Graduation Year

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Government and International Affairs

Major Professor

Bernd Reiter, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Ella Schmidt, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Nicolas Thompson, Ph.D.

Keywords

Re-ethnicization, Perceived Discrimination, Second-Generation Asian Indian

Abstract

When discussing Asian Indian population in the U.S. their economic success and scholastic achievement dominates the discourse. Despite their perceived economic and scholastic success and their status as a “model minority”, Asian Indians experience discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization from mainstream American society. These experiences of discrimination and perceived discrimination are causing second generation Asian Indians to give up on total assimilation and re-ethnicize. They are using different pathways of re-ethnicization to re-claim and to create an ethnic identity. This thesis provides evidence, through secondary sources, that Asian Indians in the U.S. do experience discrimination or perceived discrimination, and it is historic, cultural, and systemic. This thesis also uses secondary sources to explain several pathways of re-ethnicization utilized by second generation Asian Indians who have given up on complete assimilation. The process of re-ethnicization provides second generation Asian Indians agency, positionality, and placement in American society. Asian Indians through re-ethnicization occupy and embrace the margins that separate mainstream American society and the Asian Indians community in the U.S. It allows them to act as “go –betweens”.

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