Immigrant communities as resources for emancipation: a comparison of bounded solidarity in two Cambodian communities

Abstract

This article compares the sense of bounded solidarity as perceived by a selection of its community members and leaders in two Cambodian communities. Resettled Cambodians’ experiences were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with informants in Lyon, France, in 2010 and in Long Beach (CA), USA, in 2011, as well as by the study of literature and archival sources. The starting point of the research is the assumption that Cambodian refugees’ resettlement and social adaptation is sustained, primarily, by their immigrant communities. An immigrant community may provide the resources for social adaptation through organizing solidarity in a social network of voluntary and autonomous social organizations. Bounded solidarity is understood as a mechanism by which social ties are turned into sources of social capital for in-group members. In the discussion, both the constructive as well as the destructive attributes of the social capital related to bounded solidarity are taken into account. This is relevant as a comparison of experiences of a shared sense of solidarity in these two localities and may provide important insights into the impact of institutional structures and national ideologies on immigrants’ social adaptation as well as the span of community leaders’ agency in bringing together an immigrant community.

Keywords:

• bounded solidarity
• immigrant community
• social networks
• Cambodian refugees
• social adaptation

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Netherlands Organization for Social Research’ (NWO) Science for Global Development department (WOTRO) through the Cambodia Research Group, as well as the support of the Graduate School of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the VU University Amsterdam in preparing this article.

Notes

1. The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition and preventing cruelty to children or animals. The term charitable is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, the distressed or the underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erecting or maintaining public buildings, monuments or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighbourhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending human and civil rights secured by law; and combatting community deterioration and juvenile delinquency (website: www.irs.gov).

2. Association ‘Loi de 1901’ – ‘L’association est la convention par la quelle deux ou plusieurs personnes mettent en commun, d’une façon permanente, leurs connaissances ou leur activité dans un but autre que de partager des bénéfices. Elle est regie, quant à sa validité, par les principes généraux du droit applicable aux contracts et obligations’ (website: associations.gouv.fr) (The association is an agreement by which two or more people share, on a permanent basis, their knowledge or activity for a purpose other than to share the profits. It is governed, as to its validity, by the general principles of law applicable to contracts and obligations).

3. The importance of the Seiha movement is contested and certainly merits further research. For instance, in contrast to the former initiators, in another interview it is described as: ‘Seiha was like, not an organization but really loosely organized as a movement. Just several people who got together. They started in August and Hul Nil was the big man. they became a group but not very well structured. They just used the name of that meeting to project a general image. I don’t think it was really organized as to mean anything.’ (Interview Phnom Penh, September 2011)

4. In Long Beach interviews, religion was mentioned as of great importance to Cambodians, yet the local pagodas seemed a separate issue of conflict and are not neutral in their affiliations. Many small pagodas serve the Cambodians, producing fragmentation instead of unity. Many Cambodian Americans, also, have chosen other denominations.