Becoming Refugee American

The Politics of Rescue in Little Saigon

Phuong Tran Nguyen (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

236 Seiten

2017
University of Illinois Press (Verlag)
978-0-252-08288-7 (ISBN)

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Vietnamese refugees fleeing the fall of South Vietnam faced a paradox. The same guilt-ridden America that only reluctantly accepted them expected, and rewarded, expressions of gratitude for their rescue. Meanwhile, their status as refugees-as opposed to willing immigrants-profoundly influenced their cultural identity. Phuong Tran Nguyen examines the phenomenon of refugee nationalism among Vietnamese Americans in Southern California. Here, the residents of Little Saigon keep alive nostalgia for the old regime and, by extension, their claim to a lost statehood. Their refugee nationalism is less a refusal to assimilate than a mode of becoming, in essence, a distinct group of refugee Americans. Nguyen examines the factors that encouraged them to adopt this identity. His analysis also moves beyond the familiar rescue narrative to chart the intimate yet contentious relationship these Vietnamese Americans have with their adopted homeland. Nguyen sets their plight within the context of the Cold War, an era when Americans sought to atone for broken promises but also saw themselves as providing a sanctuary for people everywhere fleeing communism.

Phuong Tran Nguyen was born in Vietnam and migrated to the United States a few years after the Vietnam War. He is an assistant professor of history at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Erscheinungsdatum	02.11.2017
Reihe/Serie	Asian American Experience
Zusatzinfo	6 black & white photographs
Verlagsort	Baltimore
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	340 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-252-08288-5 / 0252082885
ISBN-13	978-0-252-08288-7 / 9780252082887
Zustand	Neuware