Celebrating the AAPIS in Maryland: expanding homeownership opportunities By Emerick Peace For many years, the month of May has been significant to the AAPIS community in celebration of histories of American healing from across the Asian continent and from the pacific islands of Melanesia and Polynesia. May 7 is referred to as marks the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the united states while may 10th recognizes the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the US. This celebration is meant for the AAPIS community to speak out their thought, share stories, celebrate Asian culture and debunk myths about the Asian community.
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n the last 40 years, the AAPIS community has increased significantly from 3.6 million in 1980 to 18.8 million in 2019. AAPIS community has experienced the fastest growth since the year 2000 in any ethical group in the nation. This has been a result of increases in awareness among many groups of people that make up the AAPIS population during this celebration. AAPIS community consist of many groups with different origin, history, food, and language. When this community is brought together by this celebration, people speak out their opinion which creates awareness among this community thus expanding homeownership. Additionally, the reduction of gaps existing among the AAPIS community has a huge contribution to expansions of opportunity in
homeownership. AAPIS homeownership varies depending on each ethnic group, citizenship status, and social-economic status among AAPIS groups. Through this celebration, different groups come together to interact and get to understand each other, share stories of their origin and at the end, they develop a sense of belonging and debunk the AAPIS myth. This results in uniting different groups into a single unit with a sense of belonging to each other thus helping each other to attain homeownership. Attainment of education has also increased homeownership among the AAPIS community. Education has equipped people with knowledge that has eliminated some myths about the AAPIS community and improved their economic status thus being able to acquire their own homes. MAY 2022 | 27
