Asian Americans and the immigrant rights movement

from Geekstew
posted 9/14/07
thanks to QJ Shi

Back in December, Asia Pacific Forum gathered a roundtable of Asian and Asian American immigrant rights activists from organizations such as Families for Freedom, CAAAV, DRUM, and NNIRR to talk about the role and participation of Asian American communities in the immigrant rights struggles of the last year, as well as forecasting the trends and activities of the year to come. The edition is a bit old, and I wish the conversation could have extended longer and deeper, but it's one of the few conversations about this topic I've seen from the perspective of Asian Am progressive organizers.

One point they discuss is the extent to which Asian communities mobilized in support of the marches. This issue has been much-debated in many venues, and goes to the question of how deeply Asian communities feel they've been affected by struggles around immigration. What the roundtable commentators indicate is that while Asian folks were often central in organizing efforts in many cities (in New York groups like CAAAV, DRUM, and YKASEC were major parts of the planning around these mobilizations), Asian communities in general did not come out in the mass numbers and spontaneous turnout that Latino communities did.

In conversations I've had with other activists about this topic, they've noted that certain Asian communities definitely felt more of a stake in this struggle than others, and that those differences were often mediated across class lines. The Asian immigrant groups most actively involved tended to look more like worker's rights organizations than specifically Asian ones, and participated because their communities were deeply affected by economic justice concerns that cut to the heart of immigration reform. They also probably tended to be groups working mainly with Southeast Asian immigrants than East Asians, for example.

In a roundabout way, this issue makes me think of the whole brouhaha about Rosie O'Donnell's "ching chong" comments. Mainly, I wonder why extremely vocal public outrage from Asian American media outlets, bloggers, and organizations is usually reserved for moments when a celebrity is making some kind of lame-ass, stereotypical comment about Asian Americans. I also wonder why that outrage can't be equally as directed toward issues like immigrant rights, which in many ways cuts much deeper to the very survival of our communities here in the United States than the cast-off words of a host of The View.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasons for the outcry, and agree that there was reason to be pissed off. And I absoulutely believe that paying attention to pop culture is important, because of its tremendous capacity to influence how issues are framed and how entire communities are portrayed to a broad audience. I'm also being careful to use the term "Asian American media and organizations" here, since I feel that Asian language media, as well as groups that are more intimately connected to Asian immigrants, speak out about these issues on a regular basis.

But is it too much to ask for Asian American communities, particularly more mainstream groups and English-language outlets, to pay more attention and devote more space to talking about politics outside of "I can't believe that TV star made that bullshit comment about Asian people! Let's boycott their TV show!" Once again, this isn't to say that media activism isn't valuable, or that these groups and media venues have not spent any time talking about immigration reform. I have to say, though, that I often find myself frustrated by the kind of political conversation that occurs in Asian American circles, which seems to centralize media portrayals at the expense of a broader agenda that really takes a hard look at what matters to the most vulnerable sectors of our communities.

Maybe if that happened, one would see Asian Americans turning out in huge numbers for protest events throughout the country, with more middle-class East Asians, even those with citizenship privilege, turning out to support their family members, friends, or fellow community members who are have more that's directly at stake in how these struggles play out.

Anyway, listen to the Asia Pacific Forum piece; it's good stuff. They also touch on the "black/brown" divide regarding immigration issues, which could take up a whole blog post unto itself. Another time, perhaps...