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Asian, Islander initiative much-needed

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Ms. Nguyen spoke before the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which met Monday in Dallas.

According to the 2000 census, an estimated 13 million Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders live in the United States today – about 4 percent of the population. The latest census showed that Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States. They are expected to make up 10 percent of the population by the year 2050.

Growth is only part of the picture:

• About 40 percent are not fluent in English.

• Their poverty rate is about 14 percent, compared with 8 percent for non-Hispanic whites.

• Fewer than 6 percent of Tongans, Cambodians, Laotians and Hmongs have completed college; the high school graduation rate for Hmongs, for example, is 31 percent.

• These Americans are more likely to be uninsured than any other group. An estimated 2 million do not have health insurance, yet they suffer disproportionately high rates of hepatitis B, diabetes, cancer and tuberculosis.

• Of the estimated 1.25 million people in this country with chronic hepatitis B viral infection, 50 percent are Asian-American or Pacific Islander. Liver cancer is three to 13 times more prevalent among male Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders than their white counterparts; cervical cancer rates among Vietnamese women are nearly five times higher than that of white women; and Chinese-Americans have the highest rate of nasopharyngeal cancer among all groups.

"The purpose of the President's Advisory Commission is to develop, monitor and coordinate federal efforts to help improve AAPI participation in government programs," said John Quoc Duong, executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which coordinates the activities of the commission and participating agencies.

Mr. Duong was joined in Dallas by six commissioners, including the newest member, Dallas physician Amanullah Khan.

"We're here to get input from the community," Mr. Duong said, adding that the meetings also connect residents with government agencies and private programs that can help them.

He said the issues brought up in Dallas – health care, economic development, language skills and education – are similar in other parts of the country.

These kinds of initiatives for Hispanics, blacks and American Indians that focus on education have been in existence for years, Mr. Duong said. However, because the Asian-American population is so diverse and the needs of the newly arrived immigrant population so specialized, the Asian-American and Pacific Islander initiative is broader in scope.

The bottom line is that the commission was formed to help Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders improve their quality of life, whether it be through small-business loans or preventive health care or better English skills. Isn't that worth the effort?

For more information about the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, see www.aapi.gov.

Esther Wu Esther Wu is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News.