Overcoming Language Barriers for Meaningful Civic Engagement

Harjit Singh is the Greater Sacramento and Yuba City Community Organizer for the Jakara Movement

Lack of communication and language access create significant barriers for Asian Pacific Islander (API) communities to engage in their civic duties. These duties range from voting to completing the census. For those who do not speak English as their first language, the first hurdle they face is whether or not there is in-language support for their language. In a best-case scenario, there may be translated forms available for that person. Then, the next hurdle is that often, these translations do not accurately interpret the meaning and intent behind the English document. These barriers dissuade API communities to engage meaningfully with civic opportunities and duties. This holds true for the Punjabi community in California, and more specifically within the Sacramento region.

Although 2020 is a crucial election year, Census 2020 will have more long-standing effects for the next ten years. For this reason, Jakara Movement is focusing on census outreach to ensure that the Punjabi community is counted. An accurate count gives our local communities more funding and resources. It also allows diverse linguistic communities to advocate for more language resources.

To ensure that Punjabis are counted in the Sacramento region, Jakara Movement has utilized local Punjabi media to spread initial messaging. We have spoken on Punjabi radio stations once a month exclusively about the census. This has given space for listeners to call in and ask questions about the census.

Last year’s APIs RISE Fund support to the Jakara Movement was used to hold a focus group to create clear and concise messaging for our printed materials. Using this messaging, we printed fliers and banners to conduct outreach at major events. We tested the effectiveness of these messages at the annual Yuba City Sikh Parade. We hung our 52-foot banners on a float that drove through the entire parade and reached over 100,000 Punjabi speakers from the local Sacramento and northern California region and from throughout the state. Many people were able to read the messages large and clear: the who, what, when, where, and why complete the census. These banners will be utilized at future community events in Sacramento as well.

As we ramp up to do canvassing outreach, we have been training our student volunteers to gain proficiency in speaking about the census. They have been making announcements and speaking one-on-one with community members at local Gurdwaras in Sacramento. (A Gurdwara is a place of assembly and worship for Sikhs. People from all faiths, and those who do not profess any faith, are welcome in Gurdwaras.) Here volunteers and community members get to talk about the census in a safe, familiar, and comfortable environment. Eventually, we hope to move these volunteers into canvassing positions in the communities. 

Our efforts will benefit not only the Punjabi community, but the larger API community members who live in the hard-to-count areas to learn about the census so that they will overcome language and other barriers to participate in the census.