MN  Future  of  the  Internet  Public  Hearing  
August  19,  2010  
Comments  by  Bryan  Thao  Worra  
 
My name is Bryan Thao Worra and I am the Assistant Director for the  Lao
Assistance Center of Minnesota—a member of MAG-Net. I am a Fellow in
Literature with the  National Endowment for the Arts, and I have been a resident of
Minnesota  for over 12 years working on national, regional and local issues of  
refugee resettlement, the arts and media access.  

I am submitting this testimony in deep support of the principles of net neutrality

and the development of equitable access for all members of American society.
Drawing upon my experiences and observations with the 25,000 Lao refugees in
Minnesota and over 400,000 Lao refugees across the United States, I can say that
effective access to the internet is a vital cornerstone for our community to
overcome regional, local and national challenges of economic and social
disparity.

Many figures will point to the great disconnect between the media and refugee
communities already, many of whom are heavily affected by the digital divide. We
were encouraged to see this as an era of digital opportunities, but this simply has
not happened for Lao refugees, and many other communities in similar positions,
including Cambodian, Karen, Hmong, Bhutanese, Nepalese, Tai Dam, Mien,
Tibetan, and Vietnamese, as well as African refugees from the Oromo, Ogaden,
Somali and Liberian communities among many others.

Many continue to live in linguistically isolated households, and many live well
below the federal poverty line that makes even basic internet access something of a
luxury to obtain. At the Lao Assistance Center we established a computer lab to
help limited-English refugees conduct job searches, ESL and find ways to remain in
contact with loved ones and family still separated overseas and in distant parts of
the country.
We are working every day to help refugees build the computer skills they badly
need to survive and thrive in the modern world. Yet, the emerging threats to net
neutrality threaten to undermine the very principles on which the internet was
established.

It's far too easy for us to see the unintended consequences where a tiered system of
access to the internet can place refugees and immigrants at risk as many media
agencies and others turn increasingly to multimedia presentations for their
broadcasts for which many of the existing households have inadequate bandwidth
capacity already.

I understand we have limited time to discuss the matter but allow me to assure you
that from the perspective of Lao American refugees and their families, and many
others, that net neutrality is a key aspect of our effective stabilization and our route
to rebuilding and recovery. We strongly encourage policies that preserve and
enhance ease of access to information and services, rather than approaches
that would restrict access and reduce our community to third and fourth class
citizens.

Respectfully submitted,
Bryan Thao Worra
Assistant Director
Lao Assistance Center