Kinship in Vietnamese Refugee Resettlement: A Review of the U.S. Experience

Abstract

Over the period from 1975 to 1985, approximately one half million refugees from Vietnam were resettled in the United States. Their experience has generated a large and eclectic body of research. This article reviews one aspect of that research: the ways in which kinship changes and continues across the exodus experience, and the way it affects refugee adaptation to the United States. Specifically, the paper describes: (1) the structure of Vietnamese kinship; (2) the changes and continuities in family structure across the migration experience; (3) the interaction of kinship with refugee economic adjustment; and (4) some of the ways in which kinship conditions non-economic aspects of adjustment. Concluding remarks consider the current status of this body of research and the potential it has within the broader context of immigrant adaptation.