Wen Chu Chen, Grace J. Yoo Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today (2 volumes) (2009)

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.These jobs include garmentworkers, restaurant and domestic workers.Labor participation rates are higheven with low wages in fact, low wages force low-income households to sendtwo or more workers into the labor market in order to meet their financial needs.Furthermore, globalization or the internationalizing of the economy has exac-erbated the situation, as many of these low-wage jobs are in sectors that areoften affected by globalization.While globalization has created benefits to the world s economy and to theeconomic efficiencies, studies show that it has also generated employmentissues by reducing low-skilled jobs in advanced countries like the UnitedStates.6 This internationalization phenomenon has led to sectoral shifts inemployment, primarily declining manufacturing opportunities, which createsan influx of labor into the service industry.This movement of workers from themanufacturing sector to the service sector increases the supply of workers,making the jobs in the service sector more competitive.As a result, wages in theservice sector are lowered.Unemployment rates also increase, as not all work-ers will be able to transition from low-skill manufacturing to the service sector.In addition, the continual influx of large numbers of new immigrants andrefugees with less education and limited English proficiency enter the work-force, further increasing the supply of less-skilled labor in the U.S.economy.Wages for low-income jobs are further depressed for these hard to employAsian American workers.Labor economists agree that human capital has become more significant indetermining labor market earnings in the past three decades.The lack of humancapital among low-income Asian American workers is frequently cited by manyprevious studies as an immense disadvantage to these workers.7 Research on thecurrent workforce development system is inadequate to assist less-skilled AsianAmericans in confronting the challenges in the globalized economy.8 They arguethat the current workforce development system is characterized by bureaucracy,language barriers, limited training options, lack of access for undocumented andimmigrant workers, lack of understanding of challenges that immigrant workersface, and lack of linkages to economic development and job creation.As a result,it is hard for the low-income Asian American workers to find stable employmentwith fair wages and safe conditions.Reforms of workforce development systemstargeted on the specific problems of less-skilled Asian American and new immi-grants are suggested so as to overcome these obstacles.Besides the inadequate workforce development systems, research indicatesthat existing welfare-to-work programs also do not meet the unique needs of theEconomy and Work 145low-income Asian American population.9 Despite an increase in the time limitof welfare programs from two to five years, low-income Asian American needsare not adequately addressed by welfare reform s work first approach.ManyAsian immigrants and refugees face unique barriers to access and use of socialservices, such as language, mental health issues, and transportation access.Basically, studies argue that providing only work-related assistance is insuffi-cient and that a coordinated set of social services is necessary to serve this low-income population.The residential location of the low-income Asian American is yet anotherbarrier.Because of historical and ethnic networking reasons, previous studiesnote that most Asian immigrants and refugees reside in some racially definedinner cities with high concentrations of low-income Asian Americans.10 Exam-ples are San Francisco and New York s Chinatowns, Los Angeles Koreatown,the Vietnamese community in Orange County, and the Cambodian communityin Long Beach, CA.Because of the large number of Asian businesses in theseenclaves, these Asian communities employ many ethnic immigrant workerswho cannot find work elsewhere because of the lack of transportation, inade-quate job skills, and limited English language proficiency.These enclaveeconomies may also negatively affect Asian immigrants and refugees by slow-ing their acquisition of job and English skills that could lead to better jobs out-side the enclave.In addition, cultural and language ties, as well as fears of jobloss, often leave immigrant workers susceptible to unfair labor practices.Theseinclude poor and dangerous working conditions, long working hours withoutovertime pay, and nonpayment of wages.Furthermore, employment and earning discrimination continue to hinder thegeneral Asian American population advancement, and they have also preventedlow-income Asian Americans from finding better jobs.Recent studies show thatemployment discrimination still persists against Asian Americans.11 Manyresearch publications show evidence of wage and salary discrimination againstAsian men, particularly for Vietnamese and Southeast Asians, while Filipinos,Asian Indian, and Korean men have very mixed results.12OUTLOOKA recent U.S.Census Population Report indicates that there was improve-ment for low-income Asian American in 2006 compared to 2000.13 10.3 percentof Asian American were living below poverty line, compared to 8.2 percent ofnon-Hispanic whites and 12.3 percent of the entire U.S.population.However,research suggests that the challenges and barriers still remain as issues forlow-income Asian Americans.14 Moreover, the decline in the self-employmentrate among Asian Americans may have intensified problems for low-incomeworkers finding jobs with immigrant entrepreneurs.Government, academic, national, and community-based organizations; andother advocacy groups are working collectively to ease or remove the chal-lenges that the low-income Asian American workers are facing.One example146 Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Todayof a national advocacy organization is the National Coalition for Asian PacificAmerican Community Development (National CAPACD).15 A membership-based network of organizations and individuals, it serves Asian Americans bypromoting issues that affect community development as well as low-incomeworkers [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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