January 3, 2025 | Vol. 54, Issue 1

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

Immigration

STEM, Healthcare Associate Degrees Can Be Ticket Out of Poverty, But Study Finds Vast Disparities in Success

While Massachusetts is home to the world’s most elite universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it’s often community colleges that provide a lifeline to many of the state’s least well-off students. That’s thanks largely to programs that offer associate degrees in healthcare specialties and “STEM” – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – fields. These often two-year degree and certificate programs can help students land high paying jobs in nursing, medical imaging and dental hygienics as well […]

Asian Community Fund Aims to Bridge Gaps for Region’s AAPI Communities

When the Asian Community Fund (ACF) launched in 2020, it set out with a clear mission: to unify and empower the Asian American Pacific Islander community across Massachusetts.Founded during a period of heightened anti-Asian racism and in response to research showing less that 1% of philanthropic giving reaches Asian communities, ACF has become a vital resource for increasing visibility and support for local Asian communities. “We’ve been so invisible to date,” says Executive Director Danielle Kim, highlighting how the AAPI […]

‘Palestine Is the New Vietnam,’ Says MIT Linguistics Professor DeGraff

MIT professor Michel Anne-Frederic DeGraff has a long history as an expert in linguistics. His study in the field has propelled his career in academia at one of the world’s most prestigious institutions. His recent political activism, however, has gotten him in trouble with that very university. DeGraff’s supposed crime? Taking the side of solidarity with Palestine at a time when universities around the nation have increasingly cracked down on pro-Palestinian activism. Originally a student of computer science in the […]

Holistic Approach Needed to Heal: Refugee Trauma Doctor

Dr. Lin Piwowarczyk, co-founder of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, has been working with torture victims and refugees for over 30 years. Specializing in the mental health evaluation and treatment of refugees and survivors of torture, she is currently the principal investigator for an Office of Refugee Resettlement grant addressing the holistic treatment of torture survivors. She spoke to Sampan at length about her life, her work, and what we can all do to protect human […]

Minority, Female Doctors at Teaching Hospitals Face Barriers to Job Advancement, Finds Study

Racial minorities and women face many barriers to getting promoted to advanced positions at teaching hospitals and in other academic medical jobs when compared with their white peers, found a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, “Race and Ethnicity, Gender, and Promotion of Physicians in Academic Medicine,” in fact, reveals persistent inequities in the career advancement of physicians within academic medicine. Disparities were particularly glaring for women and racial and ethnic minority groups. […]

Editorial: The Language Bullies Must Be Stopped

Two of the most damning accusations a person can face are being called a terrorist and an antisemite. It’s true, terrorism is abhorrent and antisemites are abhorrent. There is no question about either.But there is something equally as abhorrent: Falsely throwing these labels at people simply to silence them. The horrifying truth, however, is several people – especially minorities – have recently had their words incorrectly called either terrorist-related or anti-Semitic or both, and are facing real-life consequences for the […]

Korematsu’s Daughter Says Battle for Justice Now More Relevant Than Ever

At just 23 years old, Fred Korematsu would face the fight of his life: He stood up for his rights as an American citizen, refusing to report to incarceration camps for Japanese Americans during the second world war. He was then arrested and convicted for his defiance. He appealed in the following years, and his case went before the Supreme Court in 1944. The court ruled against him, calling his incarceration a military necessity. Today, his family members say, Korematsu’s […]

Immigration Attorney: Trump’s Plans Dire, But Not Unstoppable

The incoming administration of Donald Trump has vowed to purge the nation of undocumented immigrants and others, using unprecedented strategies. It’s promised to implement mass deportations, threatened a little-known concept of “remigration,” and even called for expanded efforts to denaturalize some groups of U.S. citizens. Trump’s pick for “Border Czar,” Thomas Homan, for example, recently said in a “60 Minutes” interview that one way to carry out mass deportations without separating families is to have families of mixed immigration and […]

The Suppressed Speech of Wamsutta (Frank B.) James

Editor’s note: The following is being reprinted with permission for two reasons. One, in honor of Native American Heritage Month, and, two, as a celebration of free speech and the right to freedom of expression and thought. The speech was to have been delivered at Plymouth in 1970. Three hundred fifty years after the Pilgrims began their invasion of the land of the Wampanoag, their “American” descendants planned an anniversary celebration. Still clinging to the white schoolbook myth of friendly […]

Some Immigrant Families Fear 2nd Trump Presidency

Central to President-elect Donald Trump’s victory on Nov. 5 was his harsh stance on immigration.Now that Trump is due to regain the presidency in January, anti-immigrant sentiment has dominated much of the news. Trump has pledged to hire 10,000 more border patrol agents—and it looks like the president-elect will hold true to his promise, as he and his team moves forward on a plan to divest certain Americans of their citizenship, part of a so-called “denaturalization” project has been in […]

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