Migration Policy & Resource Center

MPRC Projects

Immigrants and the Environment:

South Asian Immigrant Community Project 

Stories of their diverse and collective migrant experience

This project is designed to identify and document through story telling by immigrants themselves, the migration experiences of South Asians in Southern California.. The story telling process is being conducted through oral histories that explore their home country situations leading to their migration to the U.S., and their journey to and experiences in the U.S. after arrival. These may be experiences in the work place, health, housing and education issues, transportation and mobility concerns, discrimination and racial profiling experiences, immigration status situations, and stress and trauma impacts.  The story telling project is being conducted in conjunction with South Asian community-based organizations and cultural groups in Southern California.

Southern California’s history of migration from Asia and Latin America and its complex patterns of immigrant settlement, racial and ethnic abuses, and uneven integration have most recently been influenced by the political and social climate that has developed since the events of September 11, 2001. Prior to 9-11, much of the attention on Asian immigration focused on the Chinese, Filipino, Cambodian, Korean, and Vietnamese settlements in different parts of Southern California. Little attention was paid to the rapidly growing South Asian immigrant populations who had begun to arrive in significant numbers during the 1990s. Together with Arab, Muslim and other Middle Eastern communities, the events of 9-11 have disproportionately impacted these groups, as they have experienced racial profiling, deportation, detention, government surveillance, and other economic, social, and cultural problems such as workplace and housing discrimination.  This new type of discrimination, that equates culture, religion, ethnicity and language with terrorism, in turn has caused a fundamental shift in how South Asians are perceived in the private and public domains, and how they perceive themselves and their place in this society. 

Southern California’s growing South Asian community is now estimated at 300,000. It includes Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Nepalis, Maldivians and Bhutanese; Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Buddhists; speakers of dozens of different South Asian languages and multiple generations of immigrants.  South Asians are one of the fastest growing populations in Southern California. In Los Angeles County, for example, from 1990 to 2000 the Indian population grew 63%, the Pakistani population 50%, the Sri Lankan population 93%, and the Bangladeshi population 242% in comparison to L.A. County’s population growth of 7%.

In addition to their experiences stemming from the on-going post-9/11 backlash, South Asians face situations similar to all low-wage immigrants. Many of the jobs they hold are at minimum and below minimum wage, such as taxi drivers, convenience store clerks and gas station attendants.  Housing conditions in the areas where South Asians concentrate such as Koreatown and North Hollywood have become problematic due to numerous instances of health and safety violations, among other factors, even as some landlords demand exaggerated and often illegal rents.

This climate of fear, fueled by the current domestic policy environment, makes it difficult to document these conditions and may well require more innovative approaches to better address these human rights and civil society concerns. Hence, the importance of this project will be in providing an avenue for this expression.  This opportunity for public reflection and discourse also addresses the irony that, while thrust into the post-9/11 national security debate, South Asians in L.A. are, for the most part, an invisible community, with little known of their experiences, culture, or contributions.  This project is a step towards meeting that challenge.

The project will seek to lift stories from the broad spectrum of L.A.’s South Asian community, across nationality, language, immigration status, gender, class, and sexual orientation.  However, our approach will be to have South Asian youth primarily engaged as the recorders of these stories.  We recently collaborated with the South Asian Network and the Bangla Language and Culture Academy in the formation of a Youth Arts Team to carry out a community arts project in Koreatown, home to one of L.A.’s largest South Asian communities.  Having met several of its arts project goals, this Youth Team is now committed to its further development, eager for its next project, and even brings some practical experience to the table.

Environmental Values and Attitudes Related to the Immigrant Experience

The issue of impacts from immigration has often been framed in terms of increased population, resource use, social service needs, and influence on the job market. The anti-immigrant perspectives of some in the environmental movement have equated increased immigration with negative environmental outcomes related to increased population and resource use while immigrant rights advocates have sought to counter those arguments about the nature and degree of those impacts. Missing from those discussions is an evaluation of the environmental attitudes and values of immigrants and whether such perspectives produce specific environmental benefits, such as different attitudes towards the land or an interest in activities that have positive environmental outcomes.

This research project, focused on environmental attitudes and values related to the immigrant experience, seeks to evaluate immigrant perspectives and attitudes about the environment, specifically with respect to farming, community gardening, urban parks use and advocacy, and land use values, among other environmental questions. The research is also designed to help frame the discussion about potential immigrant contributions to a “place-based” environmental approach and whether new kinds of collaborations and coalitions could emerge through such an approach.

The first phase of the research includes surveys and interviews with immigrant gardeners and farmers regarding land values, environmental practices, and their home country experiences and background. The research will also evaluate the impact of immigrants on urban agriculture and urban-edge farming (both the numbers of farmers, amount of acreage, reliance on direct marketing, and type of farming) and the interest in, and practices associated with community gardening in urban settings. Additional research will be conducted in a second phase of the project on the use of public space, park and recreational use, urban density, and resource use issues.