The October issue of Little India magazine features an article on Millbourne, PA, the first and only town in America with an Indian Majority. The article, which happens to be the cover story, not only tells the tale of Millbourne in numbers and statistics, but also in short personal vignettes that highlight individual citizens.

A brief summary:

Millborne is a small Pennsylvania town with a population of fewer than 1,000 people. Of those people, about 63% are Indians who moved to the area, mostly because gurudwara there that started in 1990. The Indian population began rising then, and saw another huge spike post 9/11. It has been rising ever since.

The second largest group in the area is whites (27%) and then African Americans (17%). The rest are made up of a variety of east Asians and Pacific Islanders. The Indians there are living the typical American Immigrant story, searching for a better life and a piece of land to call their own. They work mostly blue collar jobs, working a trade, driving a cab, operating machines etc. but hope for a better future for their children, who study diligently and move to greener pastures when they can. Meanwhile, more immigrants move in to start fresh. Citizens also cited a sense of community and a peaceful environment for moving to the small town.

“I came on the strength of this friend who is like a brother to me. Seeing me, others came,” remembers Narinder Singh. “When others asked for recommendations, I would tell them this is a peaceful area. Come! It’s a safe area, the police are well equipped and there’s law and order. Jobs are available in the surrounding area. Crime rate is microscopic. Seeing this, we being social animals, we followed each other, knowing that if we needed support, we would have our people close by. Looking at each other, we kept coming.”

The culture of Millbourne is not exactly Desi, though. It is revealed part way through the article that the Indian community in Millbourne is actually a Sikh community. The article does not speculate, but it’s possible that this explains a few of the disparities between Millbourne and other Indian communities in the U.S. such as the jobs held by the citizens, the income gap ($36,000 vs. $63,669 avg.), and the population spike after 9/11/2001.

Read the whole article here.

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