1.         The honeymoon is over: Three out of five Non Resident Indian marriages in the US are being dissolved in less than a year.  There are about 15600 divorces among NRI in US.  NRI men marry in India bowing down the wishes of their parents even though they have live-in girl friends, or already married foreigner or gay – opt for divorce.  It costs $500 for getting divorce for men while women have to defend by paying $2500-$3000 and other lawyer expenses, which many women could not afford.  More and more NRI are also opting to marry Filipino women.  (Sushmita Bose, Hindustan Times, 8 October 2006 p. 12)

2.         Desi housewives get desperate:  Deprived of jobs, bored H-4 Visa Holders think of casual sex.  The H-4 dependent visa holders – mostly women-are denied social security numbers and, in many states in USA, even driver’s licenses. This has led to distress, low self-esteem and even an identity crisis.  A survey done on these H-4 visa holders by a US based attorney reveals that the H-4 issue creates an extreme dependence on the primary visa holder and even ends up in broken marriages or wife abuse.  Several women often work illegally, in motels or grocery stores that pay them peanuts.  Many of these highly educated women chat in Internet discussing the idea of casual sex. (Raheel Dhattiwala, The Times of India, 3 October 2006 p.10)

3.         How a burgeoning Indian diaspora tunes into the American dream: Roughly 2.3 million people of Indian ancestry, including immigrants and the American-born, now call the U.S. home, according to 2005 Census data. That's up from 1.7 million in 2000. They have big communities in New Jersey, New York, California and Texas, and their average yearly household income is more than $60,000 — 35 per cent higher than the nation overall. Indian Americans, along with Indian expatriates worldwide, sent about $23 billion back to India in 2005, World Bank data show. (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/10/24/stories/2006102401782200.htm assessed on 24 October 2006)

Source: http://www.glocalassociates.org/