Changing Identities: Vietnamese Americans 1975 - 1995

Rating:
Summary: From refugees to immigrants
Review: The beginning of the book focuses on the context of sudden immigration in 1975 as refugees sought to flee from Vietnam. Then it discusses following waves of immigration and the differences between those who came to America right after the war, and those who came later, the differences in the policies facing them, as well as attitudes towards them. The next three chapters discuss Vietnamese immigrants' experiences and attitudes on employment, education, and families. James Freeman speaks of the immigrant group as a whole, but also tries to illuminate individual idiosyncrasies in these matters through various interviews and accounts.

I was expecting a dry anthropological study, but instead found that CHANGING IDENTITIES was quite interesting and very informative. It deals with Vietnamese in America, how and why many of them came here, and their varied experiences in this country. It is easy for a book like this to make strange generalizations that would, to a Vietnamese American, ring untrue. And this book may make some such claims (I wouldn't know). But James Freeman makes an effort in describing the commonalities within Vietnamese communities to emphasize also the plurality of experiences among the group.

Rating:
Summary: From refugees to immigrants
Review: The beginning of the book focuses on the context of sudden immigration in 1975 as refugees sought to flee from Vietnam. Then it discusses following waves of immigration and the differences between those who came to America right after the war, and those who came later, the differences in the policies facing them, as well as attitudes towards them. The next three chapters discuss Vietnamese immigrants' experiences and attitudes on employment, education, and families. James Freeman speaks of the immigrant group as a whole, but also tries to illuminate individual idiosyncrasies in these matters through various interviews and accounts.

I was expecting a dry anthropological study, but instead found that CHANGING IDENTITIES was quite interesting and very informative. It deals with Vietnamese in America, how and why many of them came here, and their varied experiences in this country. It is easy for a book like this to make strange generalizations that would, to a Vietnamese American, ring untrue. And this book may make some such claims (I wouldn't know). But James Freeman makes an effort in describing the commonalities within Vietnamese communities to emphasize also the plurality of experiences among the group.