Include Southeast Asian American ethnic studies in school curricula

Six people wear traditional attire adorned with flowers

Learning about the histories, culture, and experiences of our diverse communities, including SEAAs, benefits all students.

Key resources:

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“I’m constantly telling people about our history, or some of the struggles we are going through, because they don’t get to learn about it. [Teachers] don’t teach it in school. I have to educate people about us, and that’s hard.”

From our “Can You See Me” report

“Next year, it will be 50 years since our Hmong families left their homeland to escape war and come to America, and yet many people still don’t know why we are here and who we are.”

AAPI Coalition of Wisconsin

“Recognizing the Laotian refugee experience in our schools not only provides Southeast Asian American youth with the visibility, acknowledgment, and celebration they deserve but also enriches the education of all students by deepening their understanding around a subject that is historically overlooked.”

Laotian American National Alliance
Shania smiling.

“Ethnic studies is particularly important for Asian Americans because the racialization of Asian Americans is deeply haunted by American and European military intervention and imperialism in Asia and the foundations of settler-colonialism and anti-Blackness in the United States.”

SEARAC intern
People pose, some jumping in the area, around a sign saying Made By Refugees

People Power in Action

Post-its and handwritten messages on a posterboard labeled with the year 1975

Increase federal funding for Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions

These colleges and universities are essential for increasing higher education access and success to low-income, first generation Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students, including SEAAs.

Increase federal funding to support SEAA students’ success

SEAAs’ refugee history, their invisibility in education data and policy, and systemic racism create barriers to our students’ educational success. Our government must address the disparities that SEAA students experience and invest in their futures.

From #immigrant caregivers navigating enforcement fears, to #LGBTQ+ caregivers seeking recognition for chosen family, belonging in #caregiving is deeply shaped by policy. SEARAC is proud to join the Diverse Elders Coalition, @nhcoa , and @sageusa to bring that conversation to @asaging On Aging 2026 through story, data, and practical tools for change.  Join us April 20 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta in Room Courtland.  #OnAging2026

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Today we recognize the wage gap between Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women and white non-Hispanic men. AANHPI women earned about 83¢ to every $1. And that's just the average — for Southeast Asian women the gap is far worse.

We need to come together to break down economic barriers that affect the AANHPI community. Regardless of our race, gender, income, or immigration status, #AANHPIEqualPay benefits us all.

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All families deserve to be together, but cruel and inhumane immigration policies are tearing families apart. Despite serving his sentence, Van Vu was still detained by ICE and his family has been left to pick up the pieces. This “double punishment” is re-traumatizing immigrant and refugee communities who are trying to heal and live in safety with their families. Read the article from @publicradiotulsa at the link in our bio. 

Repost from @publicradiotulsa: Van Vu and his wife, Mai Nguyen, are refugees from Vietnam. Vu arrived in the U.S. in 1981 at the age of four. He and his four siblings fled the country still reeling from the devastation of the Vietnam War. 

“We have this trauma growing up,” Nguyen said, “and we made something else of ourselves.”

That dream, however, was abruptly halted when Vu was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a routine check-in this year.

Vu and thousands of other Southeast Asian immigrants have been confined to ICE detention over non-violent convictions that are decades old.

Read the story at publicradiotulsa.org

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