8.1 Introduction

Previous chapters have discussed many of the issues that relate to being part of a "caste" group from a historical, theoretical and econometric perspective. This chapter attempts to relate caste theory to the perceptions of various AIs. AIs from Australia, England and Canada were all interviewed in an attempt to gain a feel for issues such as perceived academic and socio-economic attainment, identity and discrimination. In chapter 7, the detailed quantitative hypotheses were explored. In this chapter, a series of qualitative hypotheses are explored based on interviews with AIs. Issues such as the job ceiling, effort optimism, the third world yardstick, attitudes toward education, the loss of caste markers and the effects of prejudice are all discussed.

8.2 The Job Ceiling

The hypothesis (H20), that the AIs in Australia are now less likely to believe in a job ceiling than in India, was supported. In general respondents believed that Australia, relatively speaking, was going to provide them with many more opportunities than India could.

One of the key issues in Ogbu's theory of caste is the concept of the job ceiling and its effects on educational and job attainment. The exclusion of the AIs from positions with the British East India Company and army in India was not an isolated act. It was a procedure that was repeated on a regular basis depending on the interests of the British at the time (Varma, 1979). From the three repressive orders of the British East India Company during the late 1700s (Snell, 1944) to the process of Indianisation that preceded Indian independence, the AIs were always aware of the precariousness of their position and the fact that they could not hold real positions of power (Heidin, 1934).

The position of the AIs in India was described by one of the respondents in the following terms:

In India the AIs could never hold anything but the middle level positions, the British had the top jobs reserved for themselves. In more recent times there has been a narrowing of that middle class base as people migrated 'got away' to England, Canada and Australia. Further, there has been an alarming increase in the number of AIs who have become 'beggars' in India, many poor AIs have lobbied to become members of scheduled castes or untouchables so that they can get special help in jobs and education (J).

The AI middle class in India have taken the opportunity to emigrate so as to increase their chances for a better material standard of living. In the case of the working class AI pride has not stopped them from being pragmatic. They cannot emigrate, because of a lack of financial resources and an inability to meet the points test. So they are attempting to use the Indian government's commitment to multiculturalism, by lobbying for special assistance as a scheduled caste.

Ogbu's (1978; 1991) caste theory accounts for differences between caste-like involuntary minorities and freely immigrating minorities. Further, a particular group could represent a caste grouping in one environment and by migrating break out of their caste mentality. One of the main hypotheses that the present study set out to test was whether the AIs in Australia were one of these successful immigrant caste groups who did substantially better in their adopted country. In Australia the AIs can make a new start in a country that is wealthier and offers better opportunities than India. In general AI respondents believed that Australia did offer them much better opportunities for material advancement:

AIs who had no future in India ...have got somewhere [in Australia]. Some who did not know how to read and write [in India] now carry themselves very well (L).

The attitude that Australia was a country that provided opportunities at many levels was a position that was not held by all respondents. In fact it was the better educated and apparently successful AIs who were often more likely to mention the presence of a job ceiling in Australia.

There is a job ceiling for people from India because there is still the attitude that India is backward, so an AI trying to get ahead of the pack will not be tolerated (J).

Whether this problem will also apply to those AIs who have been educated in Australia is unlikely but it is obviously an issue for those who have overseas qualifications, in particular Indian qualifications. The findings of the previous chapter indicated that those AIs who had overseas qualifications had much higher levels of unemployment than the AI average. Further, AIs with overseas qualifications earned less than the mean hourly income for all AIs with some type of qualification.

8.3 Effort Optimism

The hypothesis (H21), that the AIs in Australia are likely to manifest effort optimism, was supported. The cultural milieu in the adopted country results in the emergence of a new folk epistemology regarding schooling and how to "make it" in the new land (Suarez-Orozco, 1991:41). In the new country the immigrants are free from the experience of the job ceiling and exploitation as experienced in their country of origin. The new immigrants develop a success ethic that contrasts completely with their attitudes toward attainment in their country of origin when they were part of a caste grouping. As one respondent put it:

[In India] no matter how hard you try there is a difficulty in achieving what you want. It's very very difficult, but here [Australia] with effort and determination you can have what you want, a lot, much more .... [than in India] (L).

It is the inability to maintain a high material standard of living that has been the undoing of the AIs in India. This is because it is difficult to maintain a Western lifestyle on an Indian income (Gist, 1967b). Emigrating to countries such as Australia has meant that many AIs have had to settle for jobs that, in Indian terms, lack status. But these low status jobs still allow them to maintain a material standard of living many times higher than in India.

For example, one of the respondents in the study was a high school teacher in India, here in Melbourne he is a tram conductor. While his social status has dropped considerably he and his family own a car, television, VCR and furniture, further he and his family have recently bought a house. All this would be beyond his means in India.

The quotes above indicate the different levels of "effort optimism" (Ogbu, 1991: 24) of the AIs in India and Australia. In Australia the belief that one can achieve one's goals is strong, this conflicts with the AI position in India and the U.K (Lobo, 1988; 1994).

8.4 Third World Yardstick

The hypothesis (H22), that the AIs in Australia are likely to manifest a third world yardstick was not completely supported. None of the AIs interviewed believed that they consciously compared themselves to their relatives in India. Although, it did become apparent during the interviews, that AIs in Australia believed themselves to be successful because they were materially wealthier than the AIs in India.

While the concept of a third world yardstick and its apparent logic is quite appealing, none of the respondents in the present survey claimed to be directly influenced by what their friends and relatives were achieving in India. Some researchers (Lobo, 1989) have suggested that AIs are happy with their working class positions in Western society because they are materially wealthier than their friends and relatives in India. This appears to be only a partial explanation. Another factor is that status issues are usually less important in Western societies than in India. As one respondent said

[In Australia] it doesn't matter what you are or what I am, if I feel good about what I am then that's it. Over there [India] you can't... take a job that's not meant for you (L).

Respondents did not admit to comparing themselves to their friends and family back in India, that is having a "third world yardstick" (Lobo, 1988) or developing a "dual frame of reference" (Suarez-Orozco, 1989). But it appears that a "third world yard stick" was still operating at an unconscious level.

AIs were unanimous that they had much better opportunities to raise their material standard of living in Australia. Conversely, while it was possible to acquire material wealth in Australia though hard work, some respondents felt that their friends misled them about how life would be in Australia:

You can get a car, a house, but they did not mention that it would take 20 years to pay off the house (P).

It appears that the myth of success has taken hold of the AI community in Australia.

8.5 Success and Generation Differences

The hypothesis (H23), that AIs in Australia of both the first and second generation would manifest the belief that they could succeed in Australia, was supported.

In Australia, AIs believe that they are going to have a better opportunity to achieve material success than in India. AIs who emigrated from England to Australia did so because they "...believed that they would have better opportunities in Australia" (J). This attitude is reflected both in the statements made by AIs and the findings described in the previous chapter, where it is obvious that not only the older generation of AI but also the younger generation are doing better than the ADs.

In the words of a first generation AI,

To the AI you would say I'm doing as well as any Aussie... you take pride in and gain a certain sense of gratification from saying I'm as good as you, you've got a house, I've got a house, a car, material goods (B).

While the first generation AIs seemed to be relatively satisfied with their decision to come to Australia, the second generation that had been born in Australia also believed that their parents decision to migrate to Australia was the correct one. In the words of one young second generation AI:

[We want] a house and a decent car. Our parents made the right decision [by coming to Australia] there was no way that we could have the opportunities that we have here, there's no way that we would all be owning cars ... we would be lucky to even own a house ... we'd never have anything of any real value, maybe a T.V or video but that would be about it (E).

While the issue of status, particularly the loss of it, has been an issue for many of the older generation of AIs, it appears to have lost its gloss for those of the younger generation:

There's no point in being highly revered [in India] if you can't even afford to have a roof over your head (E).

[AIs are emigrating to Australia] for the material gain. I think that in a lot of countries with a lower standard of living when they look at countries like Australia, America, Canada .... they say look at these people living in big houses and owning cars and they think that we must be millionaires or something to be able to have it. It's a matter of being able to look at it from a material point of view... that's what opportunities [here in Australia] are, material (E).

In general it appears that the AIs in Australia are overcoming their caste mentality. Increasingly they compare their attainment not with their relatives and friends in India but with other Australians, at least at a conscious level.

8.6 AI Childrens' Attitudes Toward Education

The hypothesis (H24), that AI childrens' attitudes toward education in Australia was achievement oriented, was supported. The AIs by emigrating to Australia transformed themselves from a caste grouping to an immigrant group. Some of the children of first generation AIs confirmed that their parents were often quite easy going when it came to study issues. According to one respondent in her early twenties:

Our family was quite relaxed [when it came to study] I always motivated myself to get my work done, I was the one who suffered ... I didn't need Mom and Dad to say, "you've got to do it, you've got to do it", I'm the one who had to go face the music if I failed a test or didn't hand in an assignment (E).

While the parents generation was still locked into the idea that achieving academically was not the highest priority, this was not necessarily true of the younger generation of AIs in Australia.

[Going beyond high school] was a non-issue [for her parents], I was the one who wanted to go on ... I had a couple of things in my mind that I wanted to do ... I wanted to get into accounting, economics or computer programming ... something that I could make a career and always get employment in. I ended up not choosing economics because every one was saying that this was not something that you would always be able to get work in whereas in accounting and computer programming there's always a big market there (E).

These are the words of an ambitious young woman who obviously believes that hard work and educational qualifications can achieve material success for her in Australia. These are not the sentiments of somebody who sees themselves as being limited by a job ceiling. This is in spite of their role models, their parents, not urging them towards success (Ogbu, 1991: 24).

This finding is in direct contrast with the behaviour and sentiments of many of the AIs back in India. Gaikwad (1967: 219, 228, 232) in his study of AIs in India found that while they viewed job opportunities in India as being poor, Australia was viewed as a land of opportunity. Education in Australia is now believed to provide AIs with the opportunity for success, something that was not occurring in India (Lobo, 1994).

8.7 AI Parents' Approach to School

The hypothesis (H25), that AI parents' attitudes toward education would be attainment oriented, was conditionally supported. The approach that parents take to education is critical for the success of their children. A positive commitment by the parents to their children achieving at school usually results in the children doing just that. In the case of caste groupings the parents commitment to education might not be particularly high. More often, while the parents show commitment to academic achievement the reality of their lives makes a lie of their exhortations to study and achieve. While all respondents interviewed indicated a strong commitment to education, there was a reluctance by some parents to push their children to the point where they rebelled against their parents. The comments made by two of the parents, often completing each others' sentences, appear below:

I just wanted them to do H.S.C (K)... Finish school (Noel)... Then do what you want (K). We never like pushed any one of them, you have to do this (N) ... You have to become a doctor (K). I was only interested in A..., since he was a boy, in electronics, now he's doing well for himself. I didn't want to push any further than that, as long as he was enjoying it (N).

(K) went on to talk about her younger brother and his attitude to study during the 1950s in Calcutta, India:

He was wasting his time in school ... going to dances and parties, they even had a private tutor for him but it didn't work out. He was supposed to be going for private tuition and he would leave the tutors house and go off somewhere else. From young he was dodging the issue [of study] and all these years later he is still living it up... kicking up his heels not a bit worried. He had the same attitude towards his children as long as they get a job that's all, he's not worried (K).

In the above quote we see strong evidence for the stereotypical AI who simply wants to enjoy himself even at the cost of his future career. This type of approach is typical of the caste group member and reflects behaviours that result from the belief that there are few high level job opportunities. (K and N) went on to give an example of the dangers of pressuring children to study:

AIs don't want to pressure their kids... I'm like that (K and N) I expect the children to be happy (K). There's no point in saying "go on and be a doctor", if you can't stand the sight of blood (K). ... Look at (M)'s friend, poor thing. She was forced to do nurse training, the poor thing almost collapsed when she saw blood, she ran away (N) from the nursing school and her own house (K) I didn't want that to happen (N)... They've (parents) ruined her life now, since she's got nothing, just her V.C.E (N) ...and such a brilliant girl she was (K) If it had been me I'd still be worried, I'd most probably [have] shot myself since I'd have ruined one of my kids (N).

One of the most important variables to effect the academic and job performance of an ethnic or minority grouping is the type of message passed from adults to children. When members of a group believe that one must do well in school in order to achieve social mobility, they will select strategies and model their behaviours after those that promote school success. Parents will encourage their children to adopt such behaviours, and the children will act in a manner conducive to academic success. If, however, children and parents do not perceive education as a necessary part of their status mobility system, their achievement motivation and behaviours will reflect the view that education is irrelevant for them (Ogbu, 1991).

There are some AIs that are more concerned with dancing and socialising than making sure that they children study, resulting in their child underachieving. Migrating to Australia could be a liberating experience as you break the old barriers of caste (J).

In the opinion of at least one of the respondents travelling to Australia allowed AIs from India to break out of the particular mind set that meant that they would never study and get an education. The situation in India contrasts with that in Australia, in the words of one respondent:

The parents have given up because they are not going to get very far because they are AIs, they will simply not be accepted. There was more discrimination there [in India] than here [in Australia], I have found it already (P).

The AI belief that they are being discriminated against (Gist and Wright, 1973: 123) leads to a loss of interest in their work and study (Gaikwad, 1967: 100, 176) and eventually to an intellectual and behavioural backwater. The AI position is that it is pointless to try and achieve because even if you do well academically you will not get a job. This type of thought process insures that many AIs in India never put in the necessary effort required to achieve academic and job success no matter what the actual level of discrimination.

8.8 A Teacher's Perceptions of AI Educational Attainment

The hypothesis (H26), that the AIs in Australia are now more likely to view education as helping to achieve socio-economic success, was partly supported. The parents were in general viewed as being keen for their children to succeed, but the AI children were often considered to fall short of their parents high expectations.

While many young AIs work hard at school others are inattentive and lethargic. According to one respondent, who has been a high school teacher for many years, a major part of the problem is that AD students are often not particularly hard working (Bullivant, 1986) and consequently provide a poor example for the AI student. The differences in the attitudes between the first and second generation create a:

... generational conflict.. the kids tend to complain about the parents being strict, since the typical Australian is more casual. The AI student sees that the AI parent is strict and has high expectations. [The parents] struggled to come here, struggled to establish themselves and so are putting pressure on their own children. I think quite a few of the children baulk at that... The AI boy has to try and keep up with the Australian boy and if the Australian boy can stand up and give cheek then the attitude is why can't I (B).

While the AD student may have a "casual" attitude towards study some AI parents have high expectations of their children. Often their teachers had high academic expectations of them when they were studying in India. According to the AI respondent who is a high school teacher:

I was talking to a parent last week, and he's AI, and he's highly positioned ... He kept harking back on the days in India, when he was in Bangalore. Where he was educated by the Jesuits and the high expectations that the Jesuits had of him and therefore the high expectations that he has for his son. Generally I would say that they [AI parents] are concerned that their children do well (B).

In reference to the above, it is not unusual for adult caste members to exhort the younger caste members to achieve. It is the reality of the adult caste members failing to achieve job success that leads to the loss of enthusiasm for study by the younger caste members.

With analysis of census data indicating that AIs as a group are doing quite well academically, the following comment from the AI teacher was not completely supportive of this finding:

[The AI students that stood out in Australia, were in general] hard workers and to a certain extent endowed with natural intelligence. The majority of them, even the intelligent one's had to work just a little bit harder and therefore achieved. [In general though], I would characterise AI children as apathetic, lazy, poorly motivated. The parents expectations are high [but the children often fail to live up to those expectations] (B).

Comments such as the above from a high school teacher with many years of experience if viewed in isolation would be damning. Further, these comments appear to indicate that the academic attainment and motivation of AI students have not changed from what they were in India.

There appears to be contradictory evidence here. Some of which indicates that some AI parents have moderate expectations for their children while others have high expectations. Further, some young AIs appear to be highly motivated to achieve both academic and job success, while other respondents believe that the young AIs are apathetic about their study. The quantitative data, discussed in the previous chapter, helps provide a check on the qualitative findings. In general it appears that the depreciatory views of some respondents regarding AI academic and job attainment in Australia are overstated.

8.9 The Loss of Caste Markers

The hypothesis (H27), that the AIs in Australia are now unlikely to view the maintenance of their language and western culture as markers of caste, was supported.

In India the AIs consider being able to speak English one of their primary ethnic markers (Anthony, 1969; Moore, 1986a), but when they arrived in Australia many Australians were surprised that a person from India could speak good English. "Australians don't expect AIs to speak English well (Le)" and show surprise at the excellent English language skills that AIs exhibit.

This was probably the first effect of emigration for the AI. The realisation that they were no longer in a country where they had an identifiable niche in the society. With the loss of caste markers came the freedom to break through the job ceiling and rid themselves of the perception that they could not attain academic and job success.

The English language has always been considered an AI identifying marker. Since Indian independence all schools in India have had to teach Hindi which has caused a certain amount of conflict for many of the AI respondents in the sample. The English language represents more than just another language spoken in multi-lingual India. It also represents, both for the AIs and the Indians, a marker of a Western lifestyle. A lifestyle with its claim for a higher material standard of living and the implicit understanding of cultural and moral superiority.

Frustration and failure with coming to terms with Hindi would be one more reason for academic failure. There is support for the position that AIs evince psychological resistance to learning what they consider a foreign language (Gist, 1967b). In a study conducted by Bhattacharya (1978: 169) it was found that while seventy two percent of AIs spoke the local Indian dialect only twenty eight percent could read and write it.

Originally AIs would not encourage their children to speak the local Indian dialects. According to an AI who has recently arrived from India:

My father would not let us stand at the gate [to their home] because he did not want us to talk the language [by mixing with Indians] but things are changing now (L).

While AI parents in general almost never encouraged their children to develop a grasp of Indian languages this was for more than reasons of 'psychological resistance' and identity maintenance. While middle aged respondents:

were never encouraged to [speak the local language in India] (K). Up until 1947 when India became a republic, if you could speak English that was a qualification. Regardless of whether you were a matriculate or not, you would get a good job since you could speak English (N).

It is now apparent that there were very good reasons for AI parents to try and stop their children from mixing with the non-English speaking Indian children. It was the loss of the children's English skills that was at issue along with problems of caste intermixture.

When the AIs were in school they were given the opportunity to learn the local language but few students took the opportunity to learn an Indian dialect. Learning an Indian language was still being frowned upon by many AIs during the 1950s and 1960s:

We used to make fun of those who took an Indian language ... I practically refused to learn it, I said what's it going to do for me. But later on when I joined the Air Force, towards the end when we found Hindi was coming in, then I had to learn the Hindi commands [respondent was in the air force] and all and I couldn't do it. I could have if I really wanted to, but I said to hell with it, what's the use of it since we already had plans to come away. If I wanted a promotion I would have had to do it (N).

The above quote shows that where English had once been a "qualification" for obtaining a job in India, the wheel had now turned full circle and AIs were required to be fluent in an Indian language, Hindi. The AI socio-economic position had been improved when English replaced Persian as the official language in the Indian courts and Government during the 1830s (Grimshaw, 1959: 230). After Indian independence the AI position has been substantially worsened by the increasing emphasis on Hindi as the official language and their corresponding failure to learn Hindi.

8.10 Reasons for Failing to Use Education as a Ladder for Upward Mobility

The hypothesis (H28), that AIs in Australia would strive for higher education, was supported. The issue of education has always been of central importance to the AIs (Grimshaw, 1959). Being educated in an AI school meant firstly, that Western values were transmitted to the AI child and secondly, the English language was learnt. The English language was a "qualification" for much of the time that the British were in India, as such, the maintenance of English as their language was of paramount importance.

Whereas in India, tertiary education had to be paid for, in Australia there were no tertiary fees to be paid from the early 1970s, when the Whitlam government abolished them, till the late 1980s when they were reintroduced by the Hawk labour government. AIs in India are becoming more interested in tertiary study because they now realise that they:

... will not get everything on a platter. You will not get your mothers job or fathers job when they retire, it is not like that any more. Every thing is based on merit now (L).

There was no pressure [to study] when I was growing up because you got a job based on who you knew (N).

Well before the departure of the British and the displacement of English by Hindi, the ability to speak English had ceased to be a "qualification". The process of Indianisation, with its emphasis on providing ever greater numbers of Indians with the middle level positions resulted in AIs being supplemented by Indians with superior educational qualifications.

8.11 The Comparative Effects of Prejudice

The hypothesis (H29), that AIs in Australia are now less likely to believe that they are being discriminated against, was supported. While the AIs have been actively discriminated against by the British in India many expected that when they immigrated to England they would find that their situation had changed for the better. Just as the West Indians had emigrated from the West Indies to England believing that they were returning to their "mother" country. The AIs had expected to be welcomed with open arms only to be bitterly disappointed by the prejudice they experienced.

The majority of AIs interviewed by Gaikwad (1967) believed that they would experience substantially less discrimination in an overseas country rather than India. This is what Ogbu (1986:28) termed a "collective institutional discrimination perspective". This turned out to be far from the truth with Gist (1975: 47), in his study of AIs in London, finding evidence that "dark" skinned AIs experience discrimination in regard to access to housing and jobs. According to one woman who arrived in London as a young girl from India, England provided AIs with many examples of discrimination:

[people would] bang the door in your face. [People told you that] India was a backward country [and] how could you do things as well as them [the English] (J).

In general, the issue of discrimination in Australia does not appear to have been as bad as in England. This may be due to the official policy of multi-culturalism which has never really made much headway in England. Further, where England received the first wave of AIs, Australia received the second wave; this second wave of AIs had already been warned of problems of prejudice or had experienced prejudice themselves in England. As one AI who works as a tram conductor put it:

Tomorrow if somebody calls me Black on the tram I won't be annoyed... because I am Black ... I accept it (P).

An indicator of how socially accepted people feel is their willingness to identify with an ethnic group. In England there have always been problems with AIs identifying as AIs (Lobo, 1989) with White AIs tending to admit that they were born in India but refusing to label themselves as being AI.

If there is money and fame involved then people tend to keep their AI background quiet, this is a good indication of prevailing prejudice (J).

In Australia the situation appears to be different with some quite high profile AIs identifying as such. AIs such as Basil Sellers, "one of the foremost entrepreneurial kings in Australia" (Younger, 1987), Senator Christabel Chamarette and W.A batsmen Mark Lavender all identify as AIs (Roberts, 1995). This contrasts completely with the attitude of English AIs who at the very least are reluctant to admit to their AI heritage (Lobo, 1988).

Prejudice remains prevalent in India although it appears to have taken on an inverted form. Usually it is the dark AIs who often experience the highest levels of prejudice in Western countries, in India having a white or light brown skin often marked AIs for disapprobation. According to a dark skinned AI with a white skinned AI wife who had recently arrived from India:

They [Indians] accepted me more easily than they accepted them [son and wife] because of their colour (P).

According to (P's) wife, even though her family had been in India for many generations, they were still not considered to be Indian. There was always the problem of differing from the Indian phenotype.

They never accept you as Indian, you're always Anglo ... you don't belong...

People ask me which country I come from, I'd say I was born in India (L).

While a number of researchers have indicated that the AIs in India did not want to identify with the Indians (Varma, 1979), many Indians have continued to have problems accepting AIs.

The above comments were made by AIs who had recently immigrated to Australia, but the problem of prejudice appears to have changed little from what it was during the 1960s. According to an AI who left for Australia during the late 1960s:

when it came to the crunch they [Indian's] said you are not part of us, part of our society and I wouldn't hesitate to say that they made us feel that. That we weren't part of the Indians and I think the AIs felt that discrimination (B).

The AIs were among the first Asians to immigrate to Australia during the late 1960s and 1970s with relaxation of the White Australia policy (Brawley, 1995). Conversations with AIs who migrated from India during the late 1960s indicate that many Indians did not appreciate the cultural and religious differences that the AIs exhibited. According to an AI:

There was a certain amount of prejudice. This prejudice varied, but in some areas of India people did not like Christians and did not like the Western style clothing of AI women such as short dresses and [boys] going out with girls (N).

Even more importantly some AIs were told in quite direct terms that it was time for a change of the old guard to the new. One AI who had been working in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, had his resolve to emigrate to Canada reinforced by the following comments of a Pakistani colleague.

A Muslim guy said to me - when the British were here you enjoyed the benefits of the Raj. Now the British have gone it's our turn ... so when we heard things like that we said it's time that we got out [of the country] (Ma).

8.12 Chapter Summary

The primary marker of a caste group is that it believes that there is a job ceiling. In India the AIs always believed, and usually with good reason, that no matter how good their qualifications and how hard they worked they would never be able to attain the better jobs. In Australia this perception has changed, with most AIs believing that they have the opportunity to achieve job success.

With the belief that there is no job ceiling has come effort optimism. The AIs now have an immigrant success ethic which is one of achievement. One factor that is assisting immigrants to maintain their effort optimism is a third world yardstick, if only at an unconscious level. Both first and second generation AIs believe that they are succeeding in Australia in terms of material success. Further, the second generation has, in general, quite high academic and job aspirations in Australia.

The loss of what were caste markers in India, such as the English language, the Christian religion and a Western lifestyle has meant that AIs in Australia are substantially less likely to view themselves as a group apart. Further, other Australians are less likely to view them as being different. The greater openness of Australian society and the acceptance of multi-culturalism has made it possible for the AIs to be accepted on their merits.