The political behavior of Indian American women: gendered and generational perspectives on race, immigration and socio-economic status.

• Author: Prasad, Shankar K.
• Position: Gender on the Frontiers: Confronting Intersectionalities

On its face, the Indian American (1) community's journey from being ostracized as an "undesirable alien, as a lesser breed, or a benighted heathen" (2) to being heralded as ambassadors of democracy and role models for minority achievement (3) seemingly justifies their celebration as torch bearers of the American dream. Since first arriving on the shores of United States, Indian Americans have tirelessly battled to overcome immigration, naturalization, employment and miscegenation. Correspondingly, they have become the "fastest growing" and "wealthiest minority" in America. (4) Yet, the story does not end there.

Behind the scenes of narratives about model minorities breaking down cultural and institutional barriers is another story--the story of multiple generations of Indian women who have arrived in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York to support their professional husbands. Many of these women are less educated than their husbands and are thrust into a culture that is unfamiliar to them. Once here, they have to navigate their children through the unfamiliar American educational system, set up a household and become integrated into their neighborhoods, participate in potlucks and block parties. Added to these responsibilities is the expectation that they will fulfill their roles as new citizens and participate in the political arena, in most cases, as first-time voters. How these women learn to navigate this new political landscape without the counsel of their mothers, daughters or peers is the driving question of this Article.

This Article proposes to study the political involvement of Indian Americans, and specifically Indian women, who are exposed to democratic government institutions that demand participation from citizens. The path toward political involvement can be complex for those who are unfamiliar. The puzzle that Indian women present to political behaviorists is that, given their socio-economic status and high degree of education, one would assume that Indian American women would lean toward the Republican party. After all, research on particular immigrant communities suggest that high levels of economic prosperity result in a conservative political identification. (5) And yet, paradoxically, Indian American women present an opposite scenario--where high socio-economic levels produce a stable Democratic identification. Why? The main goal of this Article is to develop an answer to the question of why Indian American women do not affiliate according to traditional models of political identification and what this means for current theories on political behavior.

1. METHODOLOGY

   This Article will incorporate a combination of interpretive methods to examine the socializing experiences of the Indian American women. An examination of political learning and political incorporation necessarily involves an in-depth analysis of the community that draws from the personal experiences of Indian Americans. Consequently, this section analyzes focus groups that the Authors conducted to examine how Indian American women develop a political identity in this country. The interpretive analysis will be a multifaceted process: Due to the variance in terms of clustering and geography of the Indian community, focus groups were conducted in four different areas around the country, spread in terms of population clusters (large vs. small) and geography (North, South, West, Midwest). The sites for the focus groups include San Jose/San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, New York/New Jersey, Chicago and St. Louis. This spread controls for external "noise" associated with extraneous geographic variance.

   Participant selection in the focus groups was completed by community representatives at each site. These representatives were charged with selecting a diverse array of Indian Americans, both male and female, based on the following variables: gender, religion, profession, education, length of stay, socio-economic status, Indian region of origin, linguistic background and caste. Because of the breadth of diversity within India, it was important to ensure that individuals who represented the majority of Indian states, linguistic regions, castes and religious beliefs were selected. Of course, a sample population can merely attempt to approximate the larger body from which it is drawn. Finally, the nature of the questions being asked in the surveys and focus groups required that all participants be U.S. citizens.

   To attain a degree of uniformity among the focus groups, in addition to interviews, all of the participants completed a written survey. (6) Together, the surveys and focus groups worked in concert to respond to any potential gaps that either research tool, taken alone, may possess. For example, whereas focus groups provided an opportunity for group-based responses, in which individuals were able to build off the experiences of others in responding to questions, surveys provided a private, more anonymous forum during which sensitive questions may be addressed.

   Post-focus group survey results reflected a community that is characterized by a puzzling trend witnessed among a large number of other Asian groups: the Indian Americans surveyed, and women in particular, consistently shy away from the Republican establishment and instead affiliate with Democrats or Independents. Given that conventional wisdom would suggest otherwise, the paradoxical partisan behavior of this community points to the guiding puzzle of this paper: Why do Indian American women go blue?

2. A PROFILE OF THE INDIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

   Who are Indian Americans? To what extent and in what ways are they becoming politically and socially incorporated? From the perspectives of both their historical entry into the United States and their corresponding economic success, Indian Americans constitute a population and an electorate that is historically, socially, racially, culturally, politically and ideologically distinct from both the majority white and each of the major non-white populations. Indian Americans have a very different history than most immigrants, and from most people of color in American history. For the most part, Indians' history of becoming American cannot be explained by forced entry. While Indians began immigrating to the United States in the early 19th century, ninety-five percent of the current population entered the U.S. post-1965. (7) This latter group, with few exceptions, entered as medical doctors, engineers, scientists and businessmen and women, satisfying professional and technical requirements that were imposed on all immigrants by the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. (8) The majority of Indians entering the United States after the 1965 Immigration Act represented the socially and economically privileged segments of Indian society. (9) They did not immigrate to the United States to escape economic and political oppression, but rather to further establish financial security. The professional status of the newly immigrating Indians prevented this group from suffering the same types of persistent income inequality and de facto social segregation experienced by other non-white minorities, on account of past and present prejudice and legalized discrimination. (10) Instead, they almost immediately began to enjoy considerable levels of socio-economic success with high incomes and educational achievement upon entering the United States. (11) These economic and social factors have created a very distinct experience for Indians in terms of racial patterning after incorporation into society.

   And yet, merely examining the racial and socio-economic dimensions of this community provides an incomplete perspective. One area in which research has been woefully scant is regarding the question of how gender interacts with income and education level to impact political behavior within immigrant communities. While there is some literature that examines the role of women in politics, (12) there are few studies on immigrant women and their political participation. (13) This Article attempts to fill the void in the existing literature by addressing the political behavior of Indian American women. This question becomes particularly interesting because it addresses how traditional gender roles within Indian households have been impacted and sometimes upset by the larger racial and socioeconomic contexts within which they have been forced to be redrawn. Drawing from extensive focus group and survey-based research conducted in ten metropolitan centers across the U.S., this study will specifically examine the interplay between gender and politics, in terms of political learning and behavior within the context of the immigration experiences of Indian American women.

   The complicated nature of the Indian American population gives us a unique opportunity to pose questions with broad ramifications for American politics along multiple important dimensions, including immigration, race, ethnicity, etc. A focus on the contours, sources and impacts of the social and political identities, orientations and participation of Asian Indian women presents unique opportunities to advance understandings of the dynamics of the interplay of these factors in structuring the adaptation and incorporation of immigrants at large.

   1. Profile of Indian American Women

      The prevailing wisdom in political science literature would suggest that this unique profile of Indian American women would directly translate into high levels of political participation and conservative partisan affiliation. (14) And yet, the predictive power of the socio-economic model of participation that has long held true in political science no longer holds up. Indian American women affiliate in significant numbers with the Democratic Party, and focus group interview data highlights this paradox. (15) For example, a housewife in San Jose, California had the following comment:

      [S]ome...