Engineering the American dream: An ethnography of the culture of success for Asian Indian elites in Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley

This dissertation uncovers how cultural differences become the basis for exclusion in the corporate workplace. Understanding such subtle processes requires deep immersion in the day-to-day lives of high-skilled immigrants. I gained observational access to a professional organization and entree into the workplaces, homes, and social worlds of Asian Indian elites in Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley. I chose Asian Indians for two reasons: (1) they constitute a critical case for the study of high-skilled immigration to the U.S.; and (2) my background and contacts enabled me to gain access to members of this group. I entered the project expecting to find answers to three main research questions: (1) How do Asian Indians adapt to economic and social life in the United States; (2) What barriers, if any, do they face in the United States labor market; and (3) What role do mediating organizations, social capital, and cultural capital play in their adaptation and assimilation? However, as is often the case in ethnographic fieldwork, emergent findings from the field shifted and sharpened the focus of this dissertation to Asian Indians' everyday lives and compelled different orienting research questions: (1) How do highly successful Asian Indian elites understand their own success; and (2) how does culture benefit and constrain the everyday lives of Asian Indian elites?;My introductory chapter addresses the theoretical and methodological motivations of my dissertation. The methods, details the making of an analytic ethnography (including my access sampling, and analysis strategies) and addresses the management of gender relations in the field, particularly the gender stereotypes I had to negotiate vis-a-vis my informants. The empirical chapters examine the scripts of success Asian Indian elites use in their everyday lives, the role of spouses in elite success, gender relations between Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley, and the role of the new second generation in the culture of success. I conclude my dissertation with a discussion on immigration and workplace policy implications of my research and an agenda for future research. I also provide an appendix that contains a glossary of key terms, interview instruments, and a table.;Key Words: Asian Indians; The Culture of Success; Social Capital; Mobility...