Asian Professionals as Immigrants: the Indians in Sydney

Since the 1960s Australia's immigration policies have been changed to permit entry of significant numbers of previously restricted Asians. High proportions of these immigrants are professional people and their families, especially doctors, engineers and scientists. Models developed to explain the settlement and assimilation of earlier generations of immigrants, especially those of lower incomes and rural backgrounds, do not appear useful for studying these new immigrants. Examination of one such group, Indians in Sydney, shows them to be residentially dispersed and participating in the social life of the wider society. Such ethnic identity as is demonstrated seems to be part of a multi-faceted life which reflects their professional employment and cosmopolitan, urban backgrounds.