To engage older generations in the electoral process, young Sikh advocates take to community hubs like gurdwaras. Credit: The Sikh Coalition via Epicenter-NYC

Overview:

Quick summary: Reflecting on assisting her mother with voting in a local election and reading about civic interpreters, the author showcases how immigrant children and diaspora youth can empower their communities through discussions on voting and engaging in the civic process, as highlighted in reporting from URL Media partners Epicenter-NYC, Prism and WURD Radio.

Hey fam,

I remember helping my mother cast her ballot in a local election about 18 months ago. It was a quiet morning in the Bronx and we had been discussing the local races all week. My mother was on her way to work, and this was my last chance to help her vote before returning to D.C. later that day. I was willing and eager to join her.

The process felt seamless. We walked past the doors of my old elementary school, P.S. 93 — my family’s polling site for over 20 years — and I let an election worker know I’d be with my mother at her voting station to assist her with the ballot. They pulled up her ballot and we made our way to an empty booth.

While my mother, a naturalized citizen, can speak and understand conversational English, she often prefers more detailed explanations in her native language, which I do my best to provide. Because this was a citywide election, her ballot contained several propositions — issues put to a vote alongside the candidate sections. I read each proposition aloud, and we discussed her choices. We finished just in time for her to catch her bus to Manhattan. Mission accomplished.

I recognize my mother’s privilege in even being able to vote in an election. Earlier that week, I reminded her that not all immigrants have this privilege and that she should not take her right to vote for granted. She understood where I was coming from — after all, she’s voted in other elections (just not always the local ones). I felt good about encouraging my mom to take civic action; at the time, I didn’t think what I had created would align with the work of a “civic interpreter” until I read this story published by Epicenter-NYC a few days ago.

As part of the Queens-based publisher’s coverage of underrepresented communities and issues around the 2024 election, Epicenter-NYC prominently featured 25-year-old Yashpreet Singh, a civic interpreter from Michigan who is leading the next generation of civic engagement leaders and advocates to increase voting in his Sikh American community. Why?

Despite being a highly visible group in New York City, the Sikh American community isn’t as civically engaged for various reasons, such as language barriers, being canvassed less during political campaigns and enduring a long history of disenfranchisement starting in the mid-1900s in their native country.  

“My parents are not very involved because they were trained to be disengaged with politics because of how politics is in India itself, their country of origin,” Singh said. “And so that kind of idea has come into the U.S. as well — that it’s not worth engaging because nothing actually changes.”

Singh developed a six-month fellowship program where youth are learning how to engage the community on civic topics such as voter registration, both in person and on social media. They are also considering using places of worship as polling sites.   


What struck me while reading this was the resemblance to a sentiment I had read in a Prism story about the central role of Latinx voters in this year’s presidential elections. This major voting bloc, where 36.2 million people are eligible to vote, is also plagued by voter disenfranchisement.

“The vast majority of us are new to the political system,” said Ben Monterroso, a senior adviser at Poder Latinx, an organization focused on building political power for Latinx communities. “Many of us come from countries where politics has not worked for us, and we do not want to have anything to do with politics because it has been instilled in us that politics was not good.”

To add to this complexity, while the broader Latinx community has the power to change the results of an election in swing states like North Carolina and Nevada, organizations such as Poder Latinx face the unique challenge of addressing low voter turnout.

“That is one of the reasons why information and education on politics is important,” he added.  

What I learned from both of these civic interpreters who represent two unique and distinct immigrant communities is that, regardless of the systemic barriers standing between  community members and their right to vote, the youth can help elevate their voices in every election.

More: Nile Blass of the League of Women Voters shares how we can engage and empower young people to vote on WURD Radio 🎧

About 10 years ago, the Center for American Progress released a report projecting that by 2032, the 4.5 million U.S.-born children of at least one undocumented parent at the time would be able to potentially cast nearly 11 million ballots, swaying the future of politics in the country. The projection was nearly four times greater for children of all immigrants (41 million votes) and nearly five times greater for children of immigrants of Latino or Asian American descent (52 million).

Ten years later, we’re now hearing from those children who are ready to show up at the polls this November.

“Voting is important because it is a way to express our voice — especially for young people who are entering university or starting to work for the first time,” Andres Magana, 19, told Prism.

 Magana says he’s voting on behalf of his parents from Mexico who are ineligible to vote. “I am the first in my family who is going to vote. It makes me feel excited. I am the voice of my parents.”

If your parents, relatives or community elders are eligible to vote, here are a couple of starter questions you can ask to guide them through the process:

  • Are you registered to vote?
  • Do you know where your polling place is located? 
  • Have you researched the candidates and their positions?
  • Would you like help understanding any of the ballot measures or issues?

Ariam Alula (how to say it) is URL Media’s first audience manager. She works closely with URL Media’s Editorial Director and leads the network’s social and newsletter content while further developing and executing the brand’s strategic audience goals. Alula who was born and raised in The Bronx had this to say about her work upon joining the network in the fall of 2022.

“I'm committed to helping our audience understand how issues in their own backyard impact other BIPOC communities. Also, I believe that our network's content amplification and original reporting should fully reflect and affirm the customs and cultural norms of our multicultural, multidisciplinary, and geographically diverse audiences. As BIPOC communities have and continue to be grossly misrepresented by the mainstream media, this part of the work can’t be overstated. Also growing up as a child of immigrants, community is an integral part of my identity, and it's something I bring to URL Media every day.”

Before joining the network, Alula sharpened her range of skills and interests in newsletter curation and editing, audience strategy and research, and measuring and tracking impact. In recent years Alula has worked for many organizations in the journalism support space, such as Coda Story while based in the Republic of Georgia and U.S.-based organizations like the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Public Square Team at Democracy Fund, Online News Association and Women Do News. She has also written for the American Press Institute’s Need to Know newsletter.

Alula is also a proud graduate of the engagement journalism program at the Craig Newmark Journalism School at the City University of New York, where she spent 16 long, insightful and experimental months working with family caregivers of people with autism in New York City.