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Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

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Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#31
post #17
post #8

This article is almost a caricature of articles like itself. What makes this interesting to people? Is it because it's so over the top with bad tropes it becomes funny?

I guess it is because people often forget that there are downsides to diversity: You are importing foreign cultures that you do not understand and are legally/organisationally unprepared for. The article is interesting because it provides a contrast to the common refrain of "diversity good" and "other cultures provide benefits". There is often a lack of balance and nuance in reporting imho, and this kind of article p…

I think as a society we are plenty prepared to say "it is not right to discriminate based on who your parents were or where you were born". Not doing so is a choice (to wit, the wrong choice).

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#32

Culture and social structures are very hard to change once they take hold...

They are very easy to change because people are hude conformists. See how our behaviour changed in recent timed due to corona. Or example of nazi germany.

Problem is that those who benefit from social structure does not want the change, and are working on keeping status quo.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#33
Could the core problem be related to how majority of Indian couple I know who went through arranged marriage gets married to the same caste?

Which is... essentially even though one might say caste is abolished, you know having a higher (or equal) caste still has advantage and favoritism towards alike caste is cultivated (possibly unconsciously, but the story implies deliberately)

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#34
While being wealthier may be a reason, quotas in India are also a reason. I bet for at least 80% of these upper caste Indians have grown up hearing "we upper castes don't get any quota here, we have to study hard [and get high paying tech job and preferably settle abroad]".

It is not just the consequence of being wealthier, although that and politics play a role. Among Indians from similar income levels, that makes it unreserved castes people more likely to take up tech / medical sector.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#36

The core issue in market heavy economies is that people with money make money and everyone else doesn't. Being smart and hard working and having poor parents means you will be poor. Being dumb and lazy with rich parents means you will be rich. Maybe with 3 or 4 full generations of nothing but hard work and luck you might make it up from working to middle class. Maybe. This is never really discussed directly. Only usi…

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Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#37

The core issue in market heavy economies is that people with money make money and everyone else doesn't. Being smart and hard working and having poor parents means you will be poor. Being dumb and lazy with rich parents means you will be rich. Maybe with 3 or 4 full generations of nothing but hard work and luck you might make it up from working to middle class. Maybe. This is never really discussed directly. Only usi…

The economics profession certainly studies and talks about it and quantifies it. Here's some articles

https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-where-intergenerat...

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-social-mobility-...

And on Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_mobility

India unfortunately fairs quite poorly on these metrics

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#38

The core issue in market heavy economies is that people with money make money and everyone else doesn't. Being smart and hard working and having poor parents means you will be poor. Being dumb and lazy with rich parents means you will be rich. Maybe with 3 or 4 full generations of nothing but hard work and luck you might make it up from working to middle class. Maybe. This is never really discussed directly. Only usi…

It's equally probable to say that the driving factor is caste discrimination, which is the underlying cause of economic inequalities. They are two highly correlated variables, and disaggregation is difficult, but there's no (a priori) reason to assume the drive is economics and the "proxy" is race.

The idea of "it takes a few generations" is also widely critiqued with respect to racial progress in the US: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/the-myt...

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#39
post #26

This article appears to be about a current lawsuit. The claims that are being made are outrageous, but that is what is expected of a plaintiffs claims in this sort of lawsuit. I doubt I'll make many friends adding this in, but an uncomfortable statistical artefact of an affirmative action program is the candidates in that program are very likely going to have lower average competence than the rest of the cohort. That…

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Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#40

How does one tactfully determine what percentage of a company is Indian?

It looks like that part of the article is just a made up number. The real content is about a specific case of post-hiring discrimination.

If there were a source for the 90% figure, that would be a totally separate issue with different causes and different considerations.

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