Assembly Bill 1088 would require the Department of Industrial Relations and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to include the full spectrum of Asian American, as well as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander ethnicities in their data collection, consistent with those groups reported by the U.S. Census. In addition, this information would be made available to the public to ensure a level of transparency and accountability.
AB 1088's supporters, including the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality and Asian and Pacific Islanders California Action Network, have started an online petition urging Governor Jerry Brown to approve the bill:
Current state law requires state agencies to disaggregate data for major Asian ethnicities, including Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander ethnicities, including Native Hawaiian, Samoan, and Guamanian. AB 1088 would require the Department of Industrial Relations and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, to collect the same ethnic data as the U.S. Census, by adding the following ethnic groups: Bangladeshi, Fijian, Hmong, Indonesian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, Thai, and Tongan. In addition, AB 1088 would require data on AA and NHPI ethnic groups to be posted online and easily accessible – currently, that data is nearly impossible to find.For further information about Assembly Bill 1088, and to sign the petition at Change.org: California Governor Jerry Brown: Sign AB 1088 to more accurately count Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders. And here's some more coverage from California Watch: Bill to count more ethnic groups heads to Brown.
The costs to implement AB 1088 are minimal but the benefits are tremendous – they would give legislators, policy makers, foundations, government agencies and community groups access to critical information to better and more effectively serve Asian American, Native Hawaii, and Pacific Islander communities.
