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This essay is not bad. Certainly better than much of the tiresome nonsense by Vijay Prasad or Hari Kondabulu. Comments... https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/01/the-making-of-a-model-minority/617258/
First off - the notion that Indian-Americans were not always considered a "model minority" - no kidding. Every immigrant group faces hostility. Which leads to Venugopal's biggest ommission...
He compares the experience of Indian immigrants to black people (understandable), but fails to compare to the waves of immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Eastern Europe - why?
The scale of immigration from those countries was huge. Even by today's standards - Indians never arrived in the numbers they did - nor did Indians face the same sort of backlash.
By and large, Indians did not live in ghettos upon arriving in the US. Yes, you'd have Indian neighborhoods like Jackson Heights, but they do not compare in terms of poverty & density to the Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century.
Venugopal's family was certainly better off economically than my own. Dad was not a doctor or engineer, but had a background in accounting. But - he also changed jobs every couple of years - not always by choice.
Mom never missed a chance to remind Dad how our home was not as nice as some other homes, or how we could not afford to fly to India as frequently as other families.
If anything - the reasonably effective integration of Indians should serve as a model for immigration policy in general.
Yes- the Indians who came in the 60s-80s were a select slice of the nation. I've said that if India was next to the US - you'd likely see thousands of Indian cooks, gardeners, or hanging out in the Home Depot parking lot as day labor.
Being selective is not bad - provided that the selectivity is based on ability and not a desire for some sort of racial/ethnic balance.
