Indian migrants to the US came predominantly as petty bourgeois, not workers
Evidence
That these were non-white Asians rather than the familiar white Europeans is significant enough, bur equally crucial was the class shift. A ma,jority of these Asians came not to do manual labour and join the working class, but to set up commercial enterprises or to join the professional petty bourgeoisie. Indian immigration into the United States was overwhelmingly petty-bourgeois and techno-managerial, while members of the Indian working classes went to sell their labour-power mostly in the Gulf region, secondarily in England. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 327
Categorization
- XREF: Directly supports the reading purpose: Ahmad’s materialism contrasts class analysis against discourse-first essentialism — immigration differentiated by class, not undifferentiated ‘Indianness’. — connects to: American immigrant workers aspired to become capitalists rather than a laboring class; Immigrants, not native-born whites, composed most of the American industrial workforce.; The U.S. frames Indian migration as brain drain and Pakistani as brawn drain (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- US immigration policy changes reshaped South Asian migrants from professionals to workers.
#contradicts(0.82) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 916 - The U.S. frames Indian migration as brain drain and Pakistani as brawn drain
#responds-to(0.75) - American immigrant workers aspired to become capitalists rather than a laboring class
#expands(0.72) - Middle-class Pakistanis abroad chafed at being stereotyped as labor migrants
#qualifies(0.72) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 21 - Indian indentured labor reproduced subcontinental caste hierarchy, muting collective resistance
#contradicts(0.71) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1153 - Indenture contracts themselves forged a distinct workers’ consciousness among South Asian migrants
#contradicts(0.71) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 487 - Immigrants, not native-born whites, composed most of the American industrial workforce.
#qualifies(0.70)