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How Indians Climbed the American Dream Ladder
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 16 Jul, 2025

The success and prosperity Indian Americans enjoy today were enabled by America's desperate need for imported brainpower.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 changed everything for Indian immigration.

Before Lydon Johnson’s signed the law, a series of highly racist quotas existed that limited the number of immigrants allowed to come from the Eastern Hemisphere. These  quotas, also known as the National Origins Formula, would specify things like “no more than .13% of immigrants to the US could be from China.”  

As of 1965, 94.7% of immigrants were from Europe while just 3.3% were from Asia.

The 1965 law didn't mean that literally any number of immigrants could now come to the US — they still weighed each application on the basis of its merits — but those wishing to come here no longer had to play Immigration Squid Game to be selected. 

There were few main criteria that helped people make it over here. One was family reunification.

Countries like Mexico, Germany, and the UK, which alone accounted for 30% of immigrants, could especially  take advantage of the family reunification allowance. But it meant less to countries that had never previously had a strong presence in the US.  There were roughly 12,000 Indian immigrants here at that point. 

The other major criteria, however, is what would change everything for the Indian population: Skilled labor.

The US found itself in desperate need of professionals in the fields of engineering, medicine, science and tech. As both the Cold War and space race raged on, it was becoming clear that the US didn't have the skills to be competitive in the long term. 

That’s where the Indians came in… literally. 

There are a number of reasons Indians fit the criteria more than other countries, and most of them had to do with British colonization. 

It’s worth noting from the outset that while they may have set some Indians up for success, the British weren't acting with the best interests of their subjects in mind.

For one, the British needed Indians to have many of these skills to further their own economic interests like building railroads and extracting resources from India. So they set up a number of technical institutes throughout the country and got Indians to become educated in these fields.

While Indians now had these skills, they were equipped to do little more with them than cheap labor for the British, who had also forced many of them to learn English.

In short, there were a number of well-educated Indians with few promising career prospects within their own country. The US provided the perfect opportunity for them to actually put those skills to use.

So they came here and began to thrive in science, medicine, technology, and any other field that would allow us to be labeled nerds.

In just five years after the law was passed and the quotas were abolished, India went from making up .06% of immigrants to 5.63%, or 99 to 9,712. That’s a 94-fold increase. I didn't do the math in my head but many of those immigrants probably could have.

And, thus, all Indians in the US had good jobs and lived happily ever after.  Not quite. 

The (Recent) Past

Instead, we got the stereotype of Indians driving cabs and running 7/11’s.

Yes, skilled labor accounted for the first major wave of immigration post-1965. Approximately 45% had degrees in STEM. But once those folks got a footing here, they sent for the relatives who were now able to take advantage of the family reunification. Throughout the 1980s, about 35% of new arrivals came through family reunification. In the 1990s, that number grew to about 45% or more. 

The region in India they came from would help determine the type of jobs that those without the STEM backgrounds would work. 

In what’s commonly called “ethnic niching,” Indian groups tended to stick together. 

North Indians, like those from the Punjab region, would largely become cab drivers, which didn't require strong English proficiency or an educational background.

Gujaratis, a group known for their business skills, would tend to open gas stations and hotels.  THAT is how you get an Indian convenience store owner in the Simpsons or an Indian cab driver in the Deadpool franchise. 

But those stereotypes don’t get us too much further than the 90’s. The present day looks a little different. 

The Present

Indians in the US are generally thriving in 2025.

Over 75% have a Bachelor’s Degree and the median household income of Indian families is $130,000, the highest of any group in the US. 75% is also how many Indians currently work in STEM, business, or academia. 

A lower percentage of Indian Americans are working blue collar jobs than in the twentieth century. The rate stands at approximately 25%. 

As the use of taxis have dipped, so too has the percentage of Indians in this country working in those fields. In the 90s, approximately 10% of cab drivers were Indian. As of a decade ago, that number was down to 6%.

But they aren’t completely detached from the profession. After all, tech is the industry that’s using apps like Uber and Lyft to disrupt the industry.  And tech accounts for a substantial employer of Indian Americans.

As of 2019 Indians Americans make up the largest foreign-born share of STEM workers in the US, accounting for roughly 30% or 721,000 workers. The next highest ethnicity is Chinese Americans at 10.9%.  Seven percent of Silicon Valley CEOs are Indian.

Business remains a major source of employment for Indians.  In hotel ownership they vastly expanded their foothold. By the mid-90s, Indians Americans accounted for approximately 30% of all hotel ownership in the US. Today, that rate has doubled. 

When it comes to medicine, approximately one in seven doctors is Indian. That’s approximately 14%. In the 90s, that number was about 4%.

Why? 

Second generation Indian American and Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy has a theory which he posted on Twitter in December:

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t due to some innate American IQ deficit.  A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. 

Ramaswamy went on to make the case that the most successful members of the tech community celebrate “the math olympiad” over “the prom queen,” going against the grain in an American society that celebrates the cool kids. 

Based on the nearly non-existent number of Indians who participate in sports like football and baseball, it seems to remain the case that we don't care as much about status or coolth.  Many Indians have adopted a culture of keeping their head down and working their asses off. 

The culture is likely driven in large part by the experience that the parents of second generation immigrants like Ramaswamy had. The adversity they suffered in their journey to the US has ensured that they won't let their children take the American dream for granted.  Even, and perhaps especially, those who worked blue collar jobs want their children to be making six-figure salaries or higher so their sacrifices haven't been in vain. 

The results seem to speak for themselves. 

The Future

It has been exactly sixty years since the Nationality Act of 1965 became law, and India is currently the second largest source of immigrants to the US, trailing only Mexico. 

According to the Center for Immigration studies, in just the last four years, about 940,000 Indians have come to the US, accounting for 12% of all immigrants.  Contrast that with the .06% number pre-1965.

These numbers seem like a good thing given that now, once again, as other parts of the world up their tech game, the US is in need of more immigrants with science and math skills. 

If the Indian community is any example, the case for immigration to the US should be a slam dunk: This US got residents with skills they desperately needed and those that provided them have only continued to contribute to the economy in an outsized way. 

And yet, we are seeing the same pushback that we did in the 1960’s when LBJ’s bill was far from a foregone conclusion. If the responses to Ramaswamy from many in his own party alone were any indication, not everyone is happy about these numbers. 

Everything I learned about Indian immigration to the US seems like a win-win. It’s pretty cool, actually.  But then again, as someone who never came close to being prom-king, maybe the things I find cool aren't in alignment with the general population. 


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