Ethnic routes to becoming American : Indian immigrants and the cultures of citizenship / Sharmila Rudrappa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rudrappa, Sharmila, 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

East Indian Americans--Cultural assimilation.

East Indian Americans.

East Indian Americans--Politics and government.

East Indian Americans--Social conditions.

Immigrants--Political activity--United States.

Immigrants.

Immigrants--United States--Social conditions.

Citizenship--United States.

Citizenship.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (251 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How does an immigrant become an ethnic American? And does American society fundamentally alter because of these newcomers? In Ethnic Routes to Becoming American , Sharmila Rudrappa examines the paths South Asian immigrants in Chicago take toward assimilation in the late twentieth-century United States, where deliberations on citizenship rights are replete with the politics of recognition. She takes us inside two ethnic institutions, a battered women's shelter, Apna Ghar, and a cultural organization, the Indo American Center, to show how immigrant activism, which brings cultural difference into public sphere debates, ironically abets these immigrants' assimilation. She interlaces ethnographic details with political-philosophical debates on the politics of recognition and redistribution. In this study on the under-researched topic of the incorporation of South Asian immigrants into the American polity, Sharmila Rudrappa compels us to rethink ethnic activism, participatory democracy, and nation-building processes.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Introduction: Locating South Asian Americans

Chapter 2: Finding Our Home in This World: Abuse Survivors in Apna Ghar

Chapter 3: Workers at Apna Ghar

Chapter 4: The Indo American Center: "Integrating the Best of Both Cultures"

Chapter 5: The Politics of Cultural Authenticity

Chapter 6: Becoming American: The Racialized Content of American Citizenship

Chapter 7: Not White in Public, Not Ethnic at Home

Chapter 8: The Cultural Turn in Politics and Community Organizing

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-231) and index.

ISBN:

0-8135-5613-9

0-8135-3638-3

OCLC:

70733866