Charmaine Chua, Geography, “Understanding the Experience of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Workers in the Logistics Industry: Income inequality, Working Class AAPIs and Data Disaggregation”
A growing number of studies of the economic wellbeing of AAPI communities show that income inequality is greater among Asian Americans than any other US racial or ethnic group. This project aims to address one portion of the problem of data disaggregation by conducting mixed-methods research to gain better understanding of economic disparities within the AAPI population. In particular, it focuses on occupational segregation and income and wealth inequality among Asian Americans, motivated by an effort to gain a deeper qualitative understanding of how Asian Americans’ socioeconomic background, income, immigration status affects their political preferences amidst a rightward shift in AAPI voting patterns. Qualitative interviews will be conducted with AAPI refugee and immigrant workers in the logistics industry in California. Not only is the logistics industry one of the fastest growing sectors of employment for low-waged work in the state; it has also increasingly become a site for collectivization and labor organizing by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and other labor organizations. A study of the experience of AAPI workers in logistics will provide an initial picture of how AAPI low-waged workers understand the relationship between their working conditions — including income, costs of living, and experience of racism on the job — and their political preferences — including their policy and voting preferences and propensity to engage in collective action. This understanding of AAPI workers in one of the fastest growing employment areas in California will be crucial in affecting policy efforts to provide policy responses that offer better economic conditions for low waged AAPI workers in the state.
Kourtney Kawano, School of Education, “Creating and Sharing Narratives of #TeacherLife: Digital (Reel)alities of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Teachers in California”
Despite growing racial and ethnic diversity in K–12 classrooms across the United States, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) teachers remain significantly underrepresented in education discourses nationwide. However, AANHPI teachers are actively speaking back to this systemic exclusion by creating and sharing personal narratives in classrooms and beyond. This project is a multiphase, mixed qualitative method study of AANHPI teacher experiences in digital landscapes and California public schools. The first phase engages critical media discourse analysis to explore popular AANHPI teacher-content creators’ posts on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Using web scraping tools and qualitative data coding of TikToks, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, we uncover racialized narratives about the realities of #Teacherlife for AANHPI educators, including perspectives on California-specific initiatives such as the statewide movement for ethnic studies and the increased representation of AANHPI voices in curriculum and instruction. The second phase utilizes interviews to document AANHPI teacher-content creators’ interactions with students and examine how these interactions shape these teachers’ digital narratives as well as their roles and responsibilities as educational architects, policy implementers, and changemakers. Through this project, we connect research, practice, and policy across in-person and online learning environments, and we participate in a collaborative process of shared sense-making around the use of social media as an educational tool for public resistance, advocacy, and digital storytelling among AANHPI teachers.
Brian Keum, School of Public Health, “Etiological Mechanisms of Binge Drinking among Emerging Adults of Korean Heritage: A Qualitative Analysis on the Impact of Online and Offline Racism”
People of Korean Heritage (PKH) report disparities in binge drinking and other alcohol-related disparities. Data indicate that U.S.-born PKH have the highest rates of binge drinking and alcohol use disorder among any Asian ethnic groups in the U.S. (binge drinking: 26.9%, Alcohol Use Disorder: 13.1%). Examining the influence of cultural factors on binge drinking among PKH is crucial to better understand and address these concerning patterns of alcohol use and alcohol-related disparities, and inform the development of evidence-based interventions. One sociocultural factor that may influence binge drinking among PKH is racism. Racism (both offline and online forms) may be a key factor that contributes to binge drinking disparities among PKH. Examination of this association is urgent as Asians have reported a drastic increase in racial victimization incidents, in part, due to the false narrative that Asians are at fault for the COVID-19 pandemic. Racism as a risk factor for binge drinking may be particularly salient for PKH, as they reported the second-most incidents of racism and hate crimes (StopAAPIHate national data). Our aim is to expand the understanding of etiological and contextual factors that explain the effects of multiple racism domains (i.e., online racism, in-person racism, COVID-19 racism, gendered racism) on binge drinking among emerging adults PKH. We will collect qualitative data from 32 emerging adult PKH to explore and refine a model that integrates racism and psychological/cognitive determinants of binge drinking. The study will also identify strategies to facilitate its eventual application to binge drinking interventions in future studies.
Xueqin Lin, School of Education, and Sean Darling-Hammond, School of Public Health, “Unpacking the Mismatch: Understanding Disparities in Early Social-Emotional Learning Practices Between Home and School for Chinese Immigrant Families”
Social emotional learning (SEL) practices are recognized as an effective approach to improve young children’s educational outcomes in both the short and long term. However, the limited family engagement and home-school mismatch raise questions about whether SEL effectively best serves the needs of underrepresented students and families. It is also unclear what the home-school mismatch in SEL practices is among Chinese immigrant families. Grounded in the cultural mismatch theory of inequality, this study uses multi-stage qualitative design to explore the underlying mismatch in SEL practices experienced by Chinese immigrant families. Built upon our research in the home-school mismatch in parental involvement, we are conducting individual interviews along with blended focus groups with 12 teachers and 24 Chinese immigrant parents using semi-structured interviews. We expect that teachers and parents will share different definitions and practices of early SEL practices between home and school. We also expect that teachers and parents will share effective strategies to bridge the home-school mismatch. Findings of this study will significantly inform SEL policy and practice in order to best serve Asian American students.
Mienah Zulfacar Sharif, School of Public Health, “Displaced, Detained yet Administratively Invisibilized: Uplifting the Voices of Afghan Refugees in California”
The longest war the United States (US) waged was in Afghanistan, and the US “withdrawal” in 2021 left the country, whch has endured ongoing war and unrest since the late 1970’s, socio-politically and economically devastated. The largest community of Afghans in the US now resides in the Bay Area. Afghans arriving since 2021 are experiencing heightened legal challenges due to the implementation of xenophobic policies and practices undergirded by structural racism, including “evacuated” Afghans being placed in ICE jails upon their arrival. Due to the erroneous categorization of Afghans as “white” in administrative databases, limited evidence documenting their experiences, conditions and needs exist. In 2024, Afghans were recategorized in the US Census as “Asian.” This project aims to provide critical data by taking a community-led, mixed-methods approach rooted in a family-systems and lifecourse perspective to describe Afghan refugees’ experiences and priorities with a focus on people who have indirectly or directly been impacted by incarceration in an ICE jail. This project is co-led by Project Afghan Network for Advocacy and Resources (ANAR), an immigrants rights’ community-based organization that has been the leading agency working to meet the needs of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers in the Bay Area. The outcomes of this project will inform community organizing and policy advocacy initiatives at the local and state level rooted in immigrant justice.
Winston Tseng, School of Public Health, “Identifying Pacific Islander Youth Health Disparities in the San Francisco Bay Area”
In 1997, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) revised Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting, and classified Pacific Islanders (PIs) as a separate racial category from Asian Americans (AAs). In 2024, OMB updated Directive No. 15 and reaffirmed PIs as a separate racial category. However, many state and local governments including California have continued to aggregate PIs with AAs or as Other Race. PIs and AAs are two distinct groups with different cultural and historical backgrounds. The aggregated reporting of PI and AA data has masked PI health burdens. PIs are among the fastest-growing racial groups in the US. 2021 ACS five-year estimates show PIs represent 0.4% (1,478,104) of the US population. In California, PIs represent 0.8% (333,632) of the state population. In 2021, San Francisco Bay Area had an estimated 87,455 PIs. Alameda County had the largest PI population (27.0%; 25,525), followed by Santa Clara County (17.7%;16,699), San Mateo County (15.5%; 14,593), and Contra Costa County (14.3%; 13,519). However, little or no information is known about Bay Area PI youth health disparities. On behalf of UC Berkeley Health Research for Action and Regional Pacific Islander Taskforce (RPITF), we propose to conduct secondary data analysis to examine and report on PI adolescent behavioral health disparities in all 10 Bay Area counties. This will be the first examination and report of PI adolescent behavioral health in Bay Area counties. This report will be shared with all local health departments and PI community partners and shape local community planning and policy development.
