J.D. Vance and the Indian-American Dream

This immigrant group has prospered without quotas or grievances.

July 16, 2024 at 3:41 pm

You may be surprised to learn that the wife of “hillbilly” J.D. Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants. Usha Vance (née Chilukuri, a name with origins in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh) grew up in San Diego. The woman who could become second lady exemplifies the rise of an immigrant group that has prospered without quotas or affirmative action.

Indian-Americans have achieved a breathtaking amount in this country in a couple of generations. What’s impressive is both the range of their success and that they have succeeded entirely on their own steam. No ethnic or racial favors have come their way from schools, colleges or government. At least until the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, it was a disadvantage to be an Indian student applying to an Ivy League school.

I’m an ethnic Indian immigrant to the U.S., in the process of becoming an American, but I don’t write this to be self-congratulatory. Instead, I do so to point out that contrary to claims of “systemic racism” and pervasive “white privilege,” America has been a place where this ethnic minority has blossomed. Indians constitute just under 1.5% of the country’s population, and yet we’ve had two Indian-Americans (Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy) compete for the Republican presidential nomination this year. Vice President Kamala Harris, lest we forget, was born to an Indian mother. Indian-American CEOs run Google and Microsoft as well as Novartis, Starbucks, FedEx, Adobe and IBM.

Some random stats: Indian-Americans have the highest median household income in the U.S. by ethnic group, almost twice that of white households and three times that of black households. Two-thirds have college degrees and 40% have postgraduate degrees. They have the lowest divorce rates of any ethnic group in the country and own 60% of all hotels. One in every 20 doctors here is Indian, as is 1 in every 10 students entering medical school. Indian deans are a staple at top-drawer U.S. business schools, including Chicago, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern and New York University.

What Indians don’t specialize in is grievance. There is no Indian lobby pushing for increased “representation” in this or that economic or political sector, no pressure group ululating for ethnic enclaves, or for information to be provided in a language other than English. You won’t be told, when you call your bank, to “press 2 for Telugu.” You won’t have Indian parents at American public schools clamoring for special dispensations for their children. There is, instead, a quiet determination among Indian-Americans to take full advantage of being in a land that gives them a range of opportunities unavailable in their country of ancestral origin.

It is deeply unfashionable to speak these days of the American Dream. To do so marks you out, in certain circles, as anachronistic or sentimental. But if there’s one group that holds fast to its belief in the American Dream, it’s Indian-Americans. Unapologetic about their drive to thrive, they are rightly scornful of those who would say that America is a place that thwarts people on the basis of race.

Mr. Varadarajan, a Journal contributor, is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and at New York University Law School’s Classical Liberal Institute.