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Partnership, Witness, Advocacy Asian American Christians in the 21st CenturyHyepin C. Im, KCCDJerry Z. Park, Baylor University 18 Million and Rising Who are Asian Americans?Smaller populationFaster growing Most ethnically diverse racial population

Asian American is a US term used to lump together more than 18 million people from 30 different nationalities, all originating from the continent of Asia. In fact, unlike Latino Americans, there is not one ethnic group that dominates Asian America. Six groups in particular make up more than 85 percent of Asian America: Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese. Keep these groups in mind as we review some of the slides ahead. So why is the term Asian American still used despite the fact that were so diverse culturally? Its because the term is a way to make equivalences with other racially-designated groups such as White, Hispanic, African American, and Native American. But we all know that our countries of origin or ancestry do not necessarily share a lot in common; political conflicts, economic competition fuel different degrees of animosity, prejudice and discrimination. But apparently we all like K-Pop, go figure. Outside of Asian America, however, these differences wash away. American society melds Asian ethnic groups as if they had one simple coherent story line that fits the narrative of hard-working individualism. From the 1960s onward, Asian Americans have been lauded as a model minority: a group made up of hard-working, non-complaining, low-resourced individuals and families who, by their own sheer effort and creative know-how, managed to achieve some of the highest educational attainment levels and household incomes. For decades, sociologists have been saying not so fast. Its not that simple. As it turns out, a large percentage of Asian immigrants came to the US with a college degree or entered the US to get an advanced education. In fact, a lot of Asian American households contain multiple adults with college educations. This level of achievement is a result of hard work, but its also what sociologists call selection bias. Selection bias means that groups that appear ahead of the curve get that way because of certain advantages they had from the start. To say that Asian Americans are a model minority assumes that other minorities had the exact same advantages and social conditions, and Asian Americans just happened to come out on top. We know that this is not the case.We also know that Asian American ethnic groups dont have the same immigration story either. In fact while many Asian Americans have arrived in the US with a lot of resources, many others also arrived with fewer resources. These are the uncles and aunties, cousins, and grandparents who entered the US through other visa categories. Some groups arrived in larger numbers through refugee status and political asylum.

2Witness: Asian Immigration

In terms of immigration, one thing is that this racial term Asian American shows us that compared to other racial groups in the US, most of us are foreign-born. About 60 percent of Asian Americans are foreign-born, compared to Hispanic Americans at 38%. Other racial groups are much less foreign-born that that. Clearly if there is any racial group that should have a serious concern over immigration policy and reform, it should be Asian Americans. Importantly, when we disaggregate the groups that comprise Asian Americans, we see significant diversity. Only the Hmong and Japanese show a minority who are foreign-born. More than three-quarters of Sri Lankan Americans are foreign-born, compared to 53 percent of Filipino Americans. How many of us were aware of these kinds of differences?

3Witness: Undocumented Asian Immigration

7%: undocumented in Asian America13% of Korean Americans 8% of Filipino, Indian Americans 7% of Chinese Americans (see Dept. of Homeland Security)Non-Asian undocumented (2012): @ 10.4 millionIt gets more interesting when we start thinking about some of the major needs among the immigrants in our communities, particularly our faith communities, and the networks of people who have the same ethnicity but dont participate in a local congregation. Asian immigration has exceeded Latino immigration as of 2010, but often not discussed in major news regarding immigrants who are designated as undocumented, a good number are Asian. Recent estimates suggest that over 280,000 Chinese and 270,000 Filipino immigrants are undocumented, a significant increase since 2000. Another 240,000 are Indian, 230,000 are Korean, and 170,000 are Vietnamese. To put this in perspective, thats 13% of Korean Americans are undocumented, 8% of Filipino and Indian Americans, and 7% of Chinese Americans. Each of these groups has seen an increase in undocumented status over the past decade. Given that Asian Americans are the most ethnically diverse and that our immigration levels are the highest of any group, we should expect to see a continued rise in undocumented Asian immigrants. When you hear the term undocumented it should bring to mind the word vulnerable someone with non-documented status is in a very vulnerable situation. Access to legal aid, healthcare, law enforcement, education, banks are all limited, if not completely blocked in terms of access for the undocumented.

4Witness: Language Isolation

When we think about Asian immigrants, documented or otherwise were talking about populations with varying degrees of English fluency. Using census data, work by Asian American advocate groups like the Asian American Legal Defense Fund have presented illustrations like the following to help get a picture of how diverse Asian Americans are in terms of their language isolation. The technical term you will hear is limited English proficiency. This refers to a low likelihood that one can read a newspaper in English. LEP status implies serious difficulty navigating the technicalities of accessing healthcare, knowing what to do to get a drivers license, cashing a check, finding a job. In short, LEP is also another word for vulnerable. As you can see, 51% of Vietnamese Americans have LEP status, and while other groups like Japanese and Filipino Americans have less than 20 percent LEP status, stop and think about that. In each of these ethnic groups a little less than 1 out of 5 are LEP, considerably higher than the national average of 9%. LEP vulnerability can be devastating when an entire household does not have anyone who can speak English well. As you can see here, about one out of three Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese American households have not one person at home who can access vital information that you and I take for granted.

5Witness: Asian American PovertyInvisible Public issueGreater Poverty = greater risks, vulnerabilitiesHuman TraffickingHealth disparitiesDomestic ViolenceGang participation

It might come as no surprise then that when groups have LEP status, and/or are undocumented at higher rates, poverty becomes more apparent for some groups relative to others. Knowing the magnitude of poverty for each of these groups should alert you to certain social problems that are well linked with poverty. This includes greater risk or vulnerability to human trafficking, poorer physical and mental health, domestic violence, gang participation, illegal drug use, alcohol abuse. Today about 16% of Americans are below poverty in terms of their socioeconomic standing. White non-Hispanics have the lowest poverty rate at 11% - note that Asian American poverty is higher than white non-Hispanic. But the picture is more clearer and more complicated when we see the disaggregation of Asian American poverty. Some Asian American groups like the Hmong, Bangladeshis, Cambodians have a higher poverty rate and a few others such as the Pakistanis, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotians and Koreans, are hovering near the national poverty rate.

6Witness: Asian American (Health) Uninsured

Given what weve just seen with the varying rates of poverty, we shouldnt be surprised that there is variation in healthcare insurance. We might have differing opinions about the Affordable Care Act but we cannot lose sight of that fact that some groups are more affected by the absence of any healthcare coverage. While the national average of the uninsured is about 15 percent, a number of Asian American groups have higher rates of individuals uninsured. More than one out of five Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Koreans, and Cambodians is uninsured prior to the passing of the Affordable Care Act. If individuals have no insurance their likely access to health care is diminished, their quality of life drops, and their network of family and friends begin to experience the stressors associated with poorer health.

7Witness: Asian American Overcrowded HousingOvercrowded = more than 1 person per room (room = separation by wall or archway)

When individuals face significant poverty, one of the best solutions is to share housing. But even this solution has its limits. The definition of overcrowded housing is having more than 1 per person per room in a place of residence. A room is defined by separation by walls or an archway. As you can see here, certain Asian American groups are more often in overcrowded housing relative to others. Note that the national average is only 3% whereas numerous Asian ethnic groups are at least double that rate.

8RecapEthnic diversity Unequal starting conditions Unequal circumstancesComplex, interacting vulnerabilitiesAll invisible due to racial stereotypingWeve just borne witness to a variety of ways in which Asian Americans are vulnerable. Some of it was perhaps new to many of you as it was to me a few years ago when some of this data were becoming more accessible. As I mentioned earlier, our ignorance is due in part to the tendency that US society lumps together Asian Americans as a single minority group that has no indications of vulnerability.

9Partnership Asian American Christians (the Basics)Largest (but not dominant)Most Christian: Filipino Americans: 89%Most Protestant: Korean Americans 61%Least Christian: Indian Americans: 18%

One of the other themes of this conference is partnership, specifically partnership among Asian American Christians, and partnership with secular support systems.To understand what Asian American Christian partnership means we should take a look at how many Asian Americans are Christian in the first place. Using one of the most sophisticated surveys conducted on Asian Americans, we estimate that about 42 percent of all adult Asian Americans are either Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox Christian. Asian American Christianity is about evenly divided between Catholic and Protestant at about 19 and 21 percent each, with another 2 percent Orthodox. This makes Christianity the largest religion among Asian Americans. However, it is not numerically dominant. Stated differently, of all racial groups in the US, Asian America is the least Christian.

10Ethnic Distribution of Asian American Christianity, Pew Survey 2012However, Asian American Christianity shares some similarities with other racial minorities.Korean Protestants dominate Korean America; about 60 percent of Korean Americans identify as Protestant. This is similar to the African American church in the black population, where 80 percent of African Americans identify as Protestant and typically belong to a predominantly African American congregation. Catholicism dominates religion among Filipino Americans; about 70 percent of Filipino Americans identify as Catholic; this is similar to the Latino population where almost 80 percent identify as Catholic. When we pool together all of the Asian American Christians together, we get the following: almost one out of three Asian American Christians is Filipino. Chinese and Korean Christians each take up less than 20 percent, and each group after that is even smaller. This means that Asian American Christians are highly diverse ethnically and there is no ethnic majority within this religious group. As Hyepin envisioned in this Faith Alliance, efforts to help the vulnerable within Asian America will require combined efforts of various believers from different ethnic groups. Second, I want to point too, the 5 percent cut of the Asian American Christian pie. In that slice are contained over 20 different Asian ethnic groups, many of whom have multiple social vulnerabilities. Recall the groups I mentioned earlier that are higher in lacking insurance, higher rate of poverty, more isolated with poor English language skills. These people groups take up a very small share of Asian American Christianity, which means they are likely not visiting your congregations and no one is reaching out to them either.

11Advocacy: Government AidStrong preference for government services

So knowing the size of Asian American Christianity is one thing, but how similar or different are they from other Asian Americans in addressing issues of social vulnerability? One interesting similarity is Asian American attitudes toward government aid. As most of you know, religious groups often try to provide relief, and help in their local communities, but often these efforts are fairly inconsistent and brief. Larger institutions like state and federal aid programs often do the lions share of the work to help the vulnerable. As you can see here, white Protestants, particularly white evangelicals, dont like the idea of more government aid to help the vulnerable. As it turns out, Asian American evangelicals are more like other Asian Americans in supporting the role of greater government help. Notice also, white Catholics are on the fence about government aid, but a majority of Asian American Catholics are well supportive of government aid. In fact they are more similar to Hispanic Catholics in their support for greater government aid. This suggests that Asian American Christians might better understand the magnitude of social problems, and the ability of government services to address the needs of vulnerable Americans. I would bet that if more Asian American Christians understood that social problems were present in Asian American communities there might be even greater support for government efforts to help out.

12Advocacy: Civic Engagement

Apart from their attitudes about social services, to what extent do Asian Americans participate in their local communities to reach the most vulnerable among them? Turns out, Asian Americans, especially the religiously affiliated, do help out a good deal. While 38 percent of the US general public has been involved in some community improvement work, Asian Americans were 6 percentage points higher in their service. Because service to the local community was originated by Christians committed to social justice, Asian American Christians are more likely to be involved in community service compared to other religious Asian Americans. What these two slides tell me is that Asian Americans are more inclined to seek some kind of change to help the vulnerable; most dont do anything, but theres a higher percentage that do compared to the rest of the country. Again, would Asian American Christians heed the call if they knew the magnitude of the social problems that vulnerable Asian Americans face?

13Partnership to Advocate

When I think about the resources that Asian Americans can bring to the table to reach the most vulnerable, I think about people power, the right attitude, but I also think about money. Greater funding of projects and support for policies that help serve vulnerable populations is important to see social change happen. As a Korean American I know that self-employment is a big deal, but I was unaware of how big a deal it was. While Asian Americans are only 6 percent of the population, they run 1.5 million firms, only 400,000 less than African Americans who are 12 percent of the population! More startling than that, Asian American business revenue, number of employees, and payroll were the highest of all minority groups again despite being the smallest of the big three minority racial groups in the US. Think about how the needs of the vulnerable could be met if we could help raise awareness among Asian American business owners. Asian American Christians may have the volunteers, and the best intentions, but they do not always have enough funds to carry out ways to help more people on a consistent basis, not even among other Asian Americans. What might be possible if Asian American businesses were persuaded to participate in activities and organizations that systematically met the needs of the vulnerable?

14Witness, Advocacy, Partnership Case Study: Asian American Congregations in SoCal, 201418 Asian American Protestant congregationsWitness: Average Household Income Levels$100,001+ 6%$75,001-$100,000 35%$50,001-$75,00024%$25,001-$50,00024%$0-$25,00012%Weve spent some time discussing the needs of Asian American communities, weve seen how diverse our faith community is and the need to work together to solve our problems. Lets turn briefly to some working example of how witness, advocacy and partnership are working in 18 Asian American Protestant churches in southern California. Note that the vulnerable are a sizable presence in these churches alone. About 12% of the members in these churches are estimated to have a household income of less than $25K. Knowing the high cost of living in SoCal, we can also see that the next quintile is probably not all that well off either. This means that up to one-third of these congregations might constitute vulnerable status as far as financial security is concerned. 15Case Study: Asian American Congregations in SoCal, 2014Witness: Most Common Cited Needs in Congregation- Immigration Services- English translation- Education- HousingOrphans/Child CarePovertySenior CareFamily MinistryMental Health

In this survey of 18 churches by students from Biola University, they found that the following list were the most common needs mentioned by the key informants in their study. Note that these informants are church leaders, most of whom listed these from their observations in their ministry. See how similar this is to the information presented earlier? Intuitively many in the ministry are somewhat aware of the realities of social problems in Asian American communities that most other Americans know nothing about.

16Case Study: Asian American Congregations in SoCal, 2014Advocacy: ResourcesAverage Church Operating Budget: $1,508,846Average allocation of cong. budget to advocacy and social services: 12% ($181,061)Most common cited obstacles to advocacy:Lack of fundingLack of knowledge

How do these churches advocate for those with significant needs in the community? Most commonly volunteering to help create services was the most often reported means by which the members of these churches helped meet the needs of the vulnerable. In these 18 churches, there was not a clear or consistent issue or problem that most of them dealt with. If we had more data from more churches we might have a clearer picture of what Asian American churches do to meet the needs of their communities. Importantly, the most cited reasons for lack of advocacy were a lack of funding and a lack of knowledge or awareness of the problems of the community.

17Partnerships with other community organizations 40% Partnered with other racial/ethnic congregations or organizations 72% Partnered with other churches38% Worked within a network of clergy27% Worked with social service collaborations

Most commonly cited challenges to partnering with other organizations:Language barriers Generational GapsThese 18 churches, while different in their outreach toward the vulnerable also faced challenges in partnering. While 72% reported partnering with other churches, its a broad question as to what partnering means. When we drill deeper we find that 40% or less of these congregations have every partnered with non-Asian congregations, or a network of clergy, or social service organizations. They stated that part of the problem was a result of language barriers and generational gaps. That is, immigrant-focused churches have difficulty bridging or partnering with other congregations that might have the right resources because they cant communicate nor have a clear enough understanding of cultural differences in how to address a problem or even what it means to partner.

Partnership to AdvocateFrom 42% to 74%Asian American social issues impact all faith communities

While our efforts to help the most vulnerable is an important call for Asian American Christians to consider, as I showed before, they are only about 40 percent of the population. An additional one-third, however, are Asian Americans of other faiths. Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims rank as the largest other faith communities in Asian America, and they too understand the importance of reaching the vulnerable around them. But like most Asian American Christians, many, if not most, non-Christian religious Asian Americans are also unaware of the social problems that millions of Asian Americans face. Working together with leaders in these other faith communities can create a stronger net that helps more vulnerable Asian Americans than if these groups worked alone.

19For more informationAsian Americans Advancing Justice A Community of ContrastsNational Asian Pacific American Community Development Data Center & UCLA Asian American Studies Center annual statisticsAAPI Voices new infographics about Asian AmericansNational Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development poverty statistics Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (AANCART) American Psychological Association Asian Americans and SuicidePew 2012 Survey of Religion in Asian America: summary statistics

Asian American leaders like yourselves have your work cut out for you. Fortunately we have new and better data and informative resources available at the touch of a button. We have an opportunity now to share some of these resources with one another, build new partnerships so that we can witness and advocate for the vulnerable among us.

20Partnership, Witness, Advocacy Asian American Christians in the 21st CenturyHyepin C. Im, KCCDJerry Z. Park, Baylor University