REPORT: As AAPI numbers rise, the needs, disparities and inequalities also increase

By Louis Chan
Reprinted from AsAm News

ASIAN/AMERICANS will be more multiracial, more American-born and greater in numbers in 2040, according to volume 1 of the AAPI Nexus Journal released Tuesday (May 24) and published by UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press.

The community is expected to remain the fastest growing population in the country, increasing by 74 percent over the next 25 years. Pacific Islanders will increase by 52 percent compared to an 18 percent growth rate for the overall population.

Perhaps the most surprising projection, by 2040 its predicted half of Asian/Americans will be U.S.-born. Currently immigrants make up a large majority of AAPIs. Asian/Americans are also expected to get older with 178 percent increase in Asian/American elderly in 2040 and a 205 percent increase among Pacific Islanders.The overall elderly population in the United States is expected to increase only 72 percent.

"More than ever, it is important to include AAPIs in the development of a more inclusive, fair, and comprehensive narrative about racial ... inequality," say the editors.

RELATED: Impact and influence of AAPI community is expanding

Unfortunately, with this rising population may come a rise in poverty and inequality.

Currently the poverty rate for AAPI elderly is twice the rate of non-Hispanic Whites and 1.5 times as high as the total population.

“Poor AAPI elderly tend to be immigrants with minimal retirement benefits,” said Paul Ong of UCLA. “There are also pockets of very high poverty among South Asian and PI Children. If the current poverty rate continues, then the numbers of AAPIs in poverty will grow to an estimated 2.2 million in 2015 to 3.7 million in 2040.”

Overall in 2040 one out of ten people in the United States will be Asian/American Pacific Islander. One out of six Asian/Americans will be multiracial and three out of 10 Asian Americans in Kindergarten through 12th grade will be multiracial.

With these increased numbers will be more political power.

“The number of Asian/American voters will double by 2040 and the number of PI voters will also grow, which will enable AAPIs to be a sought-after and decisive vote as well as a margin of victory in an ever increasing number of elections,” said Christine Chen of APIAVote.

RELATED: AAPI population will surpass African/Americans by mid-century

Also expected is more political representation from AAPIs.

“There is an opportunity for significant AAPI presence and leadership from the C-Suite in the private sector, to all levels of government, from local, state, federal, and even the White House,” said AAPI Nexus Journal guest editor Floyd Mori, President of the Asian and Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. “We need to cultivate a leadership pipeline and resources that will shore up capacity and infrastructure to attain, sustain, and advance what our communities define as the AAPI dream.”

The first collection of essays in Volume 1 focused on health, aging, environmental justice, economic justice, education, labor , immigration and political empowerment.

Volume 2, to be released later this year will focus on Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders , women, LGBTQI, civil rights, media, business, philanthropy and cultural preservation.

To purchase or subscribe to the part one of the Journal, click here.
View the table of contents.

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50th ANNIVERSARY: Asian/American's benefit from the Voting Rights Act

President Lyndon B. Jonson shakes Martin Luther King Jr.'s hand after signing the Voting Rights Act, August 6, 1965. (Yoichi R. Okamoto/LBJ Library)

AUGUST 6, 1965 marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. The watershed legislation came a year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, two remarkable pieces of law that basically corrected our country's path towards the America-That-Ought-To-Be.

In commeration of the Voting Rights Act, (VRA) anniversary, Asian Americans Advancing Justice released a report "50 Years of the Voting Rights Act: An Asian American Perspective." The report details how the historic law has had on Asian/Americans' ability to access the ballot. 

“Voting rights and accessing the ballot is a critical concern for the Asian/American community. But without the VRA, many Asian Americans wouldn’t be able to vote,” said Mee Moua, president and executive director of Advancing Justice | AAJC. 

Many new immigrants believe that the rights that we, as minorities in America, enjoy today have always been there. They don't know the history behind the law and the struggle it took to get it codified.

The report dispels what many new Americans mistakenly believe - that the Voting Rights Act was passed to give only African/Americans the right to vote and doesn't apply to Asian/Americans. 

“Most Asians weren’t able to naturalize and become U.S. citizens until 1952, meaning they couldn’t vote. Since then, Asian Americans have often been questioned about their citizenship as an added hurdle to accessing the ballot box," said Moua. "In addition, almost half of Asian American adults are limited English proficient, and without language assistance at the polls, would be unable to cast their ballot.”

Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the country and are naturalizing and registering to vote – expecting to make up 10 percent of the electorate by 2044. With this increase in population, comes the opportunity to shape future elections and the future direction of the country. The VRA was intended to ensure that all Americans are able to freely and equally participate in our democracy without discrimination.

Unfortunately, with the rapid growth and higher visibility of the Asian American population, come the fear-mongerers and far-right, status-quo protectors who are passing new restrictions to stem the influence of Asian American voters.

Yet, the VRA is currently under fire following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby v. Holder that effectively gutted the Act’s powerful pre-clearance regime. 

Tactics to restrict voting rights might have changed from 50 years ago – there are no longer literacy tests or oaths of allegiance. Rather, the tactics are in more sophisticated and institutionalized forms such as laws limiting early voting, eliminating same-day and automatic registration, and requiring qualified identification. Sadly, these modern-day tactics still affect the same groups of Americans – racial, ethnic and language minorities – that the Voting Rights Act set out to protect in 1965.

“What’s most concerning is that states in which we are seeing the most rapidly growing Asian American population are also passing the most harmful attacks on voting in state legislatures,” said Terry Ao Minnis, director of census and voting for Advancing Justice | AAJC and author of the report. 

“For example, immediately after the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision, North Carolina, which has the third-fastest growing Asian American population in the country, passed a multitude of strict voting restrictions."

Just a few examples of suppression of Asian/American votes (there are more in the report):

• When an Alabama-born Vietnamese/American ran for Bayou La Batre city council in Alabama, many Asian/Americans were spurred to register to vote. When they arrived at the polls in the primary, they were challenged and rejected because of their limited ability to speak English correctly. A Department of Justice investigation found the challenges to be racially violated. This caused the DOJ to oversee the general election during which the spurious challenges were not allowed. The Asian candidate won.

• In New York there were cases where Asian/American voters were asked to present their naturalization papers.

• In Minnesota, Hmong/Americans were asked for proof of ID when white voters were not asked for identification papers.

So you see, dear reader, as long as we are perceived as "foreigners" because of the color of our skin, our eyes or accent we will always need legislation like the Voting Rights Act to protect our ballot: our say in the future of our community, our preference of candidates and our eligibility to run for office.

As long as the powers that exist in this country continue to hold on to their status and influence by using, by-any-means-necessary, any strategy to restrict our vote - anybody's  vote - it is clear that we have not yet achieved the America-That-Ought-To-Be.

On this 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, write your congressional representative, to defend the right to vote, restore the VRA and preserve the ability of all Americans to participate in our democracy. (See video below of Christine Chen of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote interviewed by Comcast.)

The AAAJ report concludes, "Voting discrimination and suppression are still very real and very current. Even the Chief Justice John Roberts notes that 'voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that.'”

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