To the Editor:
Re “‘I Thought This Was Heaven on Earth,’” by Lydia Polgreen (column, Jan. 4), about how people from India are no longer feeling welcome in America:
As a daughter of Indian immigrants, I have undeniably benefited from the model minority myth construct: elite universities, prestigious tech companies and achievements my parents only dared to imagine. Yet reading this piece clarified that being a model minority isn’t a gold star; it’s simply a way of deeming my community economically useful in America — close, but still not one of “us.”
When immigrants are celebrated primarily as economic contributors, we are placed in a zero-sum game, where one group’s success is assumed to come at another’s expense. The more a community is framed as exceptional, the more threatening that success can appear, fueling resentment rather than acceptance. The model minority myth backfires when it trades shared humanity for transactional worth.
We need a different frame for talking about immigrants — one grounded in neighborliness and hospitality. The stories I tell my children about my parents’ immigration journey center on those who helped them and the people they helped. Yet today, even hospitality is argued as an economic case. We defend asylum seekers by citing labor shortages and growth, rather than acknowledging that it’s the right thing to do.
My value as an American isn’t just in my economic contributions, but also in the person — neighbor, friend and community member — that I choose to be.
Sheela Subramanian Oakland, Calif.
To the Editor:
Lydia Polgreen is right to warn that we are dismantling one of America’s quiet successes.
I raised white, Christian children who attended an elite independent school and then top universities. What made them better students were not people just like them, but classmates from many backgrounds — Indian (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh), East Asian and Black students who raised academic standards, challenged assumptions and modeled seriousness of purpose.
Today, those same peers are their professional colleagues — surgeons, lawyers, finance leaders, engineers and tech executives — hard-working, brilliant people who make every institution stronger.
An anti-brown, anti-immigrant, anti-P.O.C. posture does not protect excellence; it drains it. Talent is global, and opportunity is mobile. Nations that signal exclusion over openness do not remain first-rate.
If we continue down this path, the cost will be a thinner talent pool, a weaker economy and a diminished society. That is not renewal — it is retreat.
Robin Albing New London, N.H.
To the Editor:
It is no mystery why a 90-foot-tall statue of a foreign deity in the heart of Texas has excited such opposition and pushback.
America is not just a piece of real estate where foreigners and immigrants can do anything they want and recreate their home societies. If they wanted to do that, they could have stayed home. The flip side of a generous immigration policy, and the key to what has made it work in America, is assimilation to the mainstream society. That’s the deal.
We have four centuries of history, culture and tradition here. The statue in Texas was an “in your face” gesture that was too much, and it is hardly surprising that there was pushback.
Of course we have freedom of religion here. Of course we have no official state religion. But we do have a cultural and historic fabric that deserves respect.
Richard Sybert Tucson, Ariz.
To the Editor:
Lydia Polgreen’s account of the “shuddering halt” of Indian migration resonates deeply.
The Indian middle class has long viewed the migration of their children as a form of sacred duty, reminiscent of the historical call by Guru Gobind Singh for families to raise their eldest to be warriors — the Khalsa — to protect the community. Today’s “warriors” carry STEM degrees instead of swords, but the parental sacrifice remains identical.
If the American experiment is indeed halting, these families will do what they have done for millenniums: adapt. While the right-wing narrative may grow loud, the Indian diaspora often answers with a quiet, Gita-inspired confidence. To those in the diaspora, political cycles are temporary; the pursuit of excellence is eternal.
As they say of the current animus, “This too shall pass” — whether they are in Sugar Land, Texas, where a protest against a Hindi statue took place, or back in Hyderabad.
Prem K. Gera Delhi, India
To the Editor:
As an Indian immigrant who became a naturalized U.S. citizen over three decades ago, I was dismayed to read this column. Most Indian immigrants come here and assimilate and make the American tapestry stronger, and the overwhelming majority of Americans are welcoming and hospitable.
By focusing on one Indian retired doctor who wanted to erect a 90-foot-tall statue, and on some native-born Americans who protested it in an unseemly manner, The Times is dividing rather than uniting.
No American tapestry, however well integrated, can withstand such stress and will eventually tear.
Jairam Kamath Danville, Calif.
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