AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community

Numerous studies have examined the effects of welfare reform on the employment and caseload dynamics of welfare recipients in California. Yet, despite their overrepresentation among welfare recipients, Southeast Asians have received relatively little scholarly attention. This study explores one explanation for this finding-the challenges of collecting data on Southeast Asian welfare recipients and, in particular, the difficulties associated with surveying this population group. These difficulties include attracting adequate funding to recruit sizeable Southeast Asian samples,; translating survey materials into Southeast Asian languages,; and effectively administering surveys among a highly mobile population group with low English language proficiency. To strengthen research on this important but understudied population group, researchers must build political and financial support for such research; develop appropriate research designs informed by an understanding of the characteristics of Southeast Asian families, communities, and welfare recipients; rely on refugee support organizations to help overcome resistance to participating in survey research; and make the data available to interested scholars to maximize the impact of these data collection efforts.