Last week California Rep. Mike Honda gave a great speech about immigration that touched on many key issues. He started by talking about the inherent prejudice that lies in the background of so many discussions about immigration. He said:
“When it comes to the issue of immigration, what quickly comes to American minds? . . . (T)he likely response: Hispanics. . . . (I)mmigration realities are much more diverse. Reform will affect millions who emigrated from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, who come with a shared struggle, shared dreams and shared abilities to contribute to this country. . . . I know firsthand the frustration felt by API immigrants. Our stake in the immigration debate is substantial, our concerns unique, the reasons many.”
He pointed out the irony of the model minority myth, which works against low-income, less-educated Asians. He said that, although Asian nations are the
“top recipients of America’s H-1B foreign worker visa and the accompanying H-4 visa, both of which are necessary for our technology workforce. . . .[Yet] in my Silicon Valley, which maintains the highest percentage of APIs of any congressional district, API ethnic subgroups struggle to graduate 50 percent of their young males from high school.”
Maybe most important, he talked about how comprehensive immigration reform could help the whole country, not just by helping it fulfill its promise of welcoming the world’s immigrants “yearning to breathe free,” but also, he said, by adding $1.5 trillion to the U.S. GDP in just the next decade. Finally, a call for solidarity: “For comprehensive immigration reform to be successful it must be inclusive, for we are in it together — no matter from which country we hail.”
[Here’s a link to the study that produced the $1.5 trillion estimate.]
U.S. Anti-Hepatitis Efforts Failing
Last month the Institute of Medicine (part of the National Academy of Sciences) announced results of its study on Hepatitis B & C. These contagious diseases are especially common among Koreans and some other Asian groups and can lead to early death from liver cancer or other liver problems. But the report says viral hepatitis is not widely recognized as a serious public health problem, and as a result, too little is spent on its prevention and control. In a nutshell, the current approach to chronic Hep B and C prevention and control “is not working.” The IOM recommends increased knowledge and awareness about chronic viral hepatitis among health care and social service providers and the public, improved surveillance, and better integration of viral hepatitis services. Read the report online free here. Read more about hepatitis from the CDC here.
A Positive Approach to Immigration Issues
Steve Roberts’s new book, From Every End of This Earth:13 Families and the New Lives They Made in America, tells the story of 13 immigrant American families. Each family had different experiences and originated in different country/tries, including Vietnam, China/Hong Kong, India, and Burma. But they all had the same goal of reaching America and a better life. The book’s title comes from President Obama’s Inaugural Address.
The 13 stories are a wonderful example of how to tell the immigrant story. We need to take back the debate from people who only want to talk about “illegal immigrants” and put immigration in a negative light. There are lots of ways to put a more positive—even inspiring—spin on immigration through modest community projects that anyone can start. Here a few ideas:
- Use the Roberts book to start discussions in local book clubs, or at the public library. Maybe your library would be interested in using this book for a “One Book, One Community” program. How-to’s here.
- The library could collect and promote books, videos, DVDs and other materials—including kids’ books—that relate immigrant stories.
- Geography, history, or other social science teachers could start children on a genealogy project, which would teach them about the countries they came from, whether that was last century or last month.
- Teens (and even adults) could write their own—or their great-grandparents’—family stories, like Roberts did, and compile them into a history of local area residents. A local university history center or historical society might be interested in leading such a project. Here’s a national directory of these organizations.
- Community arts and/or food festivals are always popular. They can involve people from many countries—not just Asian ones—in order to demonstrate that “we’re all immigrants.”
Good luck! And write back here to tell us about your experiences.
Asian American Health 