Immigrant In Us

Surge in illegal Indian migration to US; China tally trebles in 2 years

The debate around illegal immigration has intensified in the runup to the US presidential election. Archis Mohan gives insight into the issue

Updated On : 27 Oct 2024 | 11:46 PM IST

National Spelling Bee: Reflection of Indian immigrants at global stage

When Balu Natarajan became the first Indian American champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1985, a headline on an Associated Press article read, Immigrants' son wins National Spelling Bee, with the first paragraph noting the champion speaks his parents' native Indian language at home. Those details would hardly be newsworthy today after a quarter-century of Indian American spelling champs, most of them the offspring of parents who arrived in the United States on student or work visas. This year's bee is scheduled to begin Tuesday at a convention centre outside Washington and, as usual, many of the expected contenders are Indian American, including Shradha Rachamreddy, Aryan Khedkar, Bruhat Soma and Ishika Varipilli. Nearly 70 per cent of Indian-born US residents arrived after 2000, according to census data, and that dovetails with the surge in Indian American spelling bee champions. There were two Indian American Scripps winners before 1999. Of the 34 since, 28 have been

Updated On : 26 May 2024 | 10:08 PM IST

Eminent Indian Americans commit $100 million for development of Amritsar

A group of eminent Indian-Americans have come together to announce a commitment of USD100 million for startups towards the socio-economic development of Amritsar, the first of its kind initiative for any Indian city by the diaspora. In collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), a group of eminent Indian-Americans and Indians living in the US had their first meeting in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC to announce the formation of Viksit Amritsar Initiative. The mega initiative, its founding members said, is inspired by former Indian envoy to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who after an illustrious diplomatic service, including the last four years in Washington DC, has returned to his home town with the mission of helping the city develop as one of the best in the world both in terms of economic and industrial growth but also as an attractive tourist destination from across the ...

Updated On : 03 May 2024 | 11:18 AM IST

Immigrant workers' lives, jobs, documents in limbo after Hawaii fire

Freddy Tomas was working in his yard in Lahaina when the fire advanced with stunning speed right up to his fence. He rushed to save valuables from a safe inside his house but realised he didn't have time and fled, his face blackened with soot. Days after fleeing in his pickup truck, amid smoke so thick he could only follow the red taillights of the vehicle in front of him and pray they were going the right way, the retired hotel worker from the Philippines returned to his destroyed home with his son to look for the safe. Tomas, 65, said it had contained passports, naturalisation papers, other important documents and USD 35,000. After sifting through the ashes, father and son found the safe, but it had popped open in the fire, whipped by hurricane-force winds, and its contents were incinerated. For immigrants like Tomas, Lahaina was an oasis, with nearly double the foreign-born population of the US mainland. Now, those workers are trying to piece their lives back together after the