Search

Sociological research and analysis of the Dakota Access Pipeline requires one to look at the past in order to understand the current grassroots movement. American Indians and all Indigenous peoples on the lands of this nation are too often deemed as identities of the past. As a result of American colonialism driven by capitalist expansion, Native Americans !ere forced onto arid, isolated reservations, hindering spiritual and historical connections with indigenous land" each affected tribe forced to assimilate into a lifestyle !here poverty remains overwhelming, healthcare necessities are unmet, and identity has become a battle. #he Standing $ock Sioux tribe protests are not only a movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, but also a battle to maintain an identity in present day American society where the historical traumas and legacies of coloni%ation thrive. #hrough research of academic sources, online news databases, interviews and books, the paper investigates forces of globali%ation that fueled the Dakota Access Pipeline and Standing $ock movement" establishing that this systematic exploitation of the Standing $ock tribal land and people is driven by a factor that could only be described as neo&colonial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the multidimensionality in immigration study and empirically identified the diverse trajectories of acculturation experience among first-generation Latino and Asian immigrants in the U.S. The 2003 New Immigrant Survey were analyzed using latent class analysis in a sample of 2,434 Asian and 2,677 Latino immigrants aged 18 and older. We used a series of variables relevant to language use and immigration experience as indicators of acculturation to model the latent classes. Our results have revealed distinctive patterns of these two immigrant groups. Specifically, we identified three distinctive Asian immigrant groups: separated, assimilated, and integrated. For Latino immigrants, we identified separated, lessassimilated, and integrated. The findings point to the needs to acknowledge the heterogeneity in immigrants of different origins as well as in the experience within the same origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of cosmetic surgeons as cosmopolitan intermediaries in transnational cultural flows. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 25 Malaysian cosmetic surgeons and patients, ethnographic observation of surgeon-patient interactions, and observation of plastic surgery professional meetings in Asia, I argue that cosmetic surgeons exhibit aesthetic agency in acting as both medical and cultural gatekeepers to desired physical appearances. Malaysian cosmetic surgeons facilitate the spread of regional cultural forms in selectively interpreting circulating beauty ideals in constructing "looks" for their patients to meet local tastes. These include "Asian," "Indian," "Western," and "Korean" looks. I find that Malaysian cosmetic surgeons act as tastemakers in drawing a symbolic boundary between unnatural "Caucasian" and natural "Asian" beauty ideals. Malaysian cosmetic surgeons engage in translation work to render beauty ideals concrete, and their ability to incorporate knowledge of patients' physical and religious constraints is a competitive advantage in a transnational industry. The assertion of a pan-ethnic Asian ideal aligns Malaysian cosmetic surgeons with Asian rather than Western cultural and medical trajectories. Examining the beauty industry in transnational context sheds light on regional power dynamics and emerging identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese and Indian Americans share many similarties in socioeconomic status as measured by education, occupation, and neighborhood attainment. However, Indian Americans are more likely to be in prominent CEO positions than Chinese Americans. In this paper, we compare Indian Americans with Chinese Americans from the perspectives of human capital, social capital, culture and discrimination using 2012 to 2016 American Community Survey data. We find that Indian immigrants experienced higher degree of migrant selectivity and they inherited Indian culture that values personal success and individualism. Indian Americans have more human capital and stronger professional networks than Chinese Americans. Moreover, Indian Americans also gained higher returns from business and administration training and benefited more from industrial and geographical concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how high-skilled, return migrant parents navigate K-12 educational options in India by answering the following research questions: How does where they anticipate their children going for college affect where parents decide to educate their children for high school? Through analyzing 34 interviews, the findings highlight the importance of citizenship as a factor in parents' school-choice decisions. I argue that return migrants make K-12 school-choice decisions that optimize the higher education options available to their children. As such, the K- 12 school-choice decision may be understood as parents' way of transferring migration-specific capital to their children by ensuring they have the skills necessary to flexibly navigate a competitive, globalized labor market. As such, this article highlights the interconnections between migration, schooling, and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on immigrant communities documents groups living among co-ethnics in major urban destinations, often in ethinc enclaves. How immigrants create community outside of those spaces remains overlooked. This paper focuses on Indian American motel owners in Ohio, in both urban and non-urban settings. These are middleman minorities. The paper demonstrates how these middleman minorities create a sense of community despite their racial and economic positions, as well as despite their location in Ohio, a state with little international migration. The implications of these findings for theories of immigrant adaptation are also discussed, namely the need to move beyond the common framing of immigrants of color as primarily either immigrants or minorities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With very little public attention, and practically no academic attention, Indian Americans have come to own over half of the nation's motels. In fact, practically all of the owners are from a single state within India, Gujarat, and have the last name Patel. This research concentrates on how these actors run their motels as immigrant entrepreneurs. They fit a middleman minority profile to a certain extent. The findings explain their role as immigrant capitalists relative to their employees, including those within their family. Indian Americans get ahead by reifying gender, racial, ethnic and class stratifications, within and outside of their communities, rather than relying only on ethnic social capital, other "ethnic resources," or a notion of self-reliance in the face of structural inequalities. Owners even affirm their own marginal status as minorities relative to Whites. Yet instead of a picture of only increasing inequalities, people resist these hierarchies as well. Still, such agency does not challenge ultimately their group statuses. The findings shed light on how immigrant entrepreneurs use various stratifications, in particular race relative to the majority which remains under-analyzed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian Americans have been mobilizing to challenge and rectify their racial and social marginality in the U.S. In this paper, I focus on what has become an increasingly important and emotional issue for Hindu American groups: the portrayal of Hindu and Indian culture within American academia. Indian Americans mobilize against the academy by questioning fundamental notions regarding Western culture and civilization that often tend to be at the heart of beliefs about American national identity. These challenges are mounted by arguing that many of these ideas about Western cultural and scientific superiority are Eurocentric, colonial, or neo-colonial fabrications that have no basis in historical reality, and that they are maintained to deny the contributions of non-Western groups like Indians. Indian Americans at the forefront of this movement emphasize revisionist versions of Hinduism and of Indian history that glorify "Indic" traditions as the original source for much of world civilization. In the process, Indian American leaders are redefining both the U.S. and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process by which immigrants are transformed into ?ethnics?, particularly the formation of ?new? ethnic groups on the basis of coalitional alliances among immigrants from different backgrounds has been a subject of scholarly interest.There are two major types of coalitional alliances that have developed in the U.S.: pan-ethnic coalitions based on continent of origin and pan-ethnic coalitions based on religious affiliation. What are the similarities and differences between the two types of mobilizations and how does each affect the ethnic community and the wider society? My paper examines these debates by looking at two distinct and opposed ways in which Indian Americans are entering the public sphere in the U.S.: some groups gravitate toward and mobilize around a ?South Asian? platform while other groups reject this and mobilize instead on the basis of a pan-Hindu or ?Indic? identity. My focus is on the differences in the strategies and goals of South Asian and Hindu organizations and the impact of each type of organization on the Indian American community and on the American public sphere. I pay particular attention to the response of each type of group to the events of September 11, 2001 since 9/11 was a watershed for both types of organizations, propelling them into activism and the American public sphere in very different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This essay examines the ideological positioning of identity among the South Asian diasporic community in the U.S. Utilizing Jean Gebser?s (1949/1985) structures of consciousness as hermeneutic horizons, this essay focuses on the horizons within the Indian-American community which inform identities and alliances as they emerge within Indian-American communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]