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In the UK immigrants from Christian Africa who came in via selective routes (like Kemi Badenoch) and Indians (like Rishi Sunak) are the leading candidates for model minorities. I don't know why anti-Indian racism is so much easier to run with in the US than the UK - my guesses would be some combination of religion (Christianity is a bigger part of your national identity than ours) and the first wave of Indian immigrants in the UK being people who had collaborated with the British Empire.
I suspect you having a large Pakistani population makes them look good by comparison, and we’re probably more exposed to memes from Canada. But also Americans are less used to a class hierarchy; snooty Brahmins rub average Americans much worse than they likely do Brits.
I also wonder what economic niche Indians fill in Britain- middleman minorities are virtually never popular, although Indians are far less popular than eg Koreans.
The stereotypical Indian in America isn't a middleman minority - they are a H1B computer programmer.
The stereotypical Indian in the UK is doing some mid-level professional job - pharmacy, accountancy, IT etc.
No, Americans openly refer to ‘7/11 Indians’. Owning gas stations is a stronger stereotype for them than computers.
Yeah. Apu from the Simpsons was the prevailing stereotype for a generation essentially, though I guess even his visa was originally obtained for tech research of some sort if I recall correctly.
If anything the newer cohort making their money through wishy-washy Tech & Consulting roles has probably done a lot to dent the image compared to back when it was motels, convenience stores and doctors. There's a sense amongst the general public that tech employment is a gigantic rort, and a sense amongst non-Indian tech workers that Indians have essentially zero qualms in giving eachother massive assistance in finding these roles and gaming the fuck out of a system defined by nebulously clinging to a gigantic money tree more than outright 'productivity'.
Like maybe I oversimplify but I feel that Indians are currently getting a direct conduit to a lot of resentment shown towards the 'laptop job' classes since the average man on the street finds it hard to define what said classes do, how people are qualified for those jobs and why their own applications are rejected whilst money is rained down upon the lucky few product managers and whatnot. I'm personally fortunate enough to have FIREd as a result of a couple years in the tech mines and a lucky strike or two, but even I find it hard to ken exactly what it is that the majority of people in Facebook, Google etcetera in the year 2025 actually 'do'.
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I think this is somewhat out of date. For most people nowadays, they're far more likely to associate "Indian" with Rajit from IT than Apu from the Simpsons. I also tend to associate gas stations with Sikhs specifically (I have no idea if this actually reflects the demographics or not), who I think generally have a better reputation in the US than other Indians. (My understanding is that they were disproportionately represented in earlier waves of migration and tended to be better integrated into the British imperial system, which has eased assimilation, though I might be typical-minding based on my own experiences here).
Americans also have a much higher opinion of small business owners who sleep in the back of the shop to make ends meet than professional class strivers "taking away" their children's college spots. The immigrant gas station owner defending his business with a .45 magnum is an American icon, beloved by all red-blooded patriots (see, e.g., roof Koreans). The H1B immigrant working at google, by contrast, comes across as an ungrateful interloper undercutting American wages while working for a despised megacorp.
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