Why the Commonwealth Should Fund Efforts to Assist Virginia’s Asian and Pacific American (APA) Communities

Virginia’s APA communities have difficulty accessing the Commonwealth’s services and programs and lack representation in government to assist the communities.

I. Facts

• Virginia is one of "ten states with the largest Asian populations in 2000"
• There are 309,886 APAs - 4.2%--in Virginia (2003 Census Estimates)
• 47% Asians holding Bachelor's degree or higher (2000 Census)
• In Virginia, there are 22,441 APA owned firms that generate $4.4 billion in sales and receipts, creating jobs for 46,920 employees (1997 Economic Census)
• Median Income $55,699 APA vs. $43,318 for all households (Census Aug 2004)
• 48% of foreign-born population from Asia are naturalized U.S. citizens versus 37% of foreign-born population as a whole
• Foreign-born population constitutes 12% of Commonwealth's civilian labor force and 44% of labor force growth over the last decade (JLARC)
• 351,000 APA are military veterans (6.5% foreign-born in VA are active duty Armed Forces (JLARC))
• 75% of APA men are age 16 and over, and 59% of women are in the labor force
• 70% who are naturalized-citizen are homeowners (57% of APAs who are born in U.S. are homeowners)
• From 1990 to 2000, the Asian population grew 72% compared to total population growth of 13%. APAs are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, and are expected to reach 8 percent of the
  population by the year 2050. (Census)
• Despite the population size and tax and revenue contribution to the Commonwealth, there are no APA state-elected officials: this is a huge disparity of political under-representation.

II. Barriers Faced By Asian Pacific Americans

• Language barriers: 11% of Virginia residents over age of 5 speaks a primary language other than English (2000 Census)
• Lack of health care: 33% of foreign born APAs are not covered by health insurance compared to 13% of native-born residents (Census CPS March 2002)
• Poverty: the poverty rate of APA families (14 percent) is higher than that of non-Hispanic White families (8 percent)
• Health insurance: More APAs are lack health insurance than the total U.S. population, with Korean Americans being the most likely racial/ethnic group to be uninsured. An estimated 2 million APAs are uninsured.
• Cultural & linguistic barriers: APAs face tremendous cultural and linguistic barriers that impede access to health and social services.
• Health Risk: APAs suffer disproportionately higher rates of hepatitis B, diabetes, cancer and tuberculosis than the general population.
• Lack of economic opportunity: according to the Virginia disparity study, only 1.7 percent of total state procurement dollars went to small and minority owned businesses. Taking out the African-American share, about .4 percent of state procurement dollars went to Asian and Hispanic owned businesses. Compare this number to Maryland, which gave about 17 percent of state, contracts to small and minority owned businesses.
• Criminal Justice: APA gang violence is increasing in the Commonwealth. APA businesses are often the victims of gang extortion and violence.
• Yet with all the unique barriers facing the APA communities, there is a significant under-utilization of the Commonwealth’s social, human and business services by the APA communities
• Moreover, the Commonwealth lacks the language skills, cultural understanding and an outreach strategy to help the APA community.

III. What Other Jurisdictions Have Done for APA Communities

• Maryland created a permanent Governor’s Office of APA Affairs in 1992 with a $110,000 budget and a staff to help APA communities. This Office supports the MD APA commission, a 17 member advisory group to the Governor.
• Maryland’s Montgomery County employs an APA Outreach Director with direct policy and programmatic input to the Mayor of Montgomery County and has a budget of nearly $90,000 to support salary and activities to help APA communities.
• The District of Columbia set up a permanent Asian American and Pacific Islander Office in 2001 with an initial $250,000 to pay for 3 staff and outreach activities, the office is budgeted for $350,000 for 5 staff this year, and next year will be funded at $500,000 for 7 staff employees.
• There are 310,000 APAs in Virginia, 250,000 in Maryland, 20,000 APAs in D.C.; and APA population growth between 1999 and 2000 was 48% in D.C.; 73% in Maryland, and 95% in Virginia! Yet Virginia has not provided any auspices to help provide service to or access for the Commonwealth’s APA communities.

IV. What Virginia Needs to do to Help APA Communities

The APA community is one of the most economically productive communities in the Commonwealth. By helping APA families in need, we ensure that the APA community remains a strong contributing part of the state.

• In order to:
  • A. help APA communities access state services
  • B. help the Commonwealth outreach APA communities
  • C. help support the activities of the Virginia Asian Advisory Board, a statutory community advisory body to the State
• The State should appropriate $199,000 to:
  • Provide staffing to assist the Commonwealth’s APA communities: $105,000
  • Help develop state policy and program services for APA communities
  • Pay for hourly services of state translators to help APA constituents: $35,000
  • Conduct research on the service needs of APA communities: $20,000
  • Provide a series of educational forums on how to access state social, heath, education, and business services: $6,000
  • Help with the administrative costs, data gathering and policy development effort of the Virginia Asian Advisory Board: $15,000
  • Collect, collate, analyze and store data from all available state sources to help assess the needs of Commonwealth APA communities and to make the data available to the public and the Commonwealth: 18,000