Aspects of the Asian American Experience

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statistics and demographic comparisons suggest a few general patterns. First, it is clear that East and Indian Asians outperform all other Asian ethnic groups in most measures of socioeconomic achievement. Second, traditionally disadvantaged groups of color such as Blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos still seem to lag behind in several socioeconomic measures. These groups of color are joined by Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians and to a lesser extent, Vietnamese, all of whose relatively low achievement rates are undoubtedly due to their refugee status. Finally, these results clearly show that contrary to some popular misconceptions and stereotypes about Asian Americas being the “model minority,” there can be very large and significant socioeconomic differences among Asian American ethnic groups. Several Asian groups are doing well, even outperforming Whites. On the other hand, a few Asian groups may exhibit a few very positive achievements but on the whole, do not possess the same attainment levels of other Asian groups and Whites. Overall, groups like Cambodians and Laotians are faring much worse than their Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian counterparts in terms of socioeconomic and educational status but are equal in terms of political status (Le, .

Two Advocacy Efforts

Two advocacy efforts social workers could undertake to promote and protect Asian Americans are the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice center (AAJC). Asian Americans have always been disenfranchised by discriminatory laws that denied citizenship to Asian immigrants and rendered them ineligible to vote all because of their refugee or immigrant statuses. Social workers together with AALDEF, could blend community education and election reform advocacy to community-based organizations in order to promote civic participation among Asian Americans, immigrants and new citizens, across the country. As for the AAJC, social workers could promote a fair and equitable society for all minority groups by working for civil and human rights, empowering Asian Americans and other suffering communities to make a difference. Asian Immigrant families over the years have tried to socialize their children to cope up with the many discriminatory challenges they face while at the same time retaining the sense of cultural integrity as well as their ethnic identity (Rosenberger). As social workers, this goal can be met while still promoting change and social equality. Community awareness is not an option but a must for the society to overcome this challenge. People need to understand the consequences of acts of discriminations. Social workers should ensure awareness for not just Asian Americans but for all peoples.

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