8 I Indians—Why is the Indian Diaspora so large? (Amy Bhatt)

Amy Bhatt, Ph.D. is a writer, educator, and content creator. She received her B.A. in Political Science and Women’s Studies from Emory University and her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.

She is the author of High-Tech Housewives: Indian IT Workers, Gendered Labor, and Transmigration (University of Washington Press, 2018) and co-author of Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest (University of Washington Press, 2013) with Dr. Nalini Iyer. 

As a public historian, she coordinated the South Asian Oral History Project at UW and currently serves on the South Asian American Digital Archive’s Board of Directors. She was a researcher and guest curator at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) from 2018-2021, where she co-curated the traveling Smithsonian exhibit Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation (2019-20)

Currently, she and her writing partner, Shiwani Srivastava, have an animated feature film in development with ReelFX and a television pilot in development with Gunpowder & Sky.

In today's conversation, we talk about:

• Definition of India
• Castes
• The History of India
• The History of Indian Immigration to India
• First wave: 1800s to 1920s, Sikh and Punjabi immigrants (1917-1952: dead period immigration)
• Second Wave: 1965-1980, educated, higher-income immigrants
• Third Wave: 1980-1990s, diverse backgrounds, including small businesses owners 
• Fourth Wave: 1990s, immigration to work in the tech industry
• Prejudice and Discrimination
• The case of Bhagad Thind
• The Model Minority Myth
• How the co-existence of culture with historical, economic, and social advantages contributes to the model minority myth

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