Large-scale international immigration has transformed the political contours of Western societies over the last few decades. The political mobilization of ethnic groups has prompted questions about nationhood, citizenship, and secularism, as well as what it means to institutionalize pluralism. Claiming Citizenship looks at Indian Americans, currently the second-largest group of immigrants in the United States, and a group that has seen significant representation in the three most recent presidential administrations. Prema Kurien asks how Indian Americans have become a rising political force given that they have not followed the traditional, recommended model of political influence. She examines the dialectical process through which immigrants conform to the structures and cultures of the society to which they have immigrated, but also work to transform their adopted homelands to accommodate their unique needs.

Dr. Prema Kurien is Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University. She is a scholar of international migration, race, ethnicity, and religion. She adopts a transnational approach in her work and has also done research in India, to show how a variety of global factors, including developments in the country of origin, play a profound role in shaping community structures, cultures, and activism profiles of immigrants and even the second generation. Her work has been recognized with two career awards, three book awards, and three article awards, and she has received postdoctoral fellowships and grants from a wide variety of sources.