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Tamil Americans (தமிழ் அமெரிக்கர்) are Americans who are of Tamil ethnic origins, mostly from India and Sri Lanka and other diasporic centers such as Canada and the United Kingdom.
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Demographics
In the second half of the 20th century, Tamils from India migrated as skilled professionals to the United States, Canada, Europe, and Southeast Asia. The Tamil American population enumerates over 130,000 individuals, and the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America functions as an umbrella organization for the growing community as such.
Central New Jersey is home to the largest population concentration of Tamils. New Jersey houses its own Tamil Sangam. Sizeable populations of Indian American Tamils have also settled in New York City and the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, as well as on the West Coast in Silicon Valley, where there are Tamil associations such as the Bay Area Tamil Manram. The New York City and Los Angeles metropolitan areas are home to the largest concentrations of Tamil-speaking Sri Lankan Americans, with New York City's Staten Island alone estimated to be home to more than 5,000 Sri Lankan Americans, one of the largest Sri Lankan populations outside Sri Lanka itself, and a significant proportion of whom speak Tamil.
Language
The Tamil community in the United States is largely bilingual. Tamil is taught in weekly classes in many Hindu temples and by associations such as the American Tamil Academy in South Brunswick, Tamil Jersey School in Jersey City, New Jersey, The written form of the language is highly formal, and quite distinct from the vernacular that people actually speak. A few universities, such as the University of Chicago and the University of California Berkeley, have graduate programs in the language.
Religion
The Tamil community is largely connected to the Hindu community, along with other groups from South India. In most Hindu temples in the United States, the prayers are in Sanskrit. However, in North Brunswick, New Jersey, the "Tamil Temple" ("Thamil Ammai Thirukkoyl") conducts all the prayers and Tamil. The Hindu Temple in Houston, Texas, is dedicated to Meenakshi, a Tamil manifestation of the goddess Parvati. There is an active Christian minority as well.
2009 Tamil diaspora protests
Tamil Americans participated in the worldwide Tamil diaspora protests in 2009, where they urged national and world leaders and organizations to take action toward bringing a unanimous cease fire to the Sri Lankan Civil War. Protests occurred in the United States, concurrently with other protests in other parts of the world. They were organized by local Tamil American groups, with the help of Tamil Canadians. Major protests occurred on several occasions in Washington, D.C. near the White House, as well as smaller scale protests in New York City.