I am 'E.I." myself and found this thread quite interesting. So many different opinions and perceptions.
As far as EI sp's are concerned, as someone else pointed out, many of them are from that general geographical area of south Asia e.g. India, Sri Lanka, Bangldesh, Pakistan. Although I don't think there are any sp's of Pak descent. Don't forget that many of the SPs' that advertise as E.Ind. are also from Fiji, which has a large population of Indian diaspora. Remember, many or even most non-Indian people can not tell the difference between various ethnicities from that region. I can go on and on about the features that help me tell them apart, but that topic for another day. It is similar for me. I can not tell the difference between girls from mainland China and Hong Kong (unless I hear them speak). Having lived here for most of my life, I can now tell apart girls of the Filipina, Vietnamese or Thai origin. I still get somewhat mixed up between Japanese and Korean girls unless I hear them have a long conversation. But I digress. ..
To me personally, E.I. is someone who is born in India or who is first, second or third generation "Indo Canadian". From purely that perspective, I found only two girls who fit that category. One who called herself 'Priya' in those days, and she used to change names on weekly basis. Yea, the one who used to work out of motels in Surrey area. She was clearly of E.I., and more specifically, Punjabi descent. There is one more who I think is of purely Punjabi descent. But out of respect, I am not going to say who it is.
There are some SPs' whose ethnicity is rooted in India or in south Asia. There are some who are from Fiji as well, which has a big number of people who migrated from India centuries ago. There is another one of Indian descent. She came to Canada via East Africa.
Regarding why you don't see many first or second generation Indian girls working, my opinion is that firstly, it is a big taboo. Prostitution is illegal in that part of the world. It is looked down upon by the society. Also, Indian community is very close knit. Most of the Indian people you see around here are from Punjab, which is not really a large state. If anyone of those stopped another random person on the street and started to talk, they will end up finding some way of connecting via their backgrounds. I could talk to pretty much any random person of my descent and find a place, person or thing that we commonly know and a connection is made. Subject to the condition that both sides are willing to open up.
So to sum it up, the girls are afraid of running into someone they know because it would mean that word will spread around very quickly and the society in general and girl's family in particular will disown her.
Regarding students not engaging in this profession, since south Asian community is very conservative, these female students are not as independent thinking as a female has to be in order to be in this profession. Also being of shy nature, the first generation female students who come here just don't have the skills that are required to become a good SP. Sexuality is a very hush hush in this culture. Take oral pleasure, BJ in particular, for example, it is considered disgusting (by female only of course).
Put it all together and you have a misproportion of Indian SP's vs Indian population in Canada. The smaller the city, this proportion will be even lower. As someone pointed out earlier, there are almost no SP of Indian descent in WPG. I have been told that Toronto has many more SP's of Indian descent. I use the word descent, because they could be from the Caribbean and Toronto has a large population who came from West Indies. During British rule, many Indians were taken to British colonies and hence you find people of Indian descent all over the world. Again, a friend of mine told me that there is a fairly large number of south Asian girls working in London, which of course is one of the largest cities in the world.
This is how I see it, being of E. Indian, Indian or Indo Canadian descent, whatever you prefer. To me these are just words.
As far as the term 'East Indian' is concerned, my opinion is that this term came into use to make a distinction between aboriginal Indians and Indians from India. I don't think these words are disrespectful, it is the person who uses them.
That is just my opinion. Cheers!
As far as me seeing Indian SP's is concerned, I am still to be with one who advertises AND is in fact of strictly and purely Indian descent. Someone suggested Nitya Narula, but it didn't work out for me. So the quest is still on!!!
T8E