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This website was archived in December, 2020.
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Coming to America: What did coming to America symbolize for this person?
Push & Pull Factors: Why did this person come to the U.S.?
Although there is a good educational system in India, some Indians come to the U.S. to attend college or graduate school to pursue additional opportunities. Some students end up staying in the U.S. after graduation if they find work. It is common for one person to come to the U.S. on their own as a workers or student and later apply to bring his or her spouse and/or the rest of the family. These relatives come to the U.S. on an immigration visa that gives preference to those applicants who already have immediate family living there.
To learn more about Asian Indian history and culture, visit our Asian Indian Community page.
Download Nirupama Misra 2
1:21 Minutes | 1.3Mb
Narrator: Nirupama Misra (NM)
NM: I was born in India. My father was actually already here in the United States when I was born, and when he left India, I don't think he knew that my mother was expecting. The first two years of my life, I lived in India, and my father was here in graduate school. I was born in 1957. In 1959, just about the time I turned two, my mother and I came over, and my father had found work, a job that he was invited to take here in the States, and although at the time I don't think his intent was to stay here for long at all, he did want to stay for a while, I think, at that point. So we came and joined him in New York City, and lived there. I have some very vague kind of images in my mind of that. I remember sitting with my mother near the Statue of Liberty, for example, but really, no context other than that. Then Honeywell, here in the Twin Cities, offered him a job soon after that, and so we moved to Minneapolis. From there I have quite a bit of memory of my childhood, from probably about age three on.
Noun: Circumstances that help to determine the meaning of an object or event.
Adjective: Pregnant; expecting a baby.
Noun: Motive; purpose (for doing something).
Adjective: Uncertain; not clear.