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.