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Challenges to Diversity: A Case Study of Asian Indian Scientists and Engineers Abstract

I present findings from a qualitative-quantitative study, funded by the National Science Foundation (SES-0136467), on the situation and experiences of foreign-born scientists and engineers from India in the United States. I focus on the extent to which they are professionally successful and/or face institutional barriers with respect to reward, recognition, and promotion while functioning in science and engineering organizations. The paper is based on in-depth interviews with 82 Asian Indian scientists and engineers working in industrial companies, national laboratories, and academic institutions in the United States and 38 Indian scientists and engineers who worked in the United States for some time and then moved back to India.

Introduction

Public and private organizations in the United States have made enormous strides since Civil Rights activists first demanded parity in educational and career opportunities for racial/ethnic minorities some 40 years ago. Changes to the law and organizational attitudes have opened the door to many people who a few decades ago would have found it not just locked but barred. Nevertheless, change has not come as quickly or as completely as was hoped and few would deny that in the new millennium racial/ethnic minorities are still underrepresented when it comes to attaining high-level, decision-making positions in public and private organizations as compared to Whites. Even when racial/ethnic minorities are overrepresented in professional occupations, such as Asian Indians who make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, but constitute 58% of management, professional, and related occupations, they rarely hold positions in the upper echelons of management or administration. Despite their being heavily concentrated in professional occupations (74%), they hold only 17% of management positions.13

This paper examines the issues surrounding the career mobility of Asian Indians in achieving high-level decision-making positions. It is based on in-depth interviews with 120 Asian Indian scientists and engineers conducted between 2002 and 2004. These included 82 Asian Indian scientists and engineers working in the public and private sectors inside the United States. The sample includes 26 respondents from 24 academic institutions, 39 respondents from four high- technology industrial companies, and 17 respondents from two national laboratories. In addition, 38 interviews were conducted with Asian Indian scientists and engineers who studied and worked in the United States for some time and then moved back to India to work in three academic institutions and one research laboratory. This discussion will focus on the following question: What challenges do managers/administrators face in placing Asian Indian scientists and engineers in decision-making roles within their organizations? Other aspects of the study are reported in the book titled Harbingers of Global Change: India’s Techno-Immigrants in the United States, scheduled for printing at the end of March, 2006.15

Asian Indians were selected for the study for two primary reasons. First, they are increasingly present in the science and engineering (S&E) workforce of the United States. In 1999, out of 1.5 million foreign-born S&E degree-holders in the United States, 14% were from India, followed

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Varma, R. (2006, June), Challenges To Diversity: A Case Study Of Asian Indian Scientists/Engineers Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--658