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Comment by paolomaffei | Hacker News Reader

How comes the Hindus are so rich? Only the Jewish are comparable, I wasn't expecting that

I think this data is for Hindus in US which would be primarily families who have immigrated from India. Primarily the families who immigrate already in upper-bracket of income in India and furthermore their education level would be superior to most Hindus too (think IITs, etc.). I don't think the Hindu group considered here is representative of global Hindu group.

Primarily the families who immigrate already in upper-bracket of income in India and furthermore their education level would be superior to most Hindus too

Yeah, but why does it matter when they come to the US? Shouldn't hindus who immigrated earlier have an upper hand, both in income and education, regardless of social status of new immigrants? Maybe it's because immigration from India to the US is somewhat recent phenomena?

The word is regardless, please; irregardless is a nonsensical double negative.

thank you, I first wanted to use regardless, but for some reason thought that was incorrect. Nevertheless the issue is controversial http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irregardless

Technically, there should be no controversy: regard is the base and from there you get "regardful" and "regardless". Really the only argument should be over using "regardless" rather than "regardlessly".

Tell that to "flammable" and "inflammable": http://www.write101.com/W.Tips215.htm (The evocative pair here being "reversible" and "irreversible")

Technically, when talking about language, throw all your rules and logic out the window. :)

"Technically", there definitely is controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_linguistics

It's great fun to find out when someone is inclined in one of those directions, because they go out of their way to justify their perspective. It's better than C++ vs. Java.

It's easier for them to get jobs that require higher education (compared to most americans). IT jobs in particular, which pay really well.

Look at the average graph, only 18% of the population make more than $100K. How many people in IT make less? I don't know too many, apart from really junior developers.

do you have any evidence that it's easier for indian immigrants to get high-paid jobs in the US than any other type of immigrant?

I didn't say that. It's easier for educated immigrants to get high paying jobs. Indians simply happened to have their own religion in this study.

I'm sure if you plot Chinese vs Russian vs Indian immigrants, the numbers would be pretty close.

That is probably part of it, but I suspect that the bigger issue is that recent immigration policy heavily favors (legal) immigrants with advanced degrees, and consequently high earning potential.

Because there haven't been generations of poor Hindu immigrants who are now working in gas stations. Hindu immigrants are all fairly recent and with current immigration policies only professors and bankers are likely to get in.

For example the Japanese community in the UK is tiny, almost all are senior execs of Japanese merchant banks or electronics companies - so average income is probably $250k. But in San Fransisco there are lots of poor 3-4 generation Japanese kids. It doesn't mean that there is anything better about the UK for Japanese immigrants

Most Hindus here are professionals. The typical path to entry into the US is via an MS/MD/PhD in a US university, followed by an H1 visa working as a engineer/scientist/doctor, followed by a green card and then citizenship.

Family-based immigration is comparatively rare.

It remains to be seen (and could be a topic of further study) how well their descendants do. There is indeed a lot of pressure to do well in academics in Indian families (anyone who's watched the Spelling Bee competitions can see the disproportionate representation of kids of Indian descent), so it is possible that the subsequent generations will continue to do well; but it would still be worth studying.

See nivertech's comment below: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2038790

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_caste

Any time there's a discussion of Indians or Hindus, why do people bring in caste? Do US universities admit students based on caste? Does the visa officer in the US consulate admit only people of a certain caste? Does a company hiring in the US ask for the applicants caste?

Most of India doesn't care about caste; it's time that people _outside_ India stopped caring about Indians' caste too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poona_Pact

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