Community Structure and Vietnamese Refugee Adaptation: The Significance of Context 1

Abstract

This article examines the significance of understanding the refugee experience as a product of the relationship between individual refugees and the larger social context or environment. It suggests that studies focusing upon such relationships, linking both micro and macrolevel data, could provide useful insights about refugee adaptation in varied contexts. To illustrate the usefulness of such an approach, an analysis of the effects of community structure upon the adjustment of a sample of Vietnamese refugees in America is presented.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Andrews

, 1978 “Life Event Stress, Social Support, Coping Style and Risk of Psychological Impairment”, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 166:307–16.

Barakat

H.I.

1973 “The Palestinian Refugees: An Uprooted Community Seeking Repatriation”, International Migration Review. 7 (2):147–160.

Barton

A.H.

1968 “Bringing Society Back in Survey Research and Macro-Methodology”, American Behavioral Scientist, 12 (2):1–9.

Brody

E.B.

ed. 1969 Behavior in New Environments: Adaptation of Migrant Populations. Beverly Hills: Sage.

Brofenbrenner

1979 The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Brown

G.W.

1974 “Meaning, Measurement and Stress of Life Events”. In Stressful Life Events: Their Nature and Effects. Edited by Dohrenwend

B.S.

and Dohrenwend

B.P.

New York: Wiley. Pp. 217–243.

Cobb

1976 “Social Support as a Moderator of Life Stress”, Psychosomatic Medicine, 38:300–314.

David

H.P.

1969 “Involuntary International Migration: Adaptation of Refugees”. In Behavior in New Environments: Adaptation of Migrant Populations. Edited by Brody

E.B.

Beverly Hills: Sage. Pp. 73–95

Dean

and Lin

1977 “The Stress-Buffering Role of Social Support: Problems and Prospects for Systematic Investigation”, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 16:403–417.

10.

Dohrenwend

B.P.

and Dohrenwend

B.S.

1969 Social Status and Psychological Disorder: A Causal Inquiry. New York: Wiley-Interscience.

11.

Dohrenwend

B.S.

and Dohrenwend

B.P.

1974 Stressful Life Events: Their Nature and Effects. New York: John Wiley.

12.

1966 Adjustment After Migration: A Longitudinal Study of the Process of Adjustment by Refugees to a New Environment. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

13.

Giordano

1973 Ethnicity and Mental Health: Research and Recommendations. New York: Institute of Human Relations.

14.

Giordano

and Giordano

G.P.

1977 The Ethno-Cultural Factor in Mental Health: A Literature Review and Bibliography. New York: Institute on Pluralism and Group Identity.

15.

Goldlust

and Richmond

A.H.

1974 “A Multi-Variate Model of Immigrant Adaptation”, International Migration Review, 8:193–225.

16.

Gordon

M.M.

1974 Assimilation of American Life. New York: Oxford University Press.

17.

Gore

1978 “The Effect of Social Support on Moderating the Health Consequences of Unemployment”, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19:157–165.

18.

Hagen

E.E.

1962 On the Theory of Social Change. Homewood, IL: Dorsey.

19.

Hessler

R.M.

, 1971 “Demographic Context, Social Interaction and Perceived Health Status: Excedrin Headache #1,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 12:191–199. Sept.

20.

Hollingshead

A.B.

and Redlich

F.C.

1958 Social Class and Mental Illness. New York: Wiley.

21.

Holmes

and Rahe

1967 “The Social Readjustment Rating Scale”, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11:213–218.

22.

Homans

G.C.

1950 The Human Group. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.

23.

Keller

S.L.

1975 Uprooting and Social Change: The Role of Refugees in Development. Delhi: Manohar Book Service.

24.

Kelly

G.P.

1977 From Vietnam to America: A Chronicle of Vietnamese Immigration to the United States. Boulder: Westview Press.

25.

Kent

D.P.

1953 The Refugee Intellectual. New York: Columbia University Press.

26.

Kessler

R.C.

1979 “A Strategy for Studying Differential Vulnerability to the Psychological Consequences of Stress”, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 20:100–108.

27.

Kunz

E.F.

1981 “Exile and Resettlement: Refugee Theory”, International Migration Review, 15:42–51.

28.

Kunz

E.F.

1973 “The Refugee in Flight: Kinetic Models and Forms of Displacement”, International Migration Review, 7:125–146.

29.

Kuo

W.H.

and Lin

1977 “Assimilation of Chinese-Americans in Washington, D.C.”, Sociological Quarterly, 18:340–352.

30.

Langner

T.S.

and Michael

S.T.

1963 Life Stress and Mental Health. New York: Free Press.

31.

Lazersfeld

P.F.

and Menzel

1961 “On the Relation between Individual and Collective Properties”. In Complex Organizations: A Sociological Reader. Edited by Etzioni

New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Pp. 422–440.

32.

Light

I.H.

1972 Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business Welfare Among Chinese, Japanese and Blacks. Berkeley: University of California Press.

33.

Lin

K.M.

, Tazuma

and Masuda

1979 “Adaptational Problems of Vietnamese Refugees: I. Health and Mental Status”, Archives of General Psychiatry 36:955–961.

34.

Liu

W.T.

, Lamanna

and Muratta

A.K.

1979 Transition to Nowhere: Vietnamese Refugees in America. Nashville: Charter House Publishers.

35.

Lyman

S.M.

ed. 1977 The Asian in North America. Santa Barbara, CA.: ABC-Clio.

36.

Montero

1979 Vietnamese Americans: Patterns of Resettlement and Socio-Economic Adaptation in the United States. Boulder: Westview Press.

37.

Morrison

and Zabusky

C.F.

1980 American Mosaic: The Immigrant Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It. New York: E.P. Dutton.

38.

Murphy

H.B.M.

ed. 1955 Flight and Resettlement. Paris: UNESCO.

39.

North

and Grodsky

1979 Immigration Literature: Abstracts of Demographic, Economic and Policy Studies. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service.

40.

Perlin

L.L.

and Schooler

1978 “The Structure of Coping”, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19:2–21.

41.

Portes

1968 “Dilemmas of the Golden Exile: Integration of Cuban Refugee Families in Milwaukee”, American Sociological Review, 34:505–518.

42.

Que

L.T.

, Rambo

A.T.

and Murfin

G.D.

1976 “Why They Fled: Refugee Movement During the Spring 1975 Community Offensive in South Vietnam”, Asian Studies, 16 (9):855–867.

43.

Rogg

E.M.

1974 The Assimilation of Cuban Exiles: The Role of Community and Class. New York: Aberdeen Press.

44.

Ross

C.E.

and Mirowsky

II 1979 “A Comparison of Life-Event-Weighting Schemes: Change, Undesirability, and Effect-Proportional Indices”, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 20:166–177.

45.

Starr

P.D.

1981 “Troubled Waters: Vietnamese Fisherfolk on America's Gulf Coast”, International Migration Review, 15:226–238 Spring-Summer.

46.

Starr

P.D.

and Roberts

A.E.

1982 “Attitudes Toward New Americans: Perceptions of Indochinese in Nine Cities”. In Research in Race and Ethnic Relations: Vol. III. Edited by Marrett

C.B.

and Leggon

Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

47.

Stein

B.N.

1981a “The Refugee Experience: Defining the Parameters of a Field of Study”, International Migration Review, 15:320–330. Spring-Summer.

48.

Stein

B.N.

1981b “Refugee Research Bibliography”, International Migration Review, 15:331–393. Spring-Summer

49.

Stein

B.N.

1979 “Occupational Adjustment of Refugees: The Vietnamese in the United States”, International Migration Review, 13:25–45. Spring.

50.

Thomas

J.E.

1967 “Cuban Refugees in the United States”. International Migration Review, 1 (2):46–57.

51.

U.S. Bureau of the Census 1975 Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1975, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

52.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement 1981 Refugee Resettlement in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

53.

Vinokur

and Selzer

M.L.

1975 “Desirable Versus Undesirable Life Events: Their Relationship to Stress and Mental Distress”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32:329–37.

54.

Weiermair

1971 “Economic Adjustment of Refugees in Canada: A Case Study”, International Migration, 9.

55.

Weinstock

S.A.

1979 Acculturation and Occupation: A Study of the 1956 Hungarian Refugees in the United States. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

56.

Williams

A.W.

, Ware

J.E.

Jr. , and Donald

C.A.

1981 “A Model of Mental Health, Life Events, and Social Support Applicable to General Populations”, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22:324–336. Dec.

57.

Zwingmann

1977 Uprooting and Related Phenomena: A Descriptive Bibliography. Geneva: World Health Organization.

58.

Zwingmann

C.A.

and Pfister-Ammende

1973 Uprooting and After… New York: Springer Verlag.