Asian Women Article

Of Stereotypes and Stark Realities

By Helen Zia

http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/images/03_win_asian.jpgAsian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy Lora Jo Foo

A widely held myth holds that Asian American women are part of a "model minority" and therefore have few or no social and economic needs or concerns. A new report deflates that idea with an impressive array of new data and research, thorough analysis and thoughtful recommendations.

Lora Jo Foo, author of Asian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy, refutes the notion that Asian Americans are all the same. Numbering 11.4 million, they include 40 distinct nationalities and ethnic groups ranging from the more numerous Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese and Filipino to the less well-known Hmong, Lao, Sri Lankan and Indonesian. A substantial majority reside in just 10 states. Foo points out that Asian Americans are more likely than whites to have a college degree, but they are also more likely to have less than a ninth-grade education. One-third of Asian American families earn more than $75,000 per year, one-fifth earn less than $25,000 per year, and some subgroups have poverty rates as high as 63 percent--far above the overall Asian American poverty rate of 10.7 percent.

Using meticulous research from survey data and scores of interviews, Foo breaks new ground by identifying the groups that are most at risk and least considered. The book's preface notes that although Asian Americans represent 4 percent of the U.S. population only 0.2 percent of U.S. foundations' funds have gone to organizations specifically addressing Asian American and Pacific Islander concerns. The result is that they have a much weaker national infrastructure and smaller budgets than those of other U.S. minority organizations.

The report analyzes the impact of welfare reform on Asian immigrant women and their families and shows how budget cuts have placed a great burden on them. Yet few policy discussions on poverty include Asian Americans. Foo says that many Asian women have been denied public benefits because they cannot speak English and government agencies failed to provide interpreters or translate documents. Others were confused about eligibility or worried they would be reported to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. A large number of Asian women are pushed into dead-end workfare jobs where they learn no skills and are denied the option of English-language training. The result has been an increase in hunger and illness among Asian immigrant women and their families.

The study also details the trafficking and abuse of about 30,000 women each year who are brought to the United States from the most impoverished countries of Asia. They are forced into prostitution, bonded sweatshop labor or domestic servitude. Criminal groups lure women with false promises of jobs, and wealthy émigrés, diplomats and international bureaucrats bring Asian women to America to work as their domestic help, often under deplorable conditions. In addition, private agencies, brokers and "penpal" services bring thousands of women, mostly Filipinas, to the United States as mail-order brides. Many end up in battered women's shelters; there have been several high-profile cases of such brides being killed by their husbands.

Other chapters examine health and reproductive issues, the prevalence of domestic violence, sexual assault and diseases like Hepatitis B and cervical cancer among Vietnamese American women and suicides of Chinese American women at rates that far exceed any other U.S. racial or ethnic group. The report also takes a close look at some of the least visible groups of Asian Americans: lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, Hmongs and native Hawaiians. Foo also cites models of social change, as with a case study of Chinese immigrant home-care aides who were key to winning Service Employees International Union representation for 74,000 fellow workers.

Asian American Women sets the benchmark for what is known--and what needs to be known--about women in these diverse communities.

Asian American Women not only discusses these issues, but also offers a guide to advocacy and a call to action. Each chapter identifies the key nongovernmental organizations involved in serving the groups and assesses the needs of the people involved. The recommendations for action at the end of each chapter range from the specific (for example, develop language-appropriate services and provide training to law enforcement personnel) to the broad (for example, foster global networks and coalitions and educate local, state and federal governments and ethnic communities). One consistent theme throughout the study is the need for additional research on the problems and concerns of specific Asian American and Pacific Islander groups.

Asian American Women sets the benchmark for what is known--and what needs to be known--about women in these diverse communities. By giving voice to them the book makes an important contribution to efforts to ensure a broader framework of social justice and a stronger democracy.

For a copy of the book, which was funded by the Ford Foundation's Human Rights unit, e-mail the Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy at aapip@aapip.org or download it at www.aapip.org/jag.html <http://www.aapip.org/jag.html> . A.A.P.I.P. is conducting a book tour to the 10 states with the largest number of Asian Americans: California, New York, Hawaii, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Virginia and Massachusetts. For more information about the events, which will be hosted by local advocacy groups, contact A.A.P.I.P.

Helen Zia's latest book, Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, is published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.