The Price of Belonging: Discrimination, Identity, and the Politics of Bilingualism in the Indian Diaspora

• In Event: Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table Three: Racialized and Ethnic Migration, Immigration, and Social Integration

Abstract

Linguistic assimilation is critical in studying immigrant assimilation. Language is not just a communication tool but also a symbolic mind marker of identity. Classical assimilation theories predict a straight line shift from heritage language use to English dominance over time. In reality, the racialized context creates diverse trajectories for immigrants to navigate their belonging in the host society. This study examines the effects of racial discrimination on bilingualism among Asian Indian immigrants in the United States. Asian Indian immigrants are a highly scaled yet racially minoritized group whose linguistic identity is further complicated by colonial hierarchies and translational ties
Using data from the Pew Research Center’s 2022-23 Asian American survey, this study used a survey-weighted binary logistic regression to estimate the effects of racial discrimination on bilingualism while controlling for demographic, human capital, migration, and social contextual factors. The findings revealed that racial discrimination does not produce a singular linguistic outcome, but instead, divergent pathways emerge for Asian Indian immigrants shaped by their immigration recency and friendship network composition.

Author

• Rafia Javaid Mallick, Georgia State University