Fresh off the boat? Racial microaggressions that target South Asian Canadian students

The present study sought to examine South Asian Canadian undergraduate students' (N = 7) experiences with racial microaggressions at a research-intensive Canadian university. Participants ranged in age from 19-23 years and comprised various ethnic groups (e.g., Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Tamil). Data were collected during a semistructured focus group interview and were analyzed using the consensual qualitative research method (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997). Eight themes emerged. Novel themes included the following: perceived as fresh off the boat, excluded from social life, notion that being Brown is a liability, assumption of ties to terrorism, and compelled to be a cultural expert. Three additional themes were consistent with prior research on Asian Americans (Sue, Bucceri, Lin, Nadal, & Torino, 2007): ascription of intelligence in stereotypical domains, invalidation of interethnic and racial differences, and treated as invisible. Implications for research and campus interventions are discussed.