Daily Dose & Announcements: 05/18/09
May 18, 2009
>> Women Immigrants Change America (and Themselves)
>> 67 years later, Japanese students graduate
>> Will Judy Chu change California’s 32nd district?
>> Chinese officials urges mainland businesses to invest in Taiwan, plan purchasing mission
>> Chinese exporters say they face hard times
Compiled by Beleza Chan
Nation
Women Immigrants Change America (and Themselves)
New America Media released a historic poll on women immigrants to America that shows how the face of immigration is changing. A majority of immigrants are now women, mothers and workers, stewards of their households. This is the major finding of the poll conducted by Bendixen & Associates and released at a forum discussion and news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C..
During the presentation of the poll results, Sergio Bendixen defined it as “looking into the souls of millions of people in an attempt to understand what motivates them and the challenges they face.” The poll has considered their demographics, reasons to migrate and their will to overcome obstacles to keep their family together.
The result shows that women immigrants’ main challenges are helping their children succeed and keeping their families together. The obstacles are formidable. 79% of Latin Americans, 73% of Vietnamese, 70% of Korean and 63% of Chinese acknowledged speaking little or no English. They also confront anti-immigrant discrimination, lack of health care and low-paying employment.
Though the poll results showed that discrimination rates is less of a problem for Asian immigrants than for Latinos, Karen Narasaki, President and Executive Director of the Asian American Justice Center said the results “might have underestimated the issue,” if women polled within this community gave different responses to the questions. “When we ask them if they have been discriminated, they say no, but if we ask if they have been treated differently at work, for example, then the response is different,” Narasaki added.
Narasaki pointed out that it is not only difficult to learn a second language as an adult, but that most of these classes are oversubscribed, with some two-year waiting lists. According to the study, 63% of Latin American and 68% of Chinese women have attended English-language classes.
Among other findings the poll showed that their roles change within their households. The overwhelming majority-Latin American (81%), Chinese (71%), Vietnamese (68%), African (66%) and Arabic (53%)-said they had become more assertive at home and in public after coming to the United States.
-New America Media
67 years later, Japanese students graduate
Tacoma, Wash. - It’s graduation season for most colleges in our area - but at the University of Puget Sound, the ceremony was something special. Three dozen students of Japanese heritage were awarded degrees 67 years after they went to school there.
In 1942, the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor and the U.S. rounded up people of Japanese descent on the West Coast and put them into interment camps. That included 36 UPS students who were pulled from their classes.
On Sunday, the university did something special to try and right that wrong.
Michiko, who goes by “Mitch,” should have donned her cap and gown more than a half century ago. But on Dec. 7, 1941, at the age of 19, her life changed.
She was 19 and a freshman at the University of Puget Sound when she was rounded up and sent to an internment camp.
Now, 67 years later, she has returned.
Cherry trees were planted on the campus in honor of the 36 students right after they were taken. This is the first time Michiko has visited her tree - now fully grown.
Michiko and one other student from the group of 36 attended the ceremony and received their honorary degrees, along with the families of four other students who could not attend.
University President Ron Thomas says, “We felt this year was a good time for us to complete the circle and provide them with the degrees they should have earned in the 1940s.”
And while the class of 2009 filed into the stadium, Michiko, class of 1944, took the VIP route and sat with the only other living member of the now famous group of 36 that chose to attend.
Michiko got her honorary degree, with no bitter feelings - just gratitude the university didn’t forget.
“I think you can never right a wrong that has happened but this is a big effort and the college being … broadminded to recognize and honor us,” she says.
-KOMO News
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Bay
Will Judy Chu change California’s 32nd district?
On the surface, it would appear that next Tuesday’s special election in California’s 32nd District is exceptionally tough terrain for Democrat Judy Chu. The seat has exclusively sent Hispanic members to Congress for the past two decades and Hispanics make up roughly two-thirds of the population in the East Los Angeles-area district.
But despite the demographic disadvantage that she faces as an Asian-American candidate, the former state assemblywoman has racked up significant institutional support from the Hispanic community, placing her in a strong position to replace former Rep. Hilda Solis, who stepped down to become secretary of labor.
The crowded, 12-candidate field includes numerous Hispanic candidates, including state Sen. Gil Cedillo, but Chu has managed to capture endorsements from prominent Hispanic officeholders ranging from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the two Latino assemblymen who represent seats within the congressional district boundaries. On her campaign website, she is pictured with the Solis’ family, even though the current labor secretary hasn’t officially endorsed anyone.
“Judy has always been a coalition candidate. She has run strongly in a district that is predominantly Latino and has a lot of Latino support in this race,” said Chu campaign consultant Parke Skelton. “The ultimate question in the campaign is if Latinos in the San Gabriel Valley want someone who has represented them and knows their issues and concerns, or do they want a Latino. That’s what it boils down to.”
“The candidate who best identifies who their voters are, and gets them out to cast their ballot will win this thing,” said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan guide that tracks statewide elections. “It’s between Chu and Cedillo as the two main contenders, … and they all agree on the issues, so this race has come down to ethnicity and character.”
-Politico
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Commerce
Chinese officials urges mainland businesses to invest in Taiwan, plan purchasing mission
Shanghai - China has outlined plans for encouraging mainland Chinese businesses to expand their investments in Taiwan, and has scheduled several purchasing missions to buy food and consumer products.
Top officials in charge of Taiwan affairs outlined Beijing’s policies aimed at boosting trade and investment with the island in a forum held over the weekend in the southeastern port city of Xiamen.
The guidelines outlined Sunday by Wang Yi, Beijing’s Taiwan affairs director, urge mainland businesses to visit the island and expand their activities there.
The aim, Wang said, was to help Taiwan weather the world economic crisis.
“We are concerned about the state of Taiwan’s economy and are willing to do our best to help,” Wang said.
“With the expansion and deepening of exchanges, we will make unremitting efforts to do more good and concrete things for the people of Taiwan,” he said.
Industries encouraged to invest in Taiwan include electronics, telecommunications, biopharmaceuticals, marine transport, public works, trading companies and manufacturers of textiles, machinery, vehicles and others, he said.
Taiwan-funded companies, meanwhile, will be welcomed to invest in construction projects on the Chinese mainland, and tourism from the mainland to Taiwan will also be expanded to more than 600,000 visitors a year, he said.
Wang said China will also expand the number of professional fields on the mainland open to qualified Taiwanese, such as auditing, corporate legal advisers and various types of engineers, among others.
The two sides are working on an “economic cooperation” agreement that Taiwan has long sought, hoping to cut tariffs and expand trade.
-Associated Press
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Global
Chinese exporters say they face hard times
Beijing - Chinese exporters, losing demand for their products in the current global crisis, are turning to the domestic markets, but some say the transition isn’t easy.
At a recent trade fair in Guangzhou in southern China, organized to help exporters explore the domestic market, one trader complained about difficulties in selling her products, Xinhua reported.
“We sell them at factory-gate prices, but buyers still bargain. That makes me mad,” she said.
In Guangdong, which accounted for more than 25 percent of China’s foreign trade last year, the Xinhua report said the global crisis has affected tens of thousands of exporters.
Xinhua said the Chinese government, aware of the problem, has been devising policies to help the exporters reduce their reliance on foreign markets. However, the exporters say gaining a foothold in the domestic market is not easy because of tough competition and in some cases, price wars. Some of their products, they say, also are not suitable for the local markets.
-UPI
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