Indian and Nepali Immigrant in the USA, Caste-Based Cultural Practices and Coping Mechanism for Handling Long-Term Trauma

Background and Purpose: In the postmodernist era of globalization, international migration has rapidly grown from developing and under-developing countries to developed countries for education and employment. South Asia is one of the largest populated regions in the world with tremendous human resources and economic potential. In the last three decades, migration from India and Nepal to North America has grown rapidly. These immigrant communities have bi-cultural acculturation practices where they adopt to the new culture and retain their own culture. With the combination of rich and challenging cultural practice among these immigrant communities caste-based inequities continues to remain burdens on those come from oppressed castes communities.

The focus of this research is to explore the phenomenological experiences of people’s journey to the USA, their experiences around caste-based identities and culture, how it affected their employment, educational, and community experiences. How these challenges impact their health and wellbeing, and how do they cope with these challenges.

Methods: Seven focus group discussions were carried out with more than 50 participants who migrated from India and Nepal to the United States of America. Qualitative research with explorative design was conducted to phenomenon of the caste-based practices amongst Indian and Nepali immigrant communities. Content analysis was done of focus group transcripts developing a saturation of language and discourse to describe “caste trauma” and practices as they appear in the contemporary US context.

Results: The paper analyzes the qualitative experience of respondents, their journey from South Asian countries to North America, being there as students or employees, the issues they faced due to their social position, and how it adversely affects their mental health. Moreover, this paper provides insights into the coping mechanisms adopted by individual refugees and immigrants to overcome the traumatic experiences of discrimination that they continue to experience in the South Asian diaspora. Little empirical research on caste in modern America exists and along with phenomenological qualitative results we can begin to paint a picture of what it is like to experience casteism in the land of the free. The findings of the research suggest that the majority of the migrants are first-generation learners and IT workers and have faced caste-based discriminatory practices by their fellow Indian dominant caste individuals. They choose to remain isolated or among their own caste community members rather than the dominant caste groups even in North America. This research illustrates the need for increased communication and dialogue between caste groups in the United States.

Conclusions and Implications:

As people immigrated to the USA from India and Nepal, oppressed castes who face discrimination irrespective of their geographical location. This not only affected the professional lives at educational, employment, housing, and community spaces but it also adversely affects their mental health. Caste is added as a one of the anti-oppressive categories in EPAS 2022, this research will help build skills for effective practice with south Asian communities, and this research has implication for explore more protective policies for these vulnerable communities and future research on intergenerational caste-based trauma.