Europe,  says Pradip Kothari, president of the Iselin, New Jersey-based Indian Business Association, a not-for-profit organization linking the more than 60 small businesses that flourish in this heavily Indian enclave of Middlesex County.
SECURITY AND VALUE
Linguistic, nationalistic, and generational differences may divide the Indian popula-
From Calcutta to Camcorder
Asian Indians are good customers for electronic equipment. (percent of Asian-Indian and total U.S. households owning selected items, 1994)
iw	w. Mediomorfc Rwarrh /of
------------------ w M. and bud  Media	Y rl, U
tion, but they share a number   ing principles and goals. Jain that all Asian Indians place gre education.  Indians will do a further their children s educ says.
Financial security is also i Saving money is a major pari culture, and targeted saving  tion or retirement is especia sized. Jain estimates that the si among Asian Indians in the U.i than the national average of 5 j places it as high as 15 to 20 pei lar to the rate in India. Asian-In icans also place a high value   ance and prize investments th tee a secure future for children children.
 When Indians get togethe! discuss such things as CD which banks are offering the b says Eliot Kang of Kang and 1 tising.  They are savvy, info conscious of getting value for t! ments. They will compare an< formation carefully and thor fore making a commitment. 
Jain points out that invests ers and financial institutions out to this market stand to ma tial gains, particularly those ii dian communities.  We rel banks for local transactions,    Kothari.  Because there are banks in New Jersey, we ar rely on Indian banks in New for international transactions, vest locally. We try to buy CE that is interested in our comm
Asian Indians also find secu defined property and life insu dians love insurance,  says they tend to buy policies with i He points out another motivs surance companies to pursue t  Indians tend to carry little d surance. This is especially tru sionals who may be self-empk
Asian-Indian merchants Tree Road area of Iselin, New vor Metropolitan Life and Nei because these companies pa
184
36. Asian-Indian Americans
THE INDIAN TOWER OF BABEL
sian-Indian immigrants to the U.S. share the same mother country, but this doesn t mean they understand each other. India's consti
tution recognizes a total of 15 official languages, and a recent Indian census tabulated more than 500 mother tongues spoken within the nation's boundaries. These languages are similar to regional accents in the U.S., because they give clues to an Asian Indian s regional origin. This may in turn point to other cultural differences, such as religion or food preferences.
The languages of India are members of the
ported speaking a language other than English at home.
The U.S. has 330,000 Hindi speakers, and a sizable number speak Gujarathi, Panjabi, Bengali, or Marathi. Some language groups are microscopic, however, such as the 18 people who speak Bihari and presumably hail from the northeastern Indian state of Bihar, where it is the official language. Fortunately for them, all 18 speak English well, as do the vast majority of all Asian Indians in the U.S.
Marketers don't necessarily need to speak 500 Indo-Aryan languages. But they do need to be aware of the diversity among their Asian-Indian customers.	 Marcia Mogelonsky
Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European, the family to which the
majority of western languages belong. While some Indian languages are spoken by millions of people, others are common only to a handful. Each Indian state has its own official language or dialect, but residents may speak a host of other dialects, which form a sort of chain link with each other. This means that although neighbors who speak different dialects may understand each other, those who live a few dialects apart may not.
Almost 70 percent of Asian In-hians aged 5 and older enumer-atedin the 1990 U.S. census re-
L
SPEAKING IN INDIAN TONGUES
English may be the only common language spoken by Asian-Indian Americans.
fflw Indian languages spoken by largest umbers of Americans, number speaking fangnage In U.S. In 1990, and Indian/Pakistanl states where languages are spoken)
language	umber of speakers la UX.	hMflae/Pekfstani states where laagsege Is spoken
Hindi (Urdu)	331,484	Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bfcar, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra, India
Gujarathi	102,418	Cajend, Boabay district of Maharashtra, Ma
Panjabi	50,00$	Punjab, northwe
