Culture shock, role reversal, and adapting to a new society are major challenges for immigrants to meet. For older immigrants, a move to a Western society with a remarkably different sociocultural milieu can be overwhelming and stressful. Perhaps because of the media stereotypes of Asians as the "model minority," the fact that most have immigrated recently, and the assumption that Asian Americans take care of their own, scant attention has been paid to the issues of older Asian immigrants.

Acknowledging the diversity among older Asian Indian immigrants to the United States, this book evaluates their life satisfaction. This study conducted with 50 elderly Asian Indian immigrants finds that gender differences in levels of life satisfaction were significant, and that self-assessed health is the strongest predictor of life satisfaction. Other contributors to life satisfaction included reasons for coming to the United States, living arrangement, and social networks. The historical and sociocultural framework for aging in India is presented as a contextualizing exercise for the study of older Asian Indians in the United States. This study addresses the issues of cultural barriers, intergenerational relations, and filial piety, and highlights the implications for gerontological practice.

(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 1990; revised with new preface)