Report: Southern Suburb Torn Apart by Rapid Rise in Immigration

The wealthy suburbs of northern Dallas, Texas, have become an unlikely backdrop for growing racial tension amid a rapid rise in immigration from South Asia.

Cities such as Frisco, Plano and Irving are seeing huge population growth due to a booming job market in the Dallas-Fort Worth area known as ‘Silicon Prairie,’ where there has been a huge influx of tech, finance and corporate giants in recent years.

The population spikes are being fueled by a dramatic rise in high-paid foreign workers from India, many arriving on H-1B visas.

Frisco – widely regarded as the most coveted suburb in the area – has seen the most dramatic demographic shift. Median house prices are just over the $700,000 mark, which is around double the nationwide average.

Asian residents now make up roughly a third (33 percent) of the population, with Indians representing a major share. That’s up from around three percent in 2000 and ten percent in 2010.

Anger over the changing demographics has transformed otherwise routine city council meetings in Frisco into cultural battlegrounds in recent weeks.

Tensions have boiled over as residents angrily air grievances over housing competition, pressure on schools and anxiety about communities changing at breakneck speed.

In a four-hour tongue lashing that went until one o’clock in the morning, hundreds of residents who spoke at this week’s Frisco’s city council meeting pleaded with elected officials – some going as far as to threaten them – to stop the construction of two new Indian religious temples.

‘What about our culture as Texans? What about our culture as Friscoans?’ resident Michael Wu said at Tuesday’s meeting. ‘Asking us as Texans to accept another temple, especially when a group has not assimilated to us, is a bridge too far. This is why we are having such a strong reaction.’

{snip}

Families told the Daily Mail that in recent years, there have been growing examples of young, single Indian bachelors packing into large suburban homes – sometimes living eight to a house – altering the character of quiet residential streets.

{snip}

He insisted his unease has less to do with nationality and more to do with the sudden surge of young men in neighborhoods designed for families with children.

{snip}

Other Plano residents expressed anxiety about more traditionally American businesses being replaced by Asian grocers, restaurants, stores and cultural centers.

Plano’s strip malls are now populated with Patel Brothers, an Indian supermarket chain.

{snip}

In Frisco, locals highlighted that a popular Tex-Mex restaurant had recently closed down has now been replaced by a Desi vegetarian eatery.

Other complaints center around Indian religious temples, such as the Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple in Frisco, massive temple that draws thousands daily and even more during religious holidays like Diwali.

Neighbors have complained about traffic congestion during major events and the impact of large-scale celebrations on otherwise quiet residential streets.

Two additional Indian temples are under construction. While many non-Indian Frisco taxpayers oppose them, Frisco’s mayor has publicly stated that permits from the houses of worship were approved years ago, and the city council has no legal reason to stop their building from moving ahead.

{snip}

One white Texan told the Daily Mail he works at a Fortune 500 company in Plano and says 80 percent of his office colleagues are Indian, doing the kind of jobs anyone with an IT background could do.

‘I’m essentially a minority almost everywhere I go in Collin County,’ he huffed.

{snip}