The Attachments of New York City Caribbean Indian Immigrants to Indian Culture, Indian Immigrants and India

Abstract

The primary objective of this paper is to examine Caribbean Indian immigrants' cultural, social and psychological attachments to Indian immigrants in New York City and to India through the perspective of the ‘proximal host’. The major findings, based on the results of census and survey data, show that respondents have almost completely lost the Indian language, but have moderately preserved Indian popular culture such as music, Hindu religious practices and English-language Indian media. Moreover, few maintain close ties with Indian or other South Asian immigrants, preserving strong ties mainly with other Caribbean Indian immigrants. In addition, the findings indicate that they have little psychological attachment to India or Indian immigrants. A majority identify with their Caribbean country of origin, with fewer than 20 per cent identifying as Caribbean Indian. Moreover, the vast majority would cheer for their Caribbean national-origin team rather than the Indian team in a hypothetical cricket match between the two. The secondary objective—to analyse the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of Caribbean Indian immigrants in New York City—makes an important contribution to the literature by providing solid statistical data on their demographic and socio-economic characteristics and ethnic attachment. It also significantly contributes to studies of ‘twice-migrant’ groups' attachments to their proximal hosts—a very important but neglected topic—by showing how to measure three components of ethnic attachment using multiple indicators.

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