Assimilation through transnationalism: second-generation refugees and Vietnamese transnational organizing

ABSTRACT

Transnational organizations are primarily studied from the perspective of first-generation migrants and how cross-border interactions shape their identities. This study focusses on transnational activism among the second-generation, the children of refugees, asking how refugee status affects second-generation transnationalism. By analysing the case study of Vietnamese refugees in the United States, the largest refugee re-settlement effort in American history, the article analyses an originally curated database of transnational organizations (n = 632), as well as a survey of 80 organizational leaders. Findings show that participation in transnational organizations offers new ways of understanding one’s identity and social mobility in the United States and in Vietnam. This transnational point of reference includes transnational labour market opportunities and the transforming of identities from learning about silenced histories in refugee families. Transnational activism creates an alternative reference category for integration outside the common reference groups including intergenerational mobility, native co-ethnics, and the general US population.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational organizations
• refugees
• forced migration
• second-generation
• Vietnamese
• assimilation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The data did not identify the year of arrival or the age at migration for first-generation refugees.

2 Organizational development in Vietnam has increased since Doi Moi because of changing opinions and attitudes toward international organizations. The power of Vietnamese American NGOs includes their ability to garner support from local governments and civil society actors. See Wischermann et al. (2015).

3 Examples of national policies and initiatives that target the return migration of second-generation Vietnamese who are living abroad are aplenty. In 2003, the “Fund for persuading the Overseas Community” was initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to include projects that provided Vietnamese language training for overseas youth in addition to cultural exchange programs and conferences on investment opportunities aimed at second-generation Vietnamese. In 2004, the “Politburo Resolution Number 36” was enacted to not only attract foreign investment from overseas Vietnamese but to also lure overseas brainpower by offering incentives and rewards to highly skilled ex-patriots to return to Vietnam. In 2007, the national government enacted a visa waiver program which provided overseas Vietnamese (both first- and second-generations) with a five-year travel visa that allowed them to enter and leave the country without restrictions. In 2009, overseas Vietnamese were granted dual citizenship (Huynh and Yiu 2016).