Reaching the Ethnic Minorities: Earthquake Public Education in the Aftermath of Foreign Disasters

Abstract

Public education programs intended to increase individual and household preparations for earthquakes often prove to be disappointingly ineffective, especially in reaching minorities and ethnic groups outside the mainstream of community life. This paper argues that the success of such programs can be improved by understanding the ebb and flow of earthquake saliency as well as the complex social structure of our cities. In particular, earthquakes and other major disasters in the ancestral homeland represent “teachable moments” when receptivity to earthquake safety information may be especially high among members the ethnic community with a variety of psychological and personal links to that nation. The paper presents specific suggestions for taking fullest advantage of these teachable moments.