The East Indian family in the United States may be understood in terms of its ethnicity and the international character of its migration. East Indians, like other immigrants, possess certain experiential traits that make them vulnerable to "Anglo-conformity." Indo Americans participate in American society, while retaining ethnic/cultural identity in religion, festivals, food and other personal habits. This ethnicity continues to be maintained in a core of small East Indian communities in major American cities. In the early 1970s, the East Indian population in the United States increased greatly. Prior to that time, economic need had brought some East Indian students to American universities. Many of these students later brought their wives and families to live here. A second type of immigrant are those trained and educated in India, who have come to the U.S. as permanent residents. Despite their level of education, the process of assimilation and acculturation has come as a shock to these Indians, and has resulted in a breakdown of traditional family structure. Wives are isolated, marital relations are strained, intermarriages are becoming more frequent, children are exposed to an education considered less disciplined than that in India, and the family may adopt habits that would be deemed vices in India. The future survival of the traditional East Indian family in America is therefore uncertain. (EB)