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Is War Good for Asian Pacific Americans?

As a group, Asian Pacific Americans are not seen as favoring or opposing the impending war on Iraq. Judging from just six key issues, however, Asian Pacific Americans have a lot to lose if this country goes to war with Iraq and starts a new era of preemptive warfare around the globe.

APAs are a diverse bunch, with variations in education level, occupation, political affiliation, and other factors that are at least as wide as the population as a whole. As a community, however, we skew higher than the general population when it comes to small business ownership, work in the health care industry and level of educational achievement. As a community with many recent immigrants, we also travel to, and communicate with, countries outside the United States more than many of our American neighbors. And because of the religious diversity that exists in Asia, many of us are adherents of non-Christian faiths. Finally, because our numbers are small in most regions of the country, we must rely on a tradition of civil rights and civil liberties to counteract the forces of nativism, racism and intolerance. Let us review each of these factors in more detail.

• Small businesses. APA newsstands, restaurants, nail salons and dry cleaners are found in many communities across the nation. These shops require lots of foot traffic from consumers who have disposable money to spend, which means consumers who have stable jobs and no fears of impending layoffs.

President Bush’s budget projections for the next two years show record deficits of over $300 billion each year. A key reason the economy has not done better recently, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, is the “intensification of geopolitical risks,” referring to the possibility of war with Iraq.

With most states facing record deficits that are resulting in layoffs and cutbacks in social services, fewer consumers are going to feel free to order Chinese takeout, get their nails done or send their shirts to the dry cleaners. APA small businesses almost certainly will suffer from a war in Iraq.

• Health care. While health care is not as dependent on a strong economy because everyone uses health care facilities in both good and bad economic times, the ability of APAs to have well-paying jobs in the health care sector and to get adequate medical care are being compromised by factors both related to and unrelated to the impending war. Health maintenance organizations (HMOs), stingy Medicaid and private reimbursement rules and pharmaceutical companies are to blame.

Compounding these crises is an acute shortage of nurses, which is starting to create an influx of nurses from India reminiscent of the influx of Filipina nurses two decades ago. While this latest inflow of APA professionals has some positive aspects for our community, a war budget that does not help our financially-strapped state governments can only lead to more cutbacks in services, more unemployed health care workers and more APAs not receiving adequate health care services.

• Education. The University of Maryland, where I teach, has just raised tuition in the middle of the spring semester because the Maryland state legislature has not funded enough monies to keep the place running. Multiply this times 50 states and you see the effect that this ailing economy is having on students. APAs who are trying to put themselves through school with scholarships and tuition assistance will have a harder time than before. And if money goes to bridges in Baghdad instead of books in Boston, more of us are going to have to forego admission to the schools of our choice.

• Travel overseas. Bush administration policies are making it increasingly dangerous to be an American in many parts of the world. Although many people in other lands understand that the bellicose, bullying policies of this administration are not the policies of all Americans, we can expect more kidnappings, killings and harassment visited on all Americans when we travel overseas. Recent bombings in the Philippines and Indonesia will become more commonplace, unfortunately.

• Religious freedom. The intolerance seen in some Islamic states toward other faiths is paralleled in this country by the rise of intolerance for other faiths and other points of view. Christian fundamentalism is being mainstreamed by the “faith-based” initiatives of the Bush administration, which allow service providers to discriminate in hiring based on religious creed and other factors such as sexual orientation. Bigoted statements against Muslims, Arabs and those from the Middle East are allowed to go unchallenged on mainstream talk shows. While many APAs are Christians, we should be in the forefront of defending our sisters and brothers of other faiths.

• Civil rights and civil liberties. Looking back at anti-Japanese and anti-German propaganda produced during World War II reminds us that during wartime the populace is whipped into a frenzy of hate against the enemy. However, scary statements made by important legislators recently have mis-stated the meaning and implications of the roundup and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and severe encroachments on the civil rights, civil liberties, and bodily integrity of Americans who look “Middle Eastern” since Sept. 11 have shown that increased war rhetoric will inevitably lead to more encroachments on the civil rights and civil liberties of the APA community.

Taken in sum, the APA community has a lot to lose if we go to war. We should be calling our Congressional representatives to ask that they not allow President Bush to go to war until he tells the American people how he plans to pay for it, and how he plans to safeguard the rights, freedoms and liberties of APAs and all Americans.

Reach Phil Tajitsu Nash at pnash@campaignadvantage.com.