The Anglo-Indians in Australia, From Unsuccessful Caste Members to Attaining Immigrants: An Examination of Anglo-Indian Labour Force Performance and Their Life Perceptions. Adrian Gilbert BA, Grad. Dip. Appl. Soc. Psych. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Monash University, Melbourne May, 1996
TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Research Problem 1.2 The Investigation 1.3 Setting of the Investigation 1.4 Significance of the Investigation 1.5 Definition of Terms 1.6 Organisation of the Study CHAPTER TWO THE ANGLO-INDIANS A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Research on the AIs 2.3 Historical Background to the AIs 2.4 Community Title 2.5 AI Beginnings 2.6 The Prelude to AI Exclusion 2.7 Exclusion and Rejection 2.8 A Partial Recovery 2.9 AI Poverty in the 20th Century 2.10 To Assimilate, Integrate or Emmigrate 2.11 The Anglo-Indians in Australia 2.12 The Number of AIs in Australia 2.13 AI Attainment in Australia 2.14 Prejudice and Discrimination 2.15 Chapter Summary
CHAPTER THREE CASTE THEORY AND RELATED LITERATURE 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Ogbu's Caste Theory in the Context of Australian Research 3.3 The Structuralist Explanation for Academic and Socio-Economic Failure 3.4 Ogbu's Theory of Status Mobility 3.4.1 The Folk Theory of Success 3.4.2 The Three Minority Types 3.4.2.1 Autonomous Minorities 3.4.2.2 Immigrant Minorities 3.4.2.3 Castelike Minorities 3.4.3 Long Term Consequences of Inferior Education 3.4.4 Fictive Kinship 3.4.5 The Issue of Racelessness or Achromism 3.4.6 The Effects of Achromism and Skin Colour on an Upwardly Mobile Strategy 3.4.7 Not Learning as a Caste Behaviour 3.4.8 Double Stratification 3.4.9 The Job Ceiling 3.4.10 The Job Ceiling and Educational Attainment 3.4.11 Immigration and its Effect on Caste Problems 3.5 The Appropriateness of Ogbu's Caste Theory to AIs 3.6 A Critique of Ogbu 3.7 Chapter Summary
CHAPTER FOUR THE ISSUE OF AI ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The AI Sub-Culture and its Success Model 4.3 AI Academic Attainment in India 4.3.1 Preferred Subject Type 4.3.2 The Effect of a European Lifestyle on Academic Attainment 4.3.3 Student Aspirations and Expectations in India 4.3.4 Attitudes Toward Employment Opportunities 4.4 The Main Problem as Perceived by AIs in India 4.5 A Recent Study of AI Academic Attainment in India 4.5.1 Summary of Language Skills Among AIs 4.5.2 The Effect of English Maintenance on the Failure of AIs to Acquire an Indian Language 4.5.3 Teacher Expectations: The Effects of Language Inequality in the Class Room 4.6 AI Academic Attainment in England 4.7 Chapter Summary
CHAPTER FIVE QUANTITATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW AND PRELIMINARY FINDINGS 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Analysing the 1986 Census 5.2.1 Ancestry and the 1986 Census 5.3 Analysing the 1991 Census 5.4 Participation in the Labour Force 5.4.1 Participation Rates and Year of Arrival in Australia 5.5 Unemployment 5.5.1 Unemployment Rates 1981 5.5.2 Unemployment Rates 1991 5.5.3 The Jones' Model of Unemployment and Findings 5.6 Hourly Earnings 5.7 The Jones Model of Hourly Wages 5.8 The Methodology Used to Analyse the 1991 Census 5.9 Model Description 5.10 The Variables Used 5.11 Adjustments to Labour Force Experience for Women 5.12 Calculating Hourly Income 5.13 The Basis for the Group Comparisons 5.14 Discrimination 185 5.15 Chapter Summary
CHAPTER SIX THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The Qualitative/Quantitative Dichotomy 6.3 Qualitative Research's Growing Popularity 6.4 Research Using Both Strategies 6.5 The Process of Triangulation 6.6 Methodological Difficulties of Quantitative Research 6.7 Methodological Problems Associated with Qualitative Research 6.8 Obstacles to Reliability and Validity 6.9 Methodological Interactionism 6.10 Triangulation and the Two Stages of Analysis 6.11 The Quantitative Analysis 6.12 Analysis of the 1986 Census Data 6.13 Analysis of the 1991 Census Data 6.14 The Qualitative Analysis 6.15 Fieldwork procedure 6.16 The Structured interviews 6.17 Selecting the Quantitative Sample 6.18 Ethical Considerations 6.19 Entering into the Field 6.20 Working in the Field 6.21 Exiting from the Field 6.22 Publication of Results 6.23 Statement of Research Problem 6.24 The Hypotheses 6.24.1 Unemployment Rates 6.24.2 Hourly Income 6.24.3 Qualitative Hypotheses
CHAPTER 7 THE RESULTS SECTION - QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Participation Rates 7.3 Unemployment 7.3.1 Modelling Unemployment 7.3.2 Proxy variable for Being Light Skinned - Anglican 7.3.3 Proxy variable for Being Dark Skinned - Catholic 7.3.4 The Effect of Overseas Work Experience on Unemployment 7.3.5 The Effect of Overseas Schooling on Unemployment 7.3.6 The Effect of Australian Work Experience on Unemployment 7.3.7 The Effect of Australian Schooling on Unemployment 7.3.8 Unemployment Summary 7.4 Analysing the 1986 Census for Hourly Income 7.4.1 Hourly Income by Industry for the 1986 Census 7.4.2 Qualifications and Hourly Income - 1986 Census 7.4.3 Hourly Income and Educational Qualifications - 1986 Census 7.4.4 Summary of Findings for the 1986 Census 7.5 The Model of Hourly Income Using 1991 Census Data 7.5.1 Average Hourly Income 7.5.2 Examining Significant Differences in Hourly Income 7.5.3 Skin Colour and Hourly Income 7.5.4 The Effects of Age on Income 7.5.5 Predicting Hourly Income 7.5.6 Examining the "Significant" Parameter Estimates 7.5.7 Examining the Parameter Estimates as a whole 7.5.8 Proxy Variable for Being Light Skinned - Anglican 7.5.9 Proxy Variable for Being Dark Skinned - Catholic 7.5.10 Skin Colour and Hourly Income 7.5.11 Years of Australian Education 7.5.12 Years of Overseas Education 7.5.13 Australian Labour Force Experience 7.5.14 Overseas Labour Force Experience 7.6 Chapter Summary and Key findings
CHAPTER EIGHT THE PERCEPTIONS OF AIs - QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS 8.1 Introduction 8.2 The Job Ceiling 8.3 Effort Optimism 8.4 Third World Yardstick 8.5 Success and Generational Differences 8.6 AI Children's Attitudes Toward Education 8.7 AI Parents Approach to School 8.8 A Teacher's Perceptions of AI Educational Attainment 8.9 The Loss of Caste Markers 8.10 Reasons for Failing to Use Education as a Ladder for Upward Mobility 8.11 The Comparative Effects of Prejudice 8.12 Chapter Summary
CHAPTER NINE CONCLUSIONS AND RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Recapitulation of Findings 9.2.1 Participation Rates 9.2.2 Unemployment 9.2.3 Hourly Earnings 1986 Data 9.2.4 Hourly Earnings 1991 Data 9.2.5 Hourly Income and Years of Australian Education 9.2.6 Hourly Income and Years of Overseas Education 9.2.7 Hourly Income and Australian Labour Force Experience 9.2.8 Hourly Income and Overseas Labour Force Experience 9.2.9 Summary of Quantitative Analysis 9.3 The Qualitative analysis 9.3.1 The Job Ceiling for AIs 9.3.2 The Effort Optimism of AIs 9.3.3 The Presence of a Third World Yardstick Among the AIs 9.3.4 The Attitudes of AIs Toward Education 9.3.5 The Loss of Caste Markers and its Effect on AIs 9.3.6 The Effects of Prejudice on AIs 9.3.7 Summary of Qualitative Analysis 9.4 Research Implications and Suggestions for Further Study 9.5 Concluding Note
This thesis provides support for the view that Anglo-Indians -a Eurasian, English speaking and Christian group from India are achieving well academically and socio-economically in Australia. This finding contrasts substantially with other research which details their poor performance in India and to a lesser extent in England. For the Anglo-Indians Australia has been - if not always the lucky country - then certainly a welcoming one.
Research indicates that if a particular group is consistently discriminated against it comes to view itself and is viewed by others as a caste group. It is assumed by the society at large that members of this caste group can not achieve academic and job success. As a result, this view becomes self-fulfilling as members of the caste group come to accept the majority view of themselves.
One method that the caste group can use to extract themselves from their caste status is to emmigrate. Often groups that have a caste status in their country of origin can achieve success by emmigrating to an environment where negative stereotypes have not developed about the group.
The Anglo-Indians (AIs) who have emmigrated to Australia are, on the whole, achieving quite well. In comparison to people who have both parents born in the UK (UKDs) and those with both parents born in Australia (ADs), the AIs are performing as well as or better than these other two groups.
The AIs have higher labour force participation rates than the UKDs and ADs. Further, they often have higher hourly earnings, even when controlling for education and labour force experience. It was only in the area of unemployment that AIs appeared to have consistently higher levels of unemployment than the UKDs and Ads. There were areas of concern. AIs had proportionately fewer managers compared to UKDs and ADs. There was some evidence that lighter skinned AIs may be earning more than darker AIs.
Interviews with AIs both from Australia and overseas supported the labour force findings. AIs were quite happy with their lives in Australia. In general they believed that they had much better opportunities to succeed in Australia than to India. Further, they believed that they were less discriminated against in Australia than in India.
The research methodology of triangulation was used in the present study. In this process both quantitative and qualitative research strategies are used to come to grips with the research problem. The strategy appeared to be successful. While the quantitative approach provided the researcher with quantifiable results, the qualitative approach allowed the exploration of respondent's subjective impressions about life in Australia.
To conclude, this study suggests that AIs are not underachievers. Given the type of opportunities available in a wealthy and relatively classless society such as Australia, the AIs can do well. It remains for other researchers to explore further the reasons for this achievement in Australia and the lack of it in India and possibly England.
The author wishes to extend his sincere thanks and gratitude to his supervisor, Dr Robert Birrell, Reader in Sociology, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Monash University for his guidance and support in completing this study.
He is also grateful to Dr Brian Bullivant, Reader, in the Faculty of Education, who was his original supervisor before he retired. Further, he wishes to thank Dr Philip McCloud of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for his guidance and assistance with the data analysis and statistical model building that was undertaken.
He also wishes to thank the many Anglo-Indians who participated in the study for their kind assistance and encouragement.
Finally, he wishes to thank his mother and father for their financial and emotional support through the many years that it took to complete the thesis.
LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1, Degrees Achieved by First and Second Generation Respondents Aged 25-34 by Father's Birthplace Table 3.2, Professional Status Achieved by First and Second Generation Respondents Aged 25-34 by Father's Birthplace Table 3.3, Occupational Distribution of Non-white Workers as Percentage of Total U.S Labour Force Table 3.4, Occupational Distribution of the Percentage of the Employed Labour Force by Sex and Race, 1992 USA Table 3.5, Educational Attainment of Afros and Anglos Aged between 25 and 35 Years 1960 - 1992 Table 5.1, Year of Arrival in Australia for AIs and UKDs. 1991 Census; One Percent Sample. Table 5.2, Unemployment Rates for AIs, UKDs and ADs. 1981 Census. One Percent Sample. Table 5.3, Unemployment Rates for AIs, UKDs and ADs. 1991 Census One Percent Sample Table 5.4, Unemployment Rates for AIs, UKDs and ADs, Compared by Age Group. 1991 Census One Percent Sample Table 5.5, Model Variable Definitions Table 5.6, Breakdown by Age and Gender for percentage of Years in Workforce Spent Working Full-time Table 6.1, A Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methodologies Table 6.2, Country Highest Qualification was Gained in for Those Interviewed Table 7.1, Participation Rates for AIs, UKDs and ADs Compared, 1991 One Percent Sample Table 7.2, Participation Rates for AIs, UKDs and ADs Compared by Age Group, 1991 Census One Percent Sample Table 7.3, Unemployment Rates for AI, UKDs and ADs By Variable, 1991 One Percent Sample Table 7.4, Measures of Effects from a Logistic Regression of Unemployment among AIs, UKDs and ADs, in descending Size of AI Effects. 1991 One Percent sample Table 7.5, Predicted Unemployment Levels for AIs, UKDs and ADs. 1991 One Percent sample Table 7.6, Comparisons of Hourly Earnings of AIs, UKDs and ADs by Industry. 1986 Census Table 7.7, Comparison of Average Hourly Income, for AIs, UKDs and ADs by Occupation. 1986 Census Table 7.8, Comparison of Average Hourly Income, for AIs, UKDs and ADs by Qualifications. 1986 Census Total Data Table 7.9, Average Hourly Earnings in Dollars and Cents for AIs, UKDs and ADs Compared in Order of Highest to Lowest AI earnings. 1991 One Percent Sample Table 7.10, Hourly Income for AIs, UKDs and ADs Compared by Age Group. 1991 Census One Percent Sample Table 7.11, Descriptive Labour Force Statistics. Sample Means of Variables for AIs, UKDs and ADs. 1991 One Percent Sample Table 7.12, Regression Coefficients from an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression of Hourly Earnings among AIs, UKDs and ADs (Full time workers 1991 Census of Australia One Percent Sample. Dependent Variable Hourly Wages)
LIST OF FIGURES Figure 5.1, Estimated Years Spent Working for Pay Most of the Year since Finishing Education Figure 5.2, Estimated Percentage of Working Life Spent Working Full-time Figure 7.1, The Effects of Overseas Labour Force Experience on Predicted Unemployment Levels by Ethnic Group Figure 7.2, The Effects of Overseas Education on Predicted Unemployment Levels by Ethnic Group Figure 7.3, The Effects of Australian Labour Force Experience on Predicted Unemployment Levels by Ethnic Group Figure 7.4, The Effects of Australian Education on Predicted Unemployment Levels by Ethnic Group Figure 7.5, The Effect of Years of Australian Education on Predicted Hourly Income by Ethnic Group Figure 7.6, The Effects of Overseas Education on Predicted Hourly Earnings by Ethnic Group Figure 7.7, The Effects of Australian Labour Force Experience on Predicted Hourly Earnings by Ethnic Group Figure 7.8, The Effects of Overseas Labour Force Experience on Predicted Hourly Earnings by Ethnic Group