Mass. AAPI report provides what could be the first comprehensive survey of community population

Boston Globe

4 days ago

'This aggregation is needed to understand each community and their needs,' said Shubhecchha Dhaurali, program and research director at the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Commission of Massachusetts. 'Because if we merge everybody together, it gives us this idea that we're doing fine or everybody's not doing fine when that isn't the case."
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MassINC Polling Group executed the survey, and the UMass Boston Institute for Asian American Studies, the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Commission of Massachusetts, APIsCAN, and the Asian Community Fund at the Boston Foundation collaborated to design the questionnaire.
Paul Watanabe, director of the UMass Boston Institute for Asian American Studies and political science professor, anchored the initiative.
A survey like this could have great implications for a demographic that's often been treated as a monolith, advocates say. Without detailed data, elected officials often overlook AAPI voters as a key voting bloc, and policy recommendations that properly address the diaspora's specific needs are difficult to make.
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The survey provides key insights into the growing AAPI community, which constitutes eight percent of the state's population, according to the most recent
Some key takeaways: Like many Massachusetts residents, roughly a third of respondents considered the rising cost of living and inflation among their top concerns. But the degree to which they worried about making ends meet differed by ethnicity. Thirty-four percent of Vietnamese Americans, 34 percent of Chinese Americans, and 27 percent of Indian Americans identified inflation as a key concern.
The majority of survey respondents — 56 percent — identified as Democrats.
The Trump administration's executive orders on
AAPI residents polled also reported widespread racism, and an overall lack of belonging. Roughly one in four said they experienced discrimination, one in five were called racist slurs, and 14 percent suffered verbal abuse in the past year.
These trends are echoed on the national level. A separate
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For the Massachusetts survey, only 39 percent of respondents said they strongly agreed that they belonged in America — a sentiment that Danielle Kim, executive director of the Boston Foundation's Asian Community Fund found shocking, but affirming nonetheless.
'Even though AAPI residents have been in this country for many generations, so many in our community still don't feel like we're seen, visible, or celebrated,' Kim said. 'This report is a call to action.'
The survey also precedes a
'We live in a society where data and numbers really help to push public opinion,' said Jaya Savita, director of the Asian and Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network, or APIsCAN. 'Many of our partners will be able to use this data to better articulate the lived experiences of our communities when it comes to advocating on policy issues, asking for grant funding, and seeking opportunities to build community.'
There are some notable limitations: the data only delineates Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese respondents. All other nationalities making up the state's AAPI diaspora — such as Korean, Hmong, and Sri Lankan Americans — did not meet the survey's disaggregation threshold and are instead included in an 'other' category. The questions were also only available in English, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, and Khmer, restricting which residents can participate.
But Karen Chen, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, said the survey is just a start. It might be the model lawmakers need on Beacon Hill to actually start acknowledging the nuances of the diaspora, and 'move with intention.'
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'We have so many folks that will say: [the community] is so diverse, we can't do anything,' Chen said. Well, 'if you have the will, we will show you how.'
This story was produced by the Globe's
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Tiana Woodard can be reached at