Myths about Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders

Some Important Facts about AANHPI Communities

Diversity and Solidarity in AANHPI Communities – Although not all AANHPI individuals associate with their country of origin or ancestry, it’s worth noting that there are about 45 Asian countries and more than 20,000 Pacific islands. This shows the diversity of heritage that AANHPI individuals may associate with. Why, then, are all these heritages combined under the umbrella of AANHPI? This term has its roots in political solidarity across AANHPI communities.²  Since the mid-1800s, many people with European and AANHPI identities have immigrated to the U.S. However, AANHPIs, in particular, have faced greater racially-driven discrimination while simultaneously, their labor contribution to the US market is taken advantage of through low wages and lack of legal protections. As immigrants, they provided an alternative to slavery—in railroad construction, mining, and plantation industries. Therefore, the AANHPI communities came together to politically address their common struggles in the U.S. and it took about a century for Asian immigrants to be eligible for U.S. citizenship with basic rights for property and education in 1952.  

Disparity in AANHPI Communities — As the U.S. expands the selective immigration policy, it has recruited an increased number of talented and educated Asians to serve U.S. national interests in global competitiveness on the global market. However, Southeast Asian American communities also form the largest refugee community in the US. Many of them fled to the U.S. due to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and its aftermath in Laos and Cambodia in the 1970s. Many Southeast Asian communities still struggle with poverty in the U.S.,³  and some of those communities have the lowest records of college degree attainment rates, lower than both Hispanic and Black communities.⁴  In addition, AAPI Data reports that AANHPI communities experience a high poor-rich gap, which also has a double bind implication with gender. AANHPI women are paid an average of 86 cents for every dollar a white man is paid (in the case of Bhutanese American women, only 38 cents). A key reason for such an income gap is occupational segregation, which also impacts the health of AANHPI women. National Partnership for Women & Families reports that “ANHPI women are unusually concentrated in low-paid personal care jobs, such as manicurists, skincare specialists, and massage therapists, where they are exposed to health and safety risks, including toxic chemicals.” In summary, aggregating data from diverse Asian communities and individuals hides the extreme challenges of many marginalized AANHPI women.   

AANHPI Women’s Achievement—Despite racial and sexual discrimination, AANHPI women have paved their way to support fellow women and equal rights in the U.S. For example,  the League of Women Voters featured five Must-Know AANHPI Women Who Shaped Democracy. Patsy Mink was the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress. She is dedicated to ending discrimination against women of color at work and in education. Acknowledging her leading role in Title IX of the Higher Education Act, the act was renamed Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act. A second example is Dr. Sayu Bhojwani. In her role as New York’s first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, she has supported South Asian youth, including thousands of immigrant and refugee youth.