This summer, Amihan Matias was announced as the new Executive Director of the Massachusetts Asian American & Pacific Islanders Commission.
Established in 2006, the body promotes and highlights the AAPI community and assess its needs and challenges to best advocate for it on the state level. Its many functions include distributing grants to community organizations, organizing a youth council, and regularly surveying Massachusetts AAPI residents.
Matias spoke with Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes about her vision for the commission.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: this conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Matias: I'm a 1.5 generation immigrant from the Philippines, and I came to the U.S. with my family right after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed, which abolished national origin quotas.
It opened up the doors for more Asian immigrants to enter the country. And my father was a professional who took advantage of coming to the country to ensure a better way of life for his children and to provide opportunities for us here.
And as far as my background with regards to Asian American Pacific Islander communities, I've been deeply rooted in AAPI communities in both the Boston area as well as Massachusetts, and have really dedicated most of my life to supporting, serving, and strengthening our AAPI communities and leaders in the state.
I'm a founding member of the Massachusetts Asian and Pacific Islanders (MAP) for Health and the AAPI Alliance of Western Massachusetts. I've served on the board of the Asian American Resource Workshop and the steering committee of the Asian and Pacific Islander Women's Social Justice Project, and I also led the founding of the Jasmine Asian Women's Giving Circle, which was a project done in partnership with the Boston Women's Fund and the Haymarket People's Fund.
Landes: In a nutshell, if someone approached you and said, 'What are the major issues that the AAPI community here in Massachusetts are confronting here in 2026?' What kind of answer would you give to someone who knew nothing about the larger context of all this?
Matias: Well, first of all, I'd like to say that Asian Pacific Islander American communities have had the highest population growth among all racial ethnic groups. Our population growth in Massachusetts was 40% from 2014 to 2024, and our population size is about 650,000.
When you talk about the community — the Asian American Pacific Islander American community — it's not a monolithic group. There're more than 40 countries and over 100 languages and dialects represented.
I would say that some of the challenges are that there are some AAPI ethnic communities that are more disadvantaged and struggling economically that are obscured by the other AAPI communities that are actually doing better economically. Those are the communities that we really want to reach out and understand the needs that are specific to their communities and the struggles that they're encountering, so that we can find a way to address those needs, bring resources to those needs, and advocate for those needs.
Landes: Give us a sense of an example of that. What's an AAPI group that maybe is not getting as much attention or resources that maybe they could be getting?
Matias: I would say our Southeast Asian communities, so Cambodian communities, Vietnamese communities, and our Pacific Islander communities. They're smaller in population and size, but their needs are important and are also important to address and are significant.
Those are some of the communities that we would love to reach out to more, and also our immigrant communities, especially those that are being targeted by ICE and may be experiencing detention or deportation, those communities are experiencing great distress, separation of family members, mental health issues of people who have family members or who themselves are experiencing detention and deportation have really been a significant issue, and there's more and more experiences that are being shared and situations that are being made known of the level of mental health issues and strain that those communities are experiencing right now.
Landes: I'm speaking to you from Berkshire County, way out in the western reaches of Massachusetts. We often hear about regional inequity issues, broadly across the Commonwealth. How does that concept of rural Massachusetts being disadvantaged impact conversations about these groups you're talking about, be they immigrants, be they longstanding AAPI communities. Give us that sense for the rural part of the Commonwealth.
Matias: Well, first of all, I'd like to say that I actually live out in western Massachusetts, so I do have connections with AAPI communities out here in the western part of the state.
And what I would say is that there's concentrations of AAPI communities in some of our urban areas, particularly Springfield. But we have AAPI communities spread out throughout western Mass, including in your area and the Berkshires, that don't have pockets of resources or community as readily available to them, as I said, in other urban areas or the eastern part of the state. So finding ways to access those communities, pull them in.
One of the things that I think is really important, I mentioned to you, the diversity of our AAPI communities, and I think one of the things that is really important for the commission to do is to really pull communities together and unify them in solidarity, so that they can be a stronger voice and presence, so that we can advocate together for rights and needs of our communities.
Landes: Are there any other misconceptions about Massachusetts and its AAPI community, that you think is important to address as leader of the commission, like maybe misunderstandings about the community or its needs, or just not fully understanding the width and breadth of the complexities it contains?
Matias: There is the "model minority" myth that actually presents Asian American Pacific Islander Americans as incredibly successful in all sorts of ways, academically, financially, and so, there's this misconception that all AAPIs are doing fine, and that there aren't really major needs there. And if you take a look at the data, you'll see that yes, it is true that some of our communities are doing really well, but then some of our immigrant and refugee communities are not doing as well. There's a lower high school completion rate. People are struggling with poverty and access to resources and basic needs. And so, I think that that's the greatest misperception and myth about the community — is that we're all doing fine, so I think it's important to make sure that we are dispelling that misconception, misperception, and making sure that all of our communities are getting what they need.
Landes: What does this mean to you, as someone who, as you say, your family's story in America, in many ways, is still very fresh and new. And to rise to this commission, to be able to represent your community, emotionally or just as part of your own life story, what does this mean for you?
Matias: Both of my parents are college-educated professionals, and they came here because they were in pursuit of the American Dream, and they wanted their kids to have a better way of life, better education, access to resources and opportunities, and so they came here when they were in their early 20s, mid 20s, and left everything they knew to start a life in a new country, and they had all these dreams and ideals about what this country represented and what they would be able to have access to and participate in, and I'm actually living out in the Boston area in Massachusetts because my father experienced discrimination in his workplace, and that's why we relocated to this area.
I also have seen the ways in which my immigrant parents, who have accents, have been devalued and disrespected or diminished because they were seen as other. So, in my mind and in my heart, I've wanted to help create a more equitable world, a more humane and welcoming world where everybody, no matter where you come from, are welcome and valued and invited to fully participate and contribute. And right now, we're living in a very polarized world, and there's a climate that doesn't really extend a welcome to AAPI people or BIPOC or other marginalized communities, and so it's always been something that has been a deep commitment and passion of mine to rectify that and to create that world where everybody's humanity is held in the highest regard and with the deepest respect, and where people feel a sense of belonging and welcome, and where everybody can thrive because they can get what they need to thrive.
