Chhaya CDC’s “Deepening Roots and Creating Space” discusses about the challenges South Asians face and some proposed solutions. By utilizing census and surveys, Chhaya CDC was able to pinpoint some core issues the immigrants face. The first issue they addressed was the housing issue. The South Asian communities have grown significantly in the past decade, which is during the “country’s worst economic crisis”. Because the economic hardship, not only has it been hard for the South Asians to purchase a house, there has been many cases of overcrowded families. Also, the process of buying a house is also a hassle. Most of the housing contracts require some sort of income report. However, since most of these people are self-employed, they face disadvantages in housings issues.

In my opinion, the basic problem these people face is the language barrier. Being an immigrant myself, I also have had problems because I couldn’t communicate with others. It really is frustrating. Because you can’t communicate, you don’t want to interact with the society, which is why the first generation immigrants have hard time getting a job. Although these immigrants have received decent education, they can’t succeed in American because they can’t find the opportunities. As mentioned in the article, half of the selected group of people had college degree but only 8% of them were working in a professional field. That really shows how big this cultural barrier is.

Learning language surprisingly gives you a lot of confidence. You don’t feel as helpless as before. You feel like you can contribute and help others. Being able to communicate is really the key. A lot of these immigrants have the education that the society wants. However, that simple lack of communication is what’s blocking these immigrants from adapting into the society. That’s why, for the immigrants, there is a huge barrier to numerous opportunities.