Hindu Indian and American Dreams and Values

Background and Purpose – For any immigrant population in America, belief in mainstream values is a point of contention. It can be experienced as conflict between ethnic ingroup and mainstream outgroup (Cila et al., 2021). It is a complex undertaking, and ethnic identity is often presented as a deterrent in policy and practice with immigrants. Being truly American, wherein Americanism is a set of values, ways of being and life goals (Baker, 2006), can have a positive impact on immigrants feeling of belonging. This study explores Indians and Hindus' adherence to 'Americanisms'. In a sample comprising 3500 immigrants from five different countries within Asia, Americanism was operationalized via three continuous variables - Adherence to perceived American values (adherence), Perception of QoL in US compared to native country (perceived QoL), and Desire for the American dream, constructed using Pew Research Center's 2022–23 Asian American Survey dataset. The research question was do these dependent outcomes vary as a function of religion, country of origin, gender, or age. Research hypothesis was that Hindus and/or Indians will differ from other groups. Methods -The distribution of each dependent outcome was sufficiently symmetric and not zero-inflated or over-dispersed, rationalizing the use of Proc surveyreg. The full sample was used, and variances were estimated using the jackknife method, incorporating 100 replicate weights to account for the complex survey design and ensure accurate standard errors. Three separate models were explored, one for each dependent outcome. Independent outcomes were all categorical, and they were Religion (Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, & No Religion), Country (China, India, Korea, Philippines, & Vietnam), Gender (male & female), and Age (18-29, 30-49, and >50). All analyses were performed in SAS ® 9.4. Results: Adherence (N=3424): Overall R² was 0.12. Religion (F = 3.17; p = 0.02) and Age (F = 20.12; p < 0.01) significantly predicted adherence. Post hoc analyses revealed that adherence was lower in Hindus compared to Christians (t = -2.38, p = 0.02) and increased with age across all religions. Adherence was similar across countries and gender. Perceived QoL (N=2264): Overall R² was 0.10. Religion (F = 4.09; p <0.01) and Country (F = 8.43; p < 0.01) significantly predicted perceived QoL. Post-hoc analyses revealed that perceived QoL was lower in Hindus compared to Muslims (t = -3.19, p < 0.01) but like other religions and it was lower in Indians compared to Vietnamese (t = -3.39, p < 0.01), but similar to other countries. Perceived QoL was similar across gender and age. Desire for The American Dream (N=3182): It was similar across all predictors. Conclusions and Implications: Desire for American Dream appears to be common across groups, while adherence to perceived American values and perceived QOL in US compared to native country varied by intersectionality of country, religion and age. Likely, the immigrant status imparts a commonality to the sense of self as seen in perception of Americanisms. In social work practice, understanding immigrants' belief about mainstream culture, is important to effectively engaging them as clients (Das & Kemp, 1996).