In the East Bay (east of Silicon Valley) is a small city named Fremont. Fremont has about 100,000 residents. It also has 100 languages.

That's diversity.

This isn't exactly a fair comparison.

The Indian nationals who are in this country, specifically those in Silicon Valley, hardly represent an accurate cross-section of Indian society. Yes, India is diverse and all, and yes Indians value education. But the immigrants to America from other places (Mexico, Indonesia, Africa, etc.) are usually here on a wing and a prayer with little education, a lot of hard work, and are working their fingers to the bone in some miserable, menial capacity, hoping for the best for their kids.

The Indians, however, especially in Silicon Valley, come in with advanced degrees, H1B visas, and sponsorship from corporations. Everyone in India is not like this. The Indian equivalent of the menial-labor, wing-and-prayer demographic is still in India, scrabbling away. Because of a combination of economic factors and a lack of trained engineers, the US tech economy has siphoned off the best and brightest from India. That hardly makes Indians into de-facto successes because of their multicultural upbringing. The same would happen if the US siphoned off the highest educated college graduates from any country.

India has a child malnutrition rate of 48% and that is higher than the rate in Sub-saharan Africa.

Perhaps it is the punishing, unequal, and hierarchical aspects of India that prepare its citizens for American capitalism.

I think it's sad how Americans fawn over India and China. We worship a winner. No wonder our democratic and other values are on the wane.

What you're saying is that sane immigration laws actually work.

and that is these people were brought in for their skills ... they were hand picked for their expertise.

I could assemble a vibrant population of immigrants if I could pick and choose the best of the world ...

. . . its also the internal diversity of the predominant religion, Hinduism, with its plethora of beliefs, that is distinctly suited for modern-day business and technology. Monotheistic centralized religions tend to max out at a certain technological level, and it is surprisingly consistent how technological progress over the last 500 years has tracked with how far a society has been able to move beyond the old hierarchal religion. The Muslim world entered amber 500 years ago; America, by breaking the shackles of Church on State, has broken away from the rest of the world; and Catholic Europe has followed the lead of their Protestant apostates in shunning the Pope in favor of Progress. It is also no coincidence that America is trying to re-establish Church and State just as its empire tips into decline. Russia, sadly, is an also-ran, seemingly burdened by an enduring trust in dictatorship, in which the Orthodox Church is a willing partner. The Japanese and Chinese don't have centralized religions so much as a social over-deference to central authority, which will define their max-out points. In the long run (100+ years) my money's on India, if they can walk the line between glorious diversity and outright chaos.

Andrew says: There are 101,551 Indian immigrants living in the county, as compared to 155,597 Chinese, 382,777 Mexicans and 110,869 Vietnamese. That's 750,794 people out of a total of 1,731,281 residents."

Is that 101,551 Indian immigrants or 101,551 Americans who identified themselves as being Indian heritage? As far as I know, census data does not include immigration status so how did you figure these Indians (and others) are immigrants? Especially so for the Mexicans and Chinese... both groups have more than 100 years of history in Santa Clara County.

The Indian workers were cherrypicked to come to our area. They went to University, are generally upper middle class, and were recruited by top flight employers. The Mexicans can take a bus or walk to get into the U.S. Many Indochinese fled their home country because of regime change. I don't know the deal with the Chinese, except that the only immigrant Chinese I know are either H1B people like the Indians or they are very elderly and came over (again) due to regime change or poverty. Another very important thing to add is that the British influence over all those years means that many educated Indians speak understandable English.

So, it is pretty much a no-brainer why the Indians are doing so well here.

I appreciate the diversity,because the side-effect of their presence is that there are really great restaurants and shops to support those populations. I can walk to shops that sell produce, spices, and gee-gaws for several different cultures. Saves a lot of money on airfare and I don't have to give up the familiarity of my own house and friends to have a (admittedly limited) exotic shopping experience.