Vietnamese Americans

Book excerpt: As of November 1978, more than 170,000 Indochinese refugees had come to the United States after a traumatic flight from their native land, arriving with little preparation for the changes they would face. This book documents and analyzes this unique migration and, employing data from a national sample, reports on the changing socioeconomic status of the Vietnamese refugees. Dr. Montero presents and analyzes data on the refugees' employment, education, income, receipt of federal assistance, and proficiency in the English language; his model of Spontaneous International Migration (SIM) places the Vietnamese immigration experience in a broader sociohistorical context. He has found that, despite the myriad of problems the newcomers have faced, they have been adapting successfully to life in the United States, and in only three years have made remarkable social and economic progress.