A new UCLA study published this week revealed that the Asian communities affected by the recent fires of the County Los Angeles had trouble accessing information on emergency evacuations and recovery efforts due to linguistic obstacles.
The study, which is part of a research series examining the impact of forest fires on the different racial and ethnic groups of the county, revealed that more than 12,000 of the 50,000 Asian immigrants and their descendants living in four zones evacuation need linguistic assistance. The fire areas are: Palisades, Eaton, Hurst and Hughes.
The group represents 15% of the total population of these four areas, but the researchers say that the data point to a shortage in multilingual communication alerts on fire warnings, evacuation procedures and emergency services.
“These linguistic needs are part of a broader challenge in the County of Los Angeles, where more than half a million Americans of Asian origin are classified as a mastery of limited English,” read the partly study.
Manjusha Kulkarni, Executive Director of Americans of Asian origin and Isian Equity Alliance, a coalition of 50 community organizations, said that among the complaints they had heard from residents, is that fire alerts were not sent in English and Spanish.
She said that some residents avoided the evacuation centers because there were no performers to help them, while others complained of not finding online information on fires in their native language.
“We have set up a resource guide that was in several languages by ourselves because we have seen that no one else was doing,” said Kulkarni. “It is available in English, traditional and simplified Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese and it includes information on refuge, housing, childcare … the whole range.”
The Resource Guide is available on the AAPI Equity Alliance website.
In a written declaration to the Times, the coordinated joint information center of the county, which is responsible for publishing public information in an emergency, said that alerts are limited to English and Spanish due to Limits of the integrated alert and alert system system which is maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“These alerts are only one of the many ways to notify the residents to evacuate their homes in an emergency,” said county officials. “Our answer also includes the use of the mail platform alert the county, door strokes or first stakeholders with speakers who roll in the streets.”
Comté officials said that its resource centers in the event of a disaster also include multilingual staff and county equipment that has been translated into several languages, notably Chinese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
“Many messages on social networks of the accounts of the county of the are regularly published in several languages, notably Korean and Chinese,” said the press release.
Next Wednesday, the county officials said, the weekly conferences of the supervisor council will be available in more than 60 languages thanks to real -time linguistic translation services.
While Asian researchers and American defenders applaud the efforts, they still urge Comté officials to assess the linguistic needs of Asian communities because they are made up of various ethnic groups that speak their own languages.
As part of the study, the researchers examined more closely the diversity of these communities in the four evacuation zones using the American census and the data of elementary schools to develop a profile of the people who live there.
The results of the study show that Asian languages commonly spoken in the four areas are Chinese, Koreans, Tagalog and Vietnamese. But there are also dozens of other languages, including the Cantonese, Thai, Punjabi and Hindi.
Researchers have found that the elderly, aged 45 and over, were more likely to have higher rates of skill in limited English, or LEP, which the American census defines as someone who speaks English less that “very good”.
The study shows that the palisades fire zone has the largest proportion of Asian LEPs, followed by those who live in the Eaton evacuation zone, where a large segment of the Asian population is located.
Chandara Pech, researcher and assistant director of the knowledge center of the UCLA district, the results of the study underline why civil servants must be more precise on the information they distribute to neighborhoods.
“Government agencies should not only focus on achieving the largest population affected by forest fires, but it should also prioritize the most vulnerable and difficult to reach communities,” Pech said.
Study, The fourth in the seriesAnother reminder of continuous effort is still to adapt the preparation and response to the emergency plans to the needs of vulnerable groups such as immigrants, the poor, the elderly and the disabled.
Two years after 2017 FiresTormsCalifornia has adopted a more serious approach to solving these problems by launching a nicknamed state program California listos. The program, which played a vital role in the distribution of information during the pandemic, helped prepare communities vulnerable for major disasters by associating with community groups and local governments.
Kulkarni hopes that the county leaders will do the same, in particular to approach the linguistic barriers, she believes to exist in the county emergency intervention plans.
“Language is an essential element in the supply of resources and services,” said Kulkarni. “And a number of these responsibilities are governmental, but (this) can and it should be associated with local community groups because we know the needs.”
“Let’s do things correctly,” she said, continuing. “Prepare us and ensure that we meet the needs of these people.”
California Daily Newspapers
