What’s with the Indian Diaspora?

Caught in the crosshairs of global nativism, Indians abroad must confront both prejudice from without and pitfalls within.

Over the past few years, tensions over immigration are intensifying, and today we Indians find ourselves at the very center of this storm- primarily across major English-speaking democracies. Last September—some of the largest anti-immigration rallies were organized in Indian immigrant heavy countries like United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. Under the banner “Unite the Kingdom,” led by Tommy Robinson, more than a hundred thousand people took to the streets of London. Around similar time frame the Indian Embassy in Ireland was compelled to issue a formal safety advisory to Indian nationals, after a series of officially recorded physical attacks in and around Dublin—targeting Indian taxi drivers, IT professionals, and even a six-year-old Indian origin girl. Across Australia thousands of people have rallied under the slogan - “March for Australia”; following which public broadcaster ABC released an investigative report showing that a section of the organizers had active links with the neo-Nazi and openly white supremacist online networks. Reports of public harassment and threats against Indian origin residents rose in the weeks following the demonstrations as well. The situations in the United States and Canada hardly need separate mention.

The question is: why are we becoming direct targets and how to address the problem?  Having spanned four different countries over the past decade-and-a-half - primarily in non-English dominated EU states - I would like to draw your attention to that elephant in the room in this essay. First of all, the fact that the political character of anti-immigrant groups across the globe is overwhelmingly far-right leaves little room for debate. Trump in the US, Nigel Farage/Tommy Robinson in the UK, Derek Bligh in Ireland, or Thomas Sewell/Ken Miller in Australia— all cut from the same cloth. Having said so, there is little to gain in getting stuck in partisan political jargon. Instead, assuming this to be today's reality I would like to focus on our own issues. Let us try to understand which of our actions—or inactions—end up lending these groups greater legitimacy, and what we might do to reduce it.

In most cases, as I have noticed, it is undeniable that Indian immigrants tend to live in self-contained communities. In a new country, it is natural for people of all nationalities to form their own ecosystems while trying to work and survive. But it is equally vital that such a group has representation within the broader social fabric of the host country. In the United States, unlike Israeli Jewish, Irish, or Italian communities, our “home lobby” today is far from robust. Why the Indian “lobby” has failed to strengthen itself to the required level even after half a century of generational migration is in itself a question worth finding an answer to.

Hollow Arrogance

Experts suggest that the reason lies in our internal divisions. I would add another factor: an irrational, foolish and hollow arrogance along with the tendency to dismiss unfamiliar people as stupid or inferior for no good reason. I have personally seen how Indian IT communities create ghettos for themselves in various countries. Moreover, having recently surpassed China, both our domestic and migrant populations now rank among the largest in the world. As a result, we are inherently exposing our vulnerabilities in numbers. It doesn’t take more than a schoolchild’s understanding to grasp that the most visible community would become the easiest target for the far right. Additionally, while Indians enter countries like the US illegally in their hundreds through the ignoble Dunkie routes, we ourselves keep showing off hollow snobbery toward migrants from war-torn African or West Asian countries. The irony is borderline absurd. It’s not surprising that these realities pour additional fuel onto the fires of xenophobia stoked by figures like Trump or Farage.

Political scientists have a suitable name for this phenomenon: “the nativist backlash loop”. In a nutshell one could explain it through the following circular steps - living in self-created ghettos acts as fuel for the far right, generating political and social instability. As a result, suspicion toward that highly visible community grows among native population; suspicious individuals retreat further into themselves. Eventually, this “clustering”—this withdrawn, disconnected group—gets branded as a community that has “failed to assimilate,” accused of eroding national culture, and is weaponized by the far right to aggressively mobilize voters.

And, as icing on the cake, one could add several incidences reported throughout the English-speaking countries where Indians, both as Individuals and groups have been involved in non-civic activities. Reported incidents include littering and disruptive celebrations at Cineworld theatres in the UK, noisy public gatherings and Bollywood‑style street dancing in central London, and vandalism and unruly behaviour by fan groups at a Dallas movie screening in the US. In Canada, a viral clip showed individuals bathing with soap at a public beach, while other reports highlighted littering during religious rituals near water bodies. Australia has seen recurring complaints about noise, crowding, and misuse of public spaces during student celebrations. These incidents, though limited in scale, have been widely discussed within diaspora communities because they reinforce perceptions of loitering, noise nuisance, and disregard for local norms, contributing to broader debates about assimilation and civic behaviour among newer migrant population.

Vicious Loop

This vicious loop needs to be broken. The task is not easy but not impossible either. Having spent the past fourteen years in three non–English-speaking countries I have understood that establishing acceptance in such cities is even more difficult. Hence let me offer a recent example. I have lived in Nice, in southern France, for more than seven years now. It took me three years to understand the city’s deeper rhythms. To the north of Nice, away from the sea and over the hills, live mostly old, native French families; a space where foreigners rarely dwell. Even my own neighbourhood being quite aboriginal, the north is a different demography altogether. In one such particular neighbourhood is a tiny shop that sells excellent meat pâté, unavailable anywhere else in the city. Occasionally, when I visit the locality with tax-related formalities, I stop by the shop. The middle-aged shopkeeper lady, who once was quite sceptical now greets me with a broad smile and heats up two pâtés, packing them without my needing to ask. In the beginning days, she would skip even a smile—but I persevered. I never uttered an English word; my French was flawed, badly pronounced, but I tried. It took time. Now, even after months of absence, she recognizes me, smiles, and feeds me pâté.

Are the working classes of all cities this protective? Probably yes and rightly so, at least in the cities where I have dwelled. Without a degree of conservatism, how could a country preserve its socio-cultural fabric at all? What I wanted to show with that example is— only by patiently piercing through that conservative wall—by reaching the level of ordinary middle-class life—does one begin to understand a city and its culture. And that responsibility has always rested with the one who arrives from outside. That's the act of assimilation. This is precisely the work we must keep doing. The first generation of Indian migrants treated assimilation as a serious, deliberate responsibility, but somewhere along the way many of us began taking that hard won acceptance for granted.  Otherwise, why would so many of those imbecilic so-called ‘influencers’ knowing or unknowingly sabotage such hard-earned credibility through unethical and unlawful behaviours on foreign lands. Trust me, there is no shortage of people willing to reach out from the other side of the wall, all we need is to re-establish that reliability as global Indians something we once cherished; and through the process regain the trust and support of the rest of the world that's fighting together against thugs like Trump, Farage and others.

(The writer is a Lead Process Engineer with GE HealthCare in France and a columnist with four books to his credit. Views personal.)