Professor Anupama Rao comments on the stereotype of South Asians as "good immigrants" on NPR

Gender & the Global Slum project director Anupama Rao spoke with NPR Podcast Code Switch about Caste discrimination in the United States.

Professor Rao, a historian and author of The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India, said for years, many of the so-called "model minority" of South Asians, who have earned the status of being "good immigrants" in the U.S., came from upper-caste families.

At over three thousand years old, caste hierarchy is one of the oldest forms of social stratification in the world: the community you are born into in places like India, Pakistan and Nepal has designated where you can work, who you can marry, and what your reputation is in life.

A new survey by Equality LABS finds that caste discrimination is playing out in the United States as well.

Gender and the Global Slum project looked at the social hazards of urban informality and its disproportionate effects on women. Professor Rao is also co-director of the new CSSD working group Geographies of Injustice.

Code Switch is a race and culture outlet and a weekly podcast from American public radio network NPR. It began in 2013 with a blog as well as contributing stories to NPR radio programs. The Code Switch podcast launched in 2016.