Policy Change

At least 5.8 mil­lion South Asians live and work in the Unit­ed States today, as found by Pew Research Cen­ter. Togeth­er, our com­mu­ni­ty con­sti­tutes a vital part U.S. cul­ture, econ­o­my, and pol­i­tics. Yet, state and inter­per­son­al vio­lence, invoked by and through racial and reli­gious pro­fil­ing, dis­crim­i­na­to­ry immi­gra­tion poli­cies, post‑9/11 back­lash, and con­tin­ued casteism, sex­ism, and anti-Black racism, pre­vent many South Asians from thriving.

SAALT’s pol­i­cy and advo­ca­cy began in the days after Sep­tem­ber 11th, 2001, when the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty came togeth­er against  unprece­dent­ed lev­els of hate vio­lence in the forms of racial pro­fil­ing, dis­crim­i­na­tion, xeno­pho­bia and arbi­trary deten­tions by the U.S. gov­ern­ment. Read more about SAALT’s his­to­ry here. Today, SAALT’s pol­i­cy and advo­ca­cy work includes the fol­low­ing strategies:

  • Mon­i­tor­ing fed­er­al, state, and local poli­cies that relate to the South Asian community;
  • Pre­sent­ing the needs and con­cerns of the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty in meet­ings and com­mu­ni­ca­tions with local, region­al, and nation­al leaders;
  • Devel­op­ing com­mu­ni­ty edu­ca­tion tools, work­shops, and cur­ric­u­la on the impact of var­i­ous poli­cies and sys­tems for South Asian com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and com­­mu­ni­­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions; and
  • Par­tic­i­pat­ing in coali­tions with ally orga­ni­za­tions with­in and out­side of the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty to sup­port val­ues-aligned change.

As part of our work in artic­u­lat­ing the pri­or­i­ties of the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty, SAALT focus­es its exper­tise on the fol­low­ing core issue areas:

When address­ing these core issue areas, or explor­ing relat­ed dia­logues around move­ment strat­e­gy, eco­nom­ic jus­tice, or trends in jour­nal­ism, SAALT strives to cen­ter inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty, know­ing that no one area of work can be stud­ied or respond­ed to in a silo.