Language

Asian Americans and NHPI face language barriers that impact their ability to access critical services, like health care and police protection. According to data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, approximately 28% to 35% of Asian Americans in the metropolitan areas featured in this report are limited English proficient (LEP) and experience some difficulty communicating in English. The need for language assistance will only continue to grow as the numbers of LEP Asian Americans and NHPI in the region increase.

• Implement effective policies addressing the linguistic and cultural barriers Asian Americans and NHPI face in accessing social services, including health care, workforce development programs, after-school programs, and programs for seniors. This includes training for all staff that serve LEP individuals, adequate funding to support the hiring of bilingual staff and translation of materials, and oversight to ensure high-quality interpretation and translation, as well as active enforcement of Title VI and Executive Order 13166.
• Increase government support of public-private partnerships that work to address the demand for adult English language learning programs.
• Continue to utilize outreach strategies for sharing information with hard-to-reach populations, including LEP
  communities, such as television, radio, ethnic/community newspapers, flyers, and direct outreach, and not rely  only on online information dissemination, which does not reach these groups.

Education

Asian Americans and NHPI are not “model minorities” in  the educational arena. While some are well educated, many have not completed high school. According to data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, Asian Americans and NHPI are consistently less likely than Whites to hold a high school degree. Among Asian American ethnic groups, Southeast Asians are as likely as Latinos and African Americans to have finished high school.

• •Address educational disparities in K–12 programs by investing in bilingual and multicultural curricula that cover local history and embrace Asian and NHPI languages and cultures.
• Provide outreach and education to Asian American and NHPI parents about special education, including how to recognize the need, and support parents in understanding and navigating this system
• Adopt and enforce antidiscrimination policies and procedures, and train school staff and students on these policies. Monitor incidents of bullying, harassment, and violence, and require school districts to publicly report hate crimes, including the type of crime and the race, ethnicity, and language of the parties involved.
• Fund community-based programs that address identity challenges experienced by young people, and increase culturally competent and linguistically accessible after-school programs to support expanded learning and social development.
• Protect and promote affirmative action programs, particularly for underrepresented groups such as Southeast Asians and NHPI. Increase funding for community colleges and vocational training to supportaccess to higher education for immigrant youth.

Income and Employment

Like others in the region, Asian Americans and NHPI have been impacted by the recent economic crisis. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the number of unemployed Asian Americans has increased dramatically  in states throughout the South, while data from the Census Bureau show corresponding increases in the number of Asian Americans living in poverty. Some Asian American ethnic groups have poverty rates comparable to those of Latinos and African Americans.

• •Strengthen and expand access to culturally and linguistically accessible safety net programs such as public assistance and unemployment benefits, particularly since so many in our community have been hard-hit and are still recovering from the recession.
• Provide greater resources to community groups that offer job training to help families and individuals transition to self-sufficiency.
• Enforce labor laws and collective bargaining rights, including antidiscrimination provisions and protections against retaliation for workers who assert their rights. Enforcement must extend to workers regardless of immigration status and ensure that all workers are protected.
• Remove barriers to advancement in the workplace by implementing equal opportunity and cultural sensitivity training programs and by drawing on the support of Asian American– and NHPI-serving organizations to strengthen such programs and to engage in outreach to expand the pool of candidates from our communities.
• Include Asian Americans and NHPI in equal-opportunity programs based on their underrepresentation in critical sectors. Asian Americans and NHPI face ongoing discrimination and should be included in minority contracting programs, allowing them to compete for government contracts and jobs on an equal footing.