Why There Are No Asian Americans in Hawai‘i: The Continuing Significance of Local Identity

Abstract

This chapter examines the diversity in Vietnamese demographic characteristics and patterns of adaptation and provides a context for understanding the implications of an emerging social classification in ethnic terms. Much of the diversity among Vietnamese in the United States stems from their backgrounds in Vietnam, such as differences in social status, occupation, wealth, religion, political orientation, education, and region of origin. During their residence in the United States, other differences have emerged. New status distinctions are being forged, involving differences in economic well-being, educational attainments, and adaptations to United States society, and notions about self-identity. The diversity argues against associating behavioral and socioeconomic attributes with a social category based wholly on country of origin. That the Vietnamese are all refugees does not render these differences insignificant. Moreover, Vietnamese-American is not a category which the Vietnamese as yet have adopted for themselves, but is being applied by institutions of United States society.

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