Assimilation of Indian Immigrants in the United States and H1B Visa Program
Abstract
Compared to the first half of the twentieth century there was a shift of the immigrant groupsfrom Europe to Latin America and Asia in the U.S., particularly after the 1965 Immigration
Reform Control Act (IRCA). Post IRCA and combined with the computer technology revolution
Indian immigrants have increased to record levels in the U.S. Indians are the second largest
groups of immigrants in the U.S. (after Mexicans) and constituted more than 6% of the 43.3
population of immigrants in 2015. Moreover between 1980 – 2010 Indian immigrant population
grew more than eleven fold.1 Indian immigrant groups are called model minority IT generation
groups (Chakraborty et al.2017). In spite of the general trends that Indian immigrants are the
most skilled in the labor market among the immigrant groups and have the highest per capita
income, this paper will examine the economic assimilation, particularly focused on earnings, of
Indian college and higher educated graduates in the U.S. using National Survey of College
Graduates (NSCG) over the years 2010 – 2017. 23 We examine the earning growth of Indian
immigrants in the U.S. relative to natives to get insight on the rate of economic assimilation of
first generation Indians in the U.S. In particular, we will look at whether there are any earning
growth differences across cohorts as well as whether the degree was obtained in the U.S. versus
home country. Since NSCG has detail information on entry visa of the Indian immigrants, we
will also explore whether the H1B policy changes had any shifts in the earning growth of Indian
immigrants.