Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
More than a decade ago when India’s then Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral came on an official visit to the United States, he was given a warm public reception by the Indian-American community in Edison, New Jersey.
More than 300-odd members of the community from the Tri-state area, including New York, attended the reception in September 1997 a day or two after Gujral addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York and also met with then President Bill Clinton.
But why choose New Jersey in preference to New York where Gujral had stayed and where leaders from India have traditionally been hosted?
The answer came from an Indian diplomat at the reception attended by some 300-odd members of the community, most of them from the Tri-state area, including New York. “In the last couple of years,” the diplomat said, “the center of gravity seems to have shifted from New York to New Jersey, and so the selection of the for the reception venue in New Jersey,” the diplomat said, alluding in a light vein to the growing presence of a large number of Indian-Americans who had chosen the Garden States as their home in preference to New York.
The U.S. Census Bureau seems to confirm the trend that started more than a decade ago and continues till today. According to the Census Bureau report quoted by the Migration Policy Institute, between 1009 and 2013, New York-Newark-Jersey City had the top concentrations of Indian-Americans among 10 metropolitan areas in the country.
That the number of foreign-born living in New Jersey is growing is borne out by a census report that was published by YouGov, an international market research agency, and quoted last week by NJ.Com. It said that New Jersey’s population continues to inch towards nine million, driven partly by the more than 50,000 immigrants who settle in the state each year. Although it did not give the break-up of Indian-Americans in the new settlement of immigrants, the trend of Indians-Americans choosing New Jersey as their preferred home when coming to the United States for the first times, is believed to be continuing more than in the past.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, while the largest population of Indian immigrants have settled in California (19 percent), New Jersey comes second with 11 percent, and Texas a third with nine percent. The top four counties with Indian immigrants in the 2009-13 periods were Santa Clara County in California, Middlesex County in New Jersey, Cook County in Illinois, and Alameda County in California.
New Jersey’s Middlesex County, the report said, has a large Asian population— nearly a quarter of the county’s more than 840,000 residents, and the largest group is Asian-Indians. Middlesex’s Asian-Indian population is reportedly the third-largest in the nation, behind Santa Clara, California, and Queens, New York. Among others, Census officials estimate, that last year alone, nearly 11,000 immigrants made Hudson County their home, helping boost its population to nearly 675,000 and making it the fastest-growing county in the state, according to the published reports.
Ironically, immigrants’ preference to make New Jersey their homes comes at a time when the rest of America seems to dislike the state the most. In a report called ‘State of the States’, YouGov said last year that New Jersey is the only state in the country about which people tend to have a negative opinion, with with 40 percent of the Americans having an unfavorable opinion of the Garden State.
So, why immigrants, especially from India, tend to like New Jersey more than other Americans do.
Dr. Sudhanshu Prasad, a medical doctor from India who had been a member of the Edison City Council, gave some clues. “You see, unlike many other American States, New Jersey has a very diverse population where you can see an Indian walking side by side a Korean, a Filipino or a Chinese, in a neighborhood and they all live in a spirit of good neighborliness and bonhomie. You won’t find that kind of a bond among neighbors in many other places. That is something great about New Jersey,” Prasad who immigrated some 33 years ago to the U.S. as a young doctor, and settled for Middlesex County, which he calls his home, told Desi Talk. “Even if I am given an option, I will not leave New Jersey, especially Middlesex County,” he said.
But that is not the only reason why Indians prefer to love in New Jersey. Many young people who come here to work for IT companies, either in New York, or New Jersey find New Jersey a very convenient place to live because of its proximity to New York. The commute even from a place like Edison, or Princeton to New York is very easy. Besides some of the public schools especially in places like Middlesex County are better than many of their counterparts in New York City, and good education is something that Indian parents most care about.
“But one of the interesting about our state, especially the Middlesex County, is that it’s a very cosmopolitan place. Look at the schools here. Dozens of different languages are spoken. The people are open-minded and very accepting here. I think people who had left India, can smell something of an India in miniature in New Jersey because of its social environment where people from different caste, creed and religion freely cohabit. That is something really great about New Jersey despite its real or perceived drawbacks.”
The post New Jersey – A Home Away From Home For Indian-Americans appeared first on News India Times.