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Indian-origin Americans: They are the highest-earning ethnic group
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Dubai: These are some fast fact about Indians in America.
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According to the Pew Research Centre, Indians are the highest-earning ethnic group in the US, with a median income of $100,000. This is almost double that of the national median.
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Unprecedented
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At the ‘Howdy Modi!’ rally, US President Donald Tump’s presence sets an unprecedented event.
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With an eye on the 2020 elections, analysts say Trump tried to “reset the optics” for his campaign among immigrants a group among whom he has fared badly because of the broad brush accusation of being anti-immigrant.
###Welcome to legal immigrants###
Unlike Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) rallies for his re-election campaign where the audience is predominantly white, he was on Sunday in the midst of about 50,000 brown people — a striking visual contrast — at Houston’s NRG stadium.
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And it was broadcast live nationally by some channels.
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His address was like his usual stump speeches proclaiming his tax cuts, low unemployment, strong economy and border security — except for the omission of partisan attacks on the Democratic opponents and the addition of elements specific to India.
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A warm up act to Modi
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Another huge difference was that Trump, who likes to be the centre of the universe, was not the main speaker at the rally for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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The New York Times said he was playing a “second fiddle” and The Washington Post “an unusual role of warm-up act”.
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It was also the biggest crowd he has addressed during his campaign, though short of the 70,000 he had said that would be there, a number beyond the stadium’s capacity.
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Never done before
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The optics and crowd size appeared to be his main motivations to take the unprecedented step of attending a large ethnic rally for a foreign leader.
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In recent memory, no President has done this.
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“The Prime Minister of India has asked me to make a speech and I will make a speech in a stadium loaded up with something like 70,000 people or whatever the maximum is,” Trump said before leaving for the rally.
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And probably unprecedented was also the presence of a large number of Democrats among the about 60 elected officials, including Governors, Senators and Representatives, who were on the stage before him.
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“Indian-Americans are writing the story of American greatness”
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For them too, the large crowd of Indians, many coming to Houston from their scattered constituencies across the nation was a draw.
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The rally was an opportunity for Trump to present himself as a supporter of legal immigrants, while opposing illegal immigration — a distinction that has been erased by the media and his political opponents to make him appear an anti-immigrant racist.
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“We are proud to have you as Americans,” Trump said, praising the Indian diaspora for accepting American values.
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Holding them out as the kind of immigrants he would like for America, he mentioned their contributions especially to medicine, technology and job creation through entrepreneurship.
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“Indian-Americans are writing the story of American greatness,” he added.
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‘No free benefits’
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Trump emphasised the difference between legal and illegal immigrants to scattered applause. “We proudly fight for our citizens,” he said apparently referring also to Modi.
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Trump said that he was against free benefits to those who enter the US illegally and added that he was going take care of the Indian-American citizens first — with emphasis on “citizens”.
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Speaking about his focus on tightening the borders, he said: “Border security is vital to India — we understand that.”
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While the media and Democrats have have cast him as a racist opponent of immigrants because of Trump’s comments about criminal illegal immigrants, his demand for a border wall and his administration detaining illegal border-crossers and tightening the conditions for seeking asylum, in reality his stand is more nuanced with a distinction between law-abiding legal immigrants and illegal immigrants.
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The rally gave him a stage to broadcast his welcome to legal immigrants.
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Indian professionals now wait as long as 10 years for a green card that gives them permanent immigrant status.
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Trump has proposed an immigration system similar to that of Canada and Australia that would favour professionals and the educated that would benefit Indians waiting to immigrate.
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Whether his overtures to Indians – and through them to other immigrants – would make difference is another matter.
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According to the Asian and Pacific Islander Vote survey, 82 per cent of Indian-Americans chose Democrat Hillary Clinton, while only 9 per cent were for Trump in the 2016 election.
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Trump’s outreach to Indian-Americans by attending a rally of Hindu Republicans before the election did not seem to have made a difference.
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In the US, a religion-based and ethnicity-based campaign is an accepted practice and that was the first time a presidential candidate had come to a rally of Hindus.
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While they make up only about 1 per cent of the US population, Indian-Americans are outsize political donors.
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According to another research, Indian-Americans have contributed $1 million to Trump re-election campaign and $2 million to various Democrats fighting for their party’ presidential nomination.
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-Inputs from IANS
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