American karma : race, culture, and identity in the Indian diaspora / Sunil Bhatia.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bhatia, Sunil.

Series:

Qualitative studies in psychology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

East Indian Americans--Social conditions.

East Indian Americans.

East Indian Americans--Ethnic identity.

Immigrants--United States--Social conditions.

Immigrants.

United States.

Social conditions.

United States--Ethnic relations.

Ethnic relations.

United States--Emigration and immigration.

Emigration and immigration.

India--Emigration and immigration.

India.

Physical Description:

xi, 270 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2007]

Summary:

The Indian American community is one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in the United States. Unlike previous generations, its members are marked by a high degree of training as medical doctors, engineers, scientists, and university professors. American Karma draws on participant observation and in-depth interviews to explore how these highly skilled professionals have been inserted into the racial dynamics of American society and transformed into "people of color." Focusing on first-generation, middle-class Indians in American suburbia, it also sheds light on how these transnational immigrants themselves come to understand and negotiate their identities.

Bhatia forcefully contends that to fully understand migrant identity and cultural formation it is essential that psychologists and others think of selfhood as firmly intertwined with socio-cultural factors such as colonialism, gender, language, immigration, and race-based immigration laws. American Karma offers a new framework for thinking about the construction of selfhood and identity in the context of immigration. This innovative approach advances the field of psychology by incorporating critical issues related to the concept of culture, including race, power, and conflict, and also provides key insights to those in anthropology, sociology, human development, and migrant studies.

Contents:

American karma : race, place, and identity in the Indian diaspora

Qualitative inquiry and psychology : doing ethnography in transnational cultures

Des-pardes in the American suburbia : narratives from the suburban Indian diaspora

Saris, chutney sandwiches, and "thick accents" : constructing difference

Racism and glass ceilings: repositioning difference

Analyzing assignations and assertions : the enigma of brown privilege

Imagining homes : identity in transnational diaspora.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [243]-256) and index.

ISBN:

9780814799581

0814799582

9780814799598

0814799590

OCLC:

85692814

Online:

Publisher description

Contributor biographical information