Indian population booms
Sharpest rise among Asians in Connecticut
By LINDA CONNER LAMBECK
lclambeck@ctpost.com
Every now and then, Gita Rajan has to have a samosa, a fried dough turnover filled with wonderfully spiced vegetables that she can only describe as "fantastic."
The Indian-born, Black Rock resident doesn’t have to go far to satisfy her craving. India Spice and Gift Shop, a couple of blocks from her home, carries them.
It’s one of two Indian markets in the Bridgeport neighborhood, kept in business not just by the adventurous palates of Americans, but also by an Indian population that over the past decade has doubled statewide to 23,662.
Here, the increase is even more pronounced. The U.S. Census 2000 shows the Asian population has grown 67 percent in Fairfield County and 86 percent in New Haven County, with Indians — not Chinese — representing the largest Asian ethnicity in both counties.
Nearly one third of the 83,679 Asians living in Connecticut in 2000 were from India.
Census figures show Connecticut remained less diverse than the country as a whole in 2000. But the state’s increasingly high-tech economy and proximity to New York, many say, make it an attractive place for Indian professionals who want to get ahead and settle down.
"You see new faces all the time," said Mami Varghese, an Indian American who settled in Westport in 1983 after following her husband, an engineer in construction management, around the globe.
"When I first came here I was feeling lonely," said Tara Chand Nanavati, a veterinarian from India who set up practice in Seymour in 1980.
Now there’s another veterinarian from India three miles away. "I tell customers I’m the original one," Nanavati laughed.
"Black Rock is absolutely wonderful. One of the most cosmopolitan communities that I have experienced in Connecticut," said Rajan, an associate English professor and director of Asian studies at Fairfield University.
Since coming here from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, Rajan has been joined by her retired parents who enjoy walks around the block and chatting with neighbors.
English is not a problem. They, like most Indians, studied in English, back home.
Command of the English language is only one of the things that made workers from India attractive to Judie Clough, when she used to recruit software engineers in Washington, D.C. The caliber of their skills was another.
"It’s difficult to find someone comparable in the U.S," said Clough, who now is director of career services at the University of Bridgeport where Indian students are the second largest population of international students. Chinese are the first.
Clough imagines about half of the international students who study in the United States stay here — many on recently expanded H1-B visas that allow workers to remain in the United States for six years.
The visa change came because of pressure by the U.S. business community to help satisfy a shortage of skilled workers, according to Peter Gioia, an economist for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association.
The number of visas assigned to Indians alone in the U.S. jumped from 2,697 in 1990 to 55,047 in 2000. Nationwide the Census counted more than 1.6 million Indians in 2000, a 106 percent increase in 10 years.
While there’s been no special effort by Connecticut businesses to attract any specific nationality or ethnic group, Gioia said there has been an "incredibly increased demand" here for more technically astute workers.
The call is out for all kinds of workers, from chemists to economists to information technologists.
Working in the state’s favor, Gioia said, is not only its proximity to New York but also its abundance of universities that hold long-standing relations with Asian countries. Perhaps the principal means of immigration for a tech worker is by attending an American college or university, Gioia said.
"There’s a great deal of trade between Connecticut and Asia," said Colleen Kelly, a Fairfield High School teacher and editor of an Asia in Connecticut Website.
At last count, Connecticut was home to 1,200 firms that have foreign parents.
In many instances, Kelly said, professionals who settle in the state, eventually apply for citizenship and attract family and friends to the region.
Korshed E. Rabderia, a Fairfield resident from India who teaches in Norwalk, has noticed the shift.
"Six or seven years ago it was all professionals. Now there are shop owners, blue-collar workers. All different educational levels [among Indians]," she said.
Sometimes, however, the job isn’t an indication of education.
Janardan D. Upadhyaya, 59, has run India Spice and Gift with his wife Shobhana since 1984. He was a chemistry professor in India who immigrated to America in 1967 to work as a chemist for an American firm.
Eventually, he decided to strike out on his own as a consultant, and joined his wife, who holds a master’s degree in science, in running the store.
"It’s a different kind of experience," he said. One that allows him the freedom to get full credit for his many patents, such as one for aromatic candles, that he works on when the store is quiet, which isn’t too often.
An Orthodox Hindu, Upadhyaya sells exotic fruits, vegetables, spices, nuts and grains, but no meat, so draws a fairly strong vegetarian clientele, including many customers who are not Indian.
"To be very honest, spices have a lot to offer," said Upadhyaya, who lives in Fairfield.
The store walls of the shop are lined with Indian dubbed videotapes. The windows offer a community bulletin board of Indian cultural events.
"I find things here I can’t find anywhere else," said Randeria, pointing to shelves filled with colorful beans, and curry that Upadhyaya blends himself.
Like others, Randeria first lived in a city when she came to Connecticut — Norwalk. Eventually she bought a house in Fairfield.
The migration of Indian and other Asian natives from urban to suburban neighborhoods is similar to most other immigrants. Since 1990, the Asian population in Milford has grown 140 percent to 1,234. It has grown by 50 percent or more in Seymour, Derby, Norwalk, Stratford, Fairfield, Shelton, Ansonia, Westport and Trumbull.
Nanavati, the Seymour veterinarian, settled in Orange after living a short time in Bridgeport. Language has never a problem, he said. Neither was getting along with his neighbors, although he admits ignoring tasteless jokes may have had something to do with that.
"I tell someone I’m Indian, they say ‘What reservation?" Nanavati said.
Perhaps things would be different, Nanavati said, if Indians become more visible on American television.
"The time is coming when you’ll see more on TV news or programs," he said.
Maybe it would be different if Asians had a more active voice in state affairs, said Angela Rola, director of the Asian American Cultural Center at the University of Connecticut.
As of yet, there are no Asian Americans in the state Legislature. For all their growth, Asians still represented only 2.45 percent of the total state population.
Also, Rola suspects the vast diversity within the Asian population may make a common voice unlikely. The category encompasses everything from Indians to Malaysian to Japanese.
"Our experiences are all very different," said Rola, a second generation, New York-born Filipino. "My experience is clearly different from say, Vietnamese students who remember what it’s like to escape out of Vietnam. But many Americans look at us as one in the same. That’s a challenge."
+ Census 2000 Website
+ Census Data
Census says "Asians on the Rise"
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