Our History
Started in 2016, APIs CAN came together in order to build the political power of working class, immigrant and refugee pan-Asian communities, particularly in areas where there is now a concentration of Asian and Pacific Islander communities but lacking political representation.
As part of our work to build a network of progressive, working class APIA organization, APIs CAN has focused on building a shared civil rights agenda for the APIA community in Massachusetts, expanding from only working on issues of voting and civic action to engaging APIA communities on a wide range of issues and representing the perspective of working-class APIA communities within the mainstream discourse in our state.
This expansion of work began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when our groups came together to address both the rise of anti-Asian violence and the immediate needs of our communities, including food, rental relief, and unemployment. Through this crisis response and expanded work, we built trust across the coalition and identified the need to expand our work. Now, APIs CAN continues to play a key role in leading civic participation, language access, and voting access for AAPI communities, while continuing to work on the root causes of anti-Asian violence and racism through our civil rights agenda. This is coupled with coordinating on responding to individual cases of anti-Asian violence and working together to create broad narrative change.
The Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) communities in Massachusetts have historically been underrepresented and marginalized. In addition to the discriminatory laws and practices put in place at the federal level, Asian and Pacific Islander communities in Massachusetts have faced various barriers.
When Southeast Asian migrants settled in East Boston, Dorchester, Lowell and Lawrence, and Worcester in the 1970s and 1980s after escaping their war-torn countries, they faced nativism and racial hostility where they became the targets of widespread harassment and abuse. A 1987 report by the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) described the racial hostility and harassment as including banging on doors, rock throwing, verbal abuse, and police violence. Vandalism to Asian immigrants’ homes, cars, and other properties were common as well as physical attacks and arson.
Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, South Asian, Muslim, and Sikh communities in Massachusetts experienced heightened surveillance, particularly in community and religious gathering spaces. With the start of the Trump Administration in 2016 and continuing to the present second Trump Administration, Southeast Asian communities in the Commonwealth have seen a significant rise in detentions by ICE and deportations. Such hostility and harassment continue to this day, especially in the post-COVID-19 years where communities across the country have experienced a sharp increase in harassment and violence against Asian people, especially Asian elders.
Now, as we face direct attacks against immigrant communities by the federal government, APIs CAN is leading efforts for pan-Asian and multiracial, multilingual, and working class solidarity in Massachusetts through our diverse coalition, advocacy platform, training and community defense curriculum, and intersection approach to community-driven organizing.