Darrel Montero - Vietnamese Americans: Patterns Of Resettlement And Socioeconomic Adaptation In The United States

This book documents and analyses the migration of Indochinese refugees to the United States. And, employing data from a national sample, it reports on the changing socio-economic status of the Vietnamese refugees. The author, director of the Urban Ethnic Research Program at Arizona State University, focuses on the patterns of the refugees socio-economic adaptation and resettlement. In order to do that, the book begins with a chapter devoted to a brief history of Viet Nam, the nation and its people, beginning from pre-history up to 1975. In Chapter Three, there is a discussion of the arrival of the Vietnamese refugees in the United States. A demographic profile of the refugees is included to identify the characteristics of those who felt compelled to leave their native land and start life anew. A look at the refugee camps, voluntary agencies, and sponsors provides one basis for assessing the refugees adaptation to American life. In Chapter IV, Professor Montero analyses the results of five sample surveys concerning changing socio-economic status over a two-year period based upon a population of some 35,000 refugees. Chapter V has a socio-historical model of the Vietnamese migration experience which attempts to predict the prospects for future socio-economic adaptation and cultural assimilation of the Vietnamese. The last chapter summarizes the general findings and discusses the continuing influx of refugees from Indo-China as well as the status of research on the Vietnamese. Extensive tables in the appendices provide socio-economic data on the refugee population.