Indian Americans view their ancestral homeland favorably: Survey

Lower cost of living is the main reason for Indians who say they would move back to India

Most Asian Americans, including Indians view the US positively and see it as the world’s leading economic power of the next decade with a majority also viewing their ancestral homelands favorably, according to a new survey.

Most Asian adults say they would not move to their ancestral homeland, though this varies by nativity and time spent in the US, according to a Pew Research Center multi-lingual nationally representative survey of Asian American adults.

READ: Indian voters in the US tend to be Democratic: Pew Survey (June 2, 2023)

Among Indian adults living in the US who say they would move to India, the main reason reported is lower cost of living (52%).

Conducted July 5, 2022, to Jan. 27, 2023 among 7,006 Asian adults living in the US, the survey found around three-quarters of Asian Americans (78%) have a favorable view of the United States – including 44% who have very favorable views of the country.

Opinion of Japan, Korea and Taiwan is also quite positive, while views of Vietnam, the Philippines and India are somewhat mixed; and opinion of China is predominantly negative.

Among Asian Americans who trace their heritage to these places, opinions of their own ancestral homeland are largely positive – though Chinese American adults are the exception.

READ: Asian Americans share a sense of belonging in the US: Study (August 2, 2022)

Large majorities of Korean, Indian and Filipino adults say their opinion of their ancestral homelands is very or somewhat favorable.

Key findings: 

– Members of each Asian origin group tend to view their own ancestral homeland much more favorably than other Asian adults.

– For example, among the seven origin groups highlighted in the report, the difference is the largest on views of India: 76% of Indian Americans have a favorable opinion of India, compared with 23% of other Asian Americans, a gap of 53 percentage points.

–  About half of Asian Americans (53%) say the United States will be the world’s leading economic power over the next decade. About one-third (36%) of Asian adults say China will be the leading economic power globally in the next 10 years and much lower shares say the same of India and Japan. Views of the next decade’s top economy varies by place of birth, age and gender.

–  Most Asian adults say they would not move to their ancestral homeland, though this varies by nativity and time spent in the US.

–  Most Asian adults say they would not move to their ancestral homeland, though this varies by nativity and time spent in the US. Nearly three-quarters of Asian adults (72%) say they would not move there (or, in some cases, move back) if they had the chance, while 26% say they would. Asian immigrants are about twice as likely as those born in the US to say they would move to these places of heritage (30% vs. 14%).

–  Interest in moving to ancestral homelands is lower among immigrants who have lived in the United States for a longer time. About half (47%) of Asian immigrants who have been in the US for 10 years or less say they would move to their ancestral homelands, compared with roughly one-in-five (22%) who have been in the US for more than 20 years.

–  Among Indian adults living in the US who say they would move to India, the main reason reported is lower cost of living (52%).

–  Among the 26% of Asian Americans who say they would move to their ancestral homelands, the top reasons include being closer to friends or family (36%) and a lower cost of living (22%). Smaller shares also pointed to greater familiarity with the culture, better support for older people, and feeling safer in their homeland.

–  Chinese and Vietnamese adults are the only origin groups to express more favorable views of other places in Asia than their ancestral homelands.

–  Chinese adults see Japan, Taiwan and South Korea more favorably than they do China. Vietnamese adults see Japan more favorably than they do Vietnam.

Read the report: https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2023/07/19/most-asian-americans-view-their-ancestral-homelands-favorably-except-chinese-americans/