SOUTH ASIAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
WRITTEN BY EMIELYN DAS
Often overlooked and unacknowledged in history, South Asian immigration to the US began in the 1700s, with Punjabis and Bengalis as the first Indians to enter the so-called “promised land.” As the population of South Asian immigrants grew in the 1800s, they began to form a presence in the industries of motels, medicine, and engineering. However, in 1917, despite their contributions to the US, Congress passed an immigration policy that restricted immigrants from the “Asiatic Barred Zone,” which included all those from the Indian subcontinent. In the 1920s, immigration from Asian countries was limited through the “National Origins Formula,” a system of quotes that served to maintain “the ideal American homogeneity” and served as the standard for immigration policies in the US for decades after. In the 1923 landmark case United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, South Asian Americans were deemed ineligible to receive citizenship, and thus all those who had obtained it prior, were stripped of their citizen status. It was the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, passed by President Johnson, that abolished the National Origins Formula and allowed an increase in the immigration of South Asians in the US and honored their level of education, allowing them to immigrate as professionals. The Hart-Celler Act was passed amidst pressure to deracialize American policies from the Civil Rights movement, aligning the South Asian American community with the issue of racial oppression in America. Without the immigration reform that came with the Civil Rights Movement, the South Asian American population would never have been able to thrive and existe like it does today.
Often overlooked and unacknowledged in history, South Asian immigration to the US began in the 1700s, with Punjabis and Bengalis as the first Indians to enter the so-called “promised land.” As the population of South Asian immigrants grew in the 1800s, they began to form a presence in the industries of motels, medicine, and engineering. However, in 1917, despite their contributions to the US, Congress passed an immigration policy that restricted immigrants from the “Asiatic Barred Zone,” which included all those from the Indian subcontinent. In the 1920s, immigration from Asian countries was limited through the “National Origins Formula,” a system of quotes that served to maintain “the ideal American homogeneity” and served as the standard for immigration policies in the US for decades after. In the 1923 landmark case United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, South Asian Americans were deemed ineligible to receive citizenship, and thus all those who had obtained it prior, were stripped of their citizen status. It was the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, passed by President Johnson, that abolished the National Origins Formula and allowed an increase in the immigration of South Asians in the US and honored their level of education, allowing them to immigrate as professionals. The Hart-Celler Act was passed amidst pressure to deracialize American policies from the Civil Rights movement, aligning the South Asian American community with the issue of racial oppression in America. Without the immigration reform that came with the Civil Rights Movement, the South Asian American population would never have been able to thrive and existe like it does today.