Interview with David Smith, A New Beginning: My Father’s Journey from India to America, History 150 Spring 2025, Conducted by Anshul Mathur, March 9th 2025.

Image by Rupinder Singh from Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-group-of-men-standing-next-to-each-other-5KaAA4x7V38

Overview to Social Change Interview: 

In 2006, David Smith left his home in Delhi, India, to pursue an MBA in the United States. Although he already holds a master’s degree in computer management, he arrives on an F-1 visa, a nonimmigrant visa that allows international students to study full-time at accredited U.S. institutions. Initially planning only a temporary stay, David decides to remain in the U.S. after graduation when promising job opportunities arise. His migration reflects the larger pattern of highly educated South Asian professionals who came to the U.S. following the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which expanded access to skilled immigrants.

In this interview, David discusses the cultural adjustments of living in a more individualistic society. He explains how daily routines such as cooking, laundry, and making friends required adaptation, and how social customs like visiting friends without notice were vastly different in the U.S. than in India. He recalls how the Great Recession of 2007–2009 disrupted his early career. After losing his job in New Hampshire, he applies for dozens of positions and travels on his own dime to interviews before finally securing a role in Virginia.

Now working as an application architect, David reflects on how those early struggles built his independence and resilience. He forms a cricket team with coworkers, maintains close ties with extended family in India, and continues to balance his Indian heritage with his American life. His story highlights the pressures and possibilities faced by immigrants: building a new life, navigating economic uncertainty, and preserving culture in a changing world.

Biography of Interviewee:

Transcript:

Anshul Mathur 0:00
Um, hi, everyone. Today, I’m going to be interviewing my dad about how he moved from India to the US. Could you say hello, Papa, Hey everyone. Okay, so, could you just introduce yourself a little bit like your name, your birthday, how you grew up, what school you went to, what you do?

David Smith 0:23
Sure my name is David Smith. My birthday is 03/01, 1981. I was born and brought up in Delhi, India. I did my schooling at my high school in Delhi, as well as my bachelor’s in science in Delhi, and then I did my Master’s in Computer Management in Delhi from a college called BVIMR, and my background has been computer science. After my schooling and college, I started working at some of the MNCs in India, and before coming to the U.S., the last organization I worked for was Seal Technologies.

Anshul Mathur 1:21
Nice. Okay, so firstly, could you ask? Why did you first decide to move from India to the US?

David Smith 1:32
So, I came to the U.S. for higher studies. I already had a Master’s in Computer Management, but I wanted to do my MBA. So that was the whole purpose of it. So that was the reason I came to us on an F1 visa, and that was the whole plan, like, you know, to do my MBA and then probably go back. However, after I completed my MBA, I got good opportunities there, so I stuck around.

Anshul Mathur 2:04
Can you talk about your journey from India to the US, especially the first year? I would like to hear how hard it was to transition from India to America and how the actual journey from India to America was.

David Smith 2:18
So it’s when I came to the U.S. that things are completely different from how things are in India because in India, most of the kids, even you know, after they did their schooling or college, are working this day with their parents. So it’s completely different. When you come here, you need to take care of yourself for everything. Whether it’s cooking or taking care of yourself or laundering your clothes, everything needs to be done by you, right? So that was one difference, and from the cultural point of view, it’s a lot different. Like in India, it’s more social, because your friends, your families, like, if you are, you have an extended family. Everyone lives right around and close to your place, and then over the weekends, you meet them. But that was not the case here, especially in the first year, right? You have to come here, you have to make friends, and then it’s not like, you know, you’re meeting with them, like every weekend in India. The difference is, you can just stop at your friend’s house, even without telling them. Here, it’s slightly different. If you’re going to visit someone, you basically would let the person know and make sure they are available. Only then are you going to go and meet with them. Then, initially, the first year, the first two years, was mostly study. So I was trying to learn. And you know, it was a new thing for me from computer to learn. How does the management part works, so that it can help when I go back to India.

Anshul Mathur 3:58
Can you talk about, like, making friends here compared to India? Was it like, difficult for you? Is there some stuff here to learn, like how is the process?

David Smith 3:58
So I don’t think so. Making friends was difficult here at all. Like, I think when I came here, I think it took, like, I’ll say at least few weeks to make friends, because you are so new here, and you know, to learn things, to learn how the things are there in the college. And I think once you start, because I came initially for studying, so once you start going to classes, you make friends very easily. And I think it was like, it was very quick. It was very quick for me to make friends. And then I had kind of same interest with the friends I made initially, like, in terms of, like sports, like, I love cricket. And when I came here. I got interested in football, so I had, like, good knowledge in terms of football, so I could talk with friends about football and cricket, both at the same time. So, yeah, it was not tough. It was, I think I’ll say the making friends was an easier thing.

Anshul Mathur 4:02                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Nice. So you got your MBA here, right? So how was like the college? Colleges in compared different, compared to India and here? How are they different? [MBA question was not directed at him I already knew he did]

David Smith  5:27                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Colleges are different compared to India, in a sense that in India, when you go to college, it is either, if you’re doing a bachelor’s or masters, we used to have classes like daily so you we used to have like sessions every day. It could be like four hour sessions or five hour sessions divided into multiple classes. And it used to be like five days a week, all five days in here, that’s not the case, right? Like in colleges here, you could have a class on Monday, like couple of classes on Monday, Tuesday, you might not have classes. You’ll then have classes on Wednesday, or sometimes you’ll have classes on Thursday or Friday. It’s not like there is a schedule here where, like Monday to Friday, from nine to five you have classes. But in India, that’s what the thing is like, even at bachelor’s and even at the master’s level, you have a schedule where you had classes from a time period between like nine to five or nine to four.

Anshul Mathur 6:33
Was it easier or harder here?

David Smith 6:37
I think it’s easier here than India. In India, there is a lot of competition, and like, you know, there’s, there’s too much everything is around, like, you know, studying and putting a lot of effort in reading, studying and everything in here, it’s very good in terms of, like, you know, building your confidence, your communication skills. So you’re doing studying as well as you’re gaining confidence, so that you know when you go out, when you have to start to applying for jobs, you build your more confidence, because that’s how you go through your college life, right? Plus you get time, I think here in colleges, you know to have, you know, some college life with friends. You get to play a lot of sports. If you’re interested in sports. In India, it’s slightly different. Not every college has, like, you know, a sports team or something, which is completely different. Here in us, like in US, you have sports teams. You get involved into that. You get to play some sports in India, it’s only limited to if, I have to say, like, the most popular sport is cricket, right? So if you’ll see kids playing in colleges, it’s mostly would be like cricket, and that’s not also like, you know, there’s a cricket team for that college. It might, it might not have but here, I think that’s that’s an advantage.

Anshul Mathur 8:01
Okay, so you moved here in 2006 right?

David Smith 8:05
Yeah.

Anshul Mathur 8:10
How did the Great Recession and like, 2007 2008 2009 affect you getting a job here, and, like, getting a house, stuff like that, especially since you are new to the country.

David Smith 8:23
yeah, I think, if I’m not wrong, probably somewhere in 2009 I think right around, I think early 2009 probably I’m thinking where I was working, in New Hampshire, Portsmouth, and I think right around that time we had, I think, a layoff in our organization. And I think we had to, like, like, I had to, like, start looking for a lot of like, you know, jobs. I had to apply for a lot of jobs. I think I still remember I might have applied for, I don’t know, might be probably like 40 50 jobs but you will only getting like interviews in terms of not like with the actual client. But it was only like no preliminary interviews which you were creating, but you were not getting that many interviews, and then whichever interview you clear to the client. Most of the clients had the requirement where you have to go to their office and give the final round like I still remember, I went to New York for an interview, and then finally, when I land in Virginia, I did my round of interview. It got cleared for the final round. They said I had to come to Virginia on my own expenses, and I was getting ready for it. But somehow I got lucky. I got a call back from them. They said that they decided, with the previous interview that I don’t have to go and give a final round there they would accept based upon the last interview, and that’s how I. I got, like, in 2009 I got to come to Virginia for an organization here in Virginia.

Anshul Mathur 10:07
how is getting a job process different here than from India, and since you were new to this country, how difficult was it first starting out trying to get a job in like New Hampshire.

David Smith 10:22
I think I would not say there is much of a difference in the job process, because here or in India, I think at both the places, you have these consultants where you know or they are these websites where you can go and upload your resume, and based upon that, I think some of these sites, they basically automatically will, will, you know, get your resume based upon what the requirements are. Or you can apply for a specific what you call requirement, where you can go in and apply online to these organizations, and they probably help you in landing an interview. And then from there, I think it starts based upon different organizations have different requirement. In some they’ll have like two rounds, and there are some technology organization companies which probably can have up to, like, five rounds of interviews. So I think the process is almost the same. I don’t think so there’s much of a difference between the process.

Anshul Mathur 11:35
Did you find a way to play cricket here? Because I know that’s your favorite sports still coming from India, and you were playing in there. Did you find a way to do that here?

David Smith 11:44
Yeah. So when I moved to Virginia, I was working for an organization in Maryland. So I used to travel from Virginia to Maryland five days a week, and in Maryland they are and now also in Virginia, but in Maryland at that time, I’m talking about, probably in 2012 13, probably, yeah, there were a lot of clubs, like cricket clubs, which were coming up. And you could be basically either participate in an existing club with their teams, or you could, like, stand up your own team, and then you can participate in this club, where they used to have these competitions among multiple clubs, and so we were able to like the organization I was working for. So the friend, we friends, we got together, and we said that, why not set up a team and then apply for this club and see if we get selected, we can set up our own team, and then, you know, we can participate in playing cricket. So, yeah, we got to, like, I got to play cricket here. And I think I played for probably, like, four, five years before, like, stopping. I think I got an injury and I had to stop for a while.

Anshul Mathur 12:57
Okay, so I, so, what about so you work as, as a coding architect right now, correct?

David Smith 13:05
Yeah, application architect.

Anshul Mathur 13:08
how do you enjoy the work in something you like to do?

David Smith 13:12
Yeah, I love, I love it because it’s, it’s like, it’s, it’s challenging, in a sense, being a architect, you are responsible for the design of the system, how the design should look like, how the application should look like. You have to consider about different aspects of the application, like how the security should be, how the performance should be of the application, how the flow of data should be, how the workflow of the whole application should be, how your user story should be, like, you know, the flow of a user, to make it easier for a user, so that you know the applicant it should, it should be easier for the user to use, because then only a user would want to, you know, access or use your application or perform whatever he wants to perform, Right? So it is fun, and it is and it’s fun and entertaining, I say because every application is slightly different. It’s always a challenge. When you’re working on new applications, even if you’re working on legacy applications. It’s a challenge because you need to understand what existing applications have and how you can basically make those applications like how can you can you can upgrade technology on existing application, so it’s always a new challenge.

Anshul Mathur 14:25
Okay, so, could you talk about how, how your work has changed since you adapted to the US workplace, and what aspects of your career so far have been the most rewarding to you?

David Smith 14:40
I think the aspect which has been most rewarding is basically gaining more experience and knowledge working across different domains, because having knowledge of different domains, like initially, at the start, I was working for. A like insurance domain, and then later on, I worked on healthcare domain, right? So the domain knowledge helps you a lot, because you get different, you know, aspects of different applications, how they work. You could basically use an existing work that was done on a previous one to a new application or a new project. So I think that has helped a lot. And then as a time pass, keeping yourself updated with different technologies, learning technologies. There’s so much free source available on either YouTube or other platforms which you can take advantage of. So I think that that probably would be the most important thing. Okay,

Anshul Mathur 15:41
so when you first moved here, and in the first few years you we were here, were there any times where you wanted to go back to India, or you felt like we should move back to India, or you really started to Miss India and wanted to go back?

David Smith 15:59
No, I would not say that like I think the first year when I was here, almost when the year was ending. At that point of time, I wanted to visit back to India. And that time you and your mom were also in India, so I wanted to visit to celebrate your first birthday. So that was the first time I went back to India, like after I came here and to celebrate your birthday. But I think after that, when you came here, I think I never felt that, you know, I like I wanted to go back and meet my parents, and that was there. But my mom, she came here a couple of times to meet us, here in us so, but there was never a point of time where I was like, You know what? I just want to go back and settle in India. Like, there was nothing like that

Anshul Mathur 16:54
when, like, Dadi and Nana and Nani would visit here. How would that help you like? Would that help you keep going or work harder, or make you like, Miss India less? So you could stay here and say you wanted to stay here more?

David Smith 17:11
Definitely. It helps in a sense that you know when, when you’re when my parents are here, or your mom parents are here. You know it, it’s that time is really precious. You know, when your parents are coming here, they spend time with you, you and your sister, and they spend time with us so and we get to travel some places in us with them. So it’s more entertaining. And that time period when we, when they are here, it’s, it’s, I’ll say, there is no stress at all, because you’re more trying to make sure that you know, you give that you get that family time, and you give them the family time, and they’re here around and I think it’s, it’s, it’s a wonderful time whenever they come here.

Anshul Mathur 17:53
Okay, what is like? The biggest difference, like, especially when you first moved here, that you notice between India and American like, what? Like, shocked you, like, you thought that it was weird. Or you thought, like, you’re so surprised that it was different between the US and India.

David Smith 18:11
Um, if I have to say the biggest thing, I would say traffic. Maybe, yeah, Indian traffic. It’s, it’s like, when I moved here, and few years later, when I went back to meet my family back home, I was not able to drive in India because it was impossible for me to drive like the way the traffic, the way the systems are here, they are much more better than how things are in India. In terms of like in India, there is no Lane system. I’m just giving an example. If there are four lanes, you probably might see like six lanes driving in four lanes, like six cars driving in four lanes, parallelly, right? Whereas here you don’t see that, right? So other thing, because I’m talking about traffic, I you don’t see honking here, unless you make a mistake on a highway right, or some in a road in India, you would not see anyone driving without honking. You will just listen honks all the time when you’re driving. So I think that that was like, if the first thing, if that comes to me, would be that, and the second thing would be, I would say, compared to where I live in Delhi, when I used to live in Delhi, it’s the air quality and the pollution, right? The air quality is so good here in us come when I try to compare back with India, and especially in Delhi, like I’ve I’ve been across multiple states, and every state I visited is so much higher quality of air than compared to what back in Delhi is

Anshul Mathur 19:47
okay? And then final question, I don’t know if you could go back to 2006 and give yourself advice. What would you say? And is there anything you would change from like the first three to four years you were?

David Smith 20:03
To be frank, I would not change anything, because I think the experience I had across even initially, three, four years and coming here, you know, alone, and trying to understand how things work, how everything I learned in the first year, because I was here alone, I think that gave me a lot of knowledge and understanding, okay, how things are handled here in us, which is slightly different than how things are done in India, right? So, it gives you a different perspective. It gives you some challenges when you come here, right? You don’t want to miss those challenges which you face when you came to a new country, right? You want to face them, because they help you as you grow through your career, or, you know, as you grow through your use life, throughout different ages of your life. So I would not change anything. I think I would keep it as it is,

Anshul Mathur 20:54
okay. So I think I think we’re done. Is there anything you want to add or say?

David Smith 21:01
No, I think that that should be it. I think thats okay.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Research:

South Asian immigration to the United States has a long history, starting in the late 19th century when Punjabi Sikh laborers moved to California to work in agriculture. Early South Asian immigrants faced serious legal restrictions, including the 1917 Immigration Act, which limited Asian immigration, and the 1923 Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, which denied Indians U.S. citizenship. Because of these laws, South Asians could not own property or bring their families to the U.S. It was not until the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 that South Asians were allowed to become U.S. citizens, and even then, immigration remained limited until the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. This law changed everything by allowing more South Asians, especially highly educated professionals, to move to the U.S. for work. Many, including my father, came on student or work visas to study or build careers in fields like technology and engineering.

The U.S. economy has also played a big role in shaping the immigrant experience. The Great Recession (2007-2009) was especially difficult for immigrants. The economic downturn caused by the housing market collapse led to mass layoffs and hiring freezes, making it hard for many to keep their jobs. Immigrants on work visas were often the first to be let go, and without a job, many struggled to stay in the U.S. My father, who was working in New Hampshire at the time, lost his job when his company downsized. He had to find new work quickly to support his family and stay in the country, a situation many immigrants faced during the recession.

Moving to a new country also brings challenges beyond work and laws. South Asian families often have to adjust to a new culture while holding onto their traditions. Anne C. Deepak’s research on South Asian families in the U.S. shows that migration can change family relationships and parenting styles. Many South Asian parents have different expectations than their children, leading to cultural misunderstandings. While some families struggle, others find ways to balance both cultures. Deepak’s study explains how parents try to raise their children with traditional values while also preparing them for life in American society.

Today, South Asian immigrants continue to contribute to many industries in the U.S., especially in technology and healthcare. While the U.S. offers better job opportunities, many immigrants still face struggles, such as discrimination and feeling disconnected from their extended families back home. The Pew Research Center found that many Asian immigrants see the U.S. as a land of opportunity, but at the same time, they miss the close-knit communities they had in their home countries. My father’s experience reflects this—he built a career and life here but also worked to maintain a connection with his culture and family in India. Understanding these challenges gives a better picture of what many South Asian immigrants go through when they move to the U.S.

Bibliography:

• Pew Research Center. “Why Asian Immigrants Come to the U.S. and How They View Life Here.” Pew Research Center, 9 Oct. 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/10/09/why-asian-immigrants-come-to-the-u-s-and-how-they-view-life-here/.

• Immigration History. “Immigration History Timeline.” ImmigrationHistory.org, n.d. Accessed 28 Feb. 2025. https://immigrationhistory.org/timeline/.

• SAA-V Texas Education Fund. “The Struggle for Citizenship: South Asians in America.” SAA-V Texas Education Fund, n.d. Accessed 28 Feb. 2025. https://saavetxeducationfund.org/saavetxef-education-blog/the-struggle-for-citizenship-south-asians-in-america/.

• Deepak, Anne C. “Parenting and the Process of Migration: Possibilities Within South Asian Families.” Child Welfare, vol. 84, no. 5, Sept./Oct. 2005, pp. 585-606. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=c2920bf0-abab-440f-ab2c-c9c61e1ebe2a%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWNvb2tpZSxpcCxzaGliJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=18698540&db=ehh

Interview and Transcription Process: This interview was held over Zoom on Sunday, March 9th. I was located in Harrisonburg, VA, while my interviewee was located in Fairfax, VA. After I had recorded it, I converted the Zoom audio file into an MP3 file using an online MP3 converter. Otter.AI was used to transcribe the interview, and I edited it manually afterward.