Citation

Pho TL, Mulvey A. Frontiers 2003; 24(1): 101-129.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Frontiers Editorial Collective, Publisher University of Nebraska Press)

DOI

10.1353/fro.2003.0021

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Between 1975 and 1995 more than one million Southeast Asian refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam settled in the United States. They are an ethnically diverse group with a wide range of socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. Some are tribal mountain dwellers and farmers with limited literacy, and others are urban professionals holding advanced degrees. They suffered directly or indirectly the effects of the Vietnam War and the turmoil of forced resettlement on another continent. The populations that are most vulnerable to the effects of the war and refugee relocation are women and children. However, the postwar effects of resettlement on women and children in the United States have not been adequately studied or documented. Many of the existing studies overlook the interpersonal relationships between wives and husbands or between parents and children and how their integration into American society has reinforced or weakened these relationships.