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August 15, 2006


More foreign-born calling Indy home
In metro area, population topped 77,000 last year
By Karen Eschbacher
karen.eschbacher@indystar.com
August 15, 2006


Imad Ardah was born in Jordan.
On Sunday morning, he sat in the food court of Saraga International Grocery with his 3-year-old son eating Mexican food. Around him, shoppers who hail from Thailand, Vietnam, Latin America and other locations wandered up and down aisles filled with Chinese okra, halal items and Mexican specialty drinks.
In many ways, the scene represents the changing complexion of Central Indiana.
The number of foreign-born residents living in Marion County and four neighboring counties surpassed 77,000 in 2005, a jump of more than 50 percent from just five years earlier, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today.
As more and more foreigners are wooed here by the promise of jobs and affordable living, the growing immigrant population likely will affect everything from the kinds of businesses that spring up to where Hoosiers eat to how schools educate their students.
"This is what the United States is about," said Ardah, 39, who has lived in Indianapolis for three years and runs the Flag World store in Circle Centre mall. "The United States is a big melting pot."
Even with the growth, nearly 7 percent of Indianapolis residents were foreign-born in 2005 -- half the national average and one of the lowest rates among large U.S. cities.
But that could change if recent patterns continue. An estimated 55,032 foreign-born residents called Marion County home in 2005, up from about 39,000 in 2000, according to the census.
The trend is not limited to Marion County.
Though much smaller, the populations of foreign-born residents in Hamilton and Hendricks counties more than doubled during that time, to 14,631 and 3,871, respectively.
The numbers were released as part of the American Community Survey, a Census Bureau initiative that will allow certain demographic information to be available annually, rather than every 10 years. Because the estimates are based on a sampling of the population, significant margins of error are possible in some cases.
The survey includes information only about areas with populations greater than 65,000. Shelby, Boone and Hancock counties don't meet that threshold.
Hailing from all over

Still, the numbers confirm that Central Indiana's immigrant population is growing.
While the region's burgeoning Mexican population has drawn the most attention, newcomers hail from around the globe.
Drew Carson Appleby started compiling a list of local ethnic eateries about five years ago. At the time, he found about 200. The project has since evolved into indyethnicfood.com and now contains postings on 747 restaurants and 122 markets.
"They're from Russia, and they're from Greece, and they're from China," said Appleby, director of undergraduate studies in psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "They're just from all over the place."
The region's foreign-born residents also have diverse personal backgrounds.
While many Mexican immigrants moving to Indianapolis are day laborers, or work in relatively low-paying hourly jobs, foreign-born residents in the suburbs are more likely to be professionals, experts said.
Abdul Shera, who runs the Bombay Bazaar market in Fishers, said he caters to a growing base of Indians who are moving here from California to escape the West Coast's out-of-control housing market. Some weeks, he sees three to five new families.
Shera, who was born in India and later lived in Pakistan, said most are engineers, computer science professionals, doctors and professors.
"The people in Hamilton County tend to have higher incomes, and they tend to have a higher level of education," said Roberto Curci, a finance professor at Butler University who moved to the United States from Colombia in 1990 and to Indianapolis in 1999. "They can afford to have a house in that area."
Pros and cons

The influx of immigrants will no doubt create opportunities and challenges.
John Clark, a senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research and an adjunct political science professor at IUPUI, said the newcomers will strengthen the economy by providing manpower.
At the same time, immigrants are less likely to have health insurance, he said, meaning many rely on expensive emergency rooms for routine medical care.
And schools must grapple with how to educate students with limited or no English skills.
Greg Serbon, state director of the Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform & Enforcement, said he worries about the cost of providing social services.
"It's phenomenal," he said of the expense.
Regardless, nearly everyone agrees the immigrant population will continue to grow, especially as the state's newest residents feel comfortable and encourage family and friends to follow.
That appears to be happening.
Kwesi Brown said probably three times as many people from his native Ghana are living in Indianapolis now than when he moved here in 2001. Brown, 41, who is beginning a doctoral program in folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University, said that's in part because of word of mouth.
"A lot of them, they were living in New York and other places, but they think Indianapolis is a good place to live, and there are lots of jobs here," he said.