Ethnic Differences in Adaptation: Sino- Vietnamese Refugees in the United States

Abstract

This article examines the differences in adaptive behavior manifested by Sino-Vietnamese and ethnic Vietnamese refugees resettled in two major areas of the United States. Contingency analyses of a survey of 602 refugees interviewed in Illinois and California confirm the disadvantage of the Chinese group with respect to both acculturation and economic self-sufficiency variables. Although the two groups differ statistically in their pre-arrival characteristics and encountered somewhat different socioeconomic circumstances in the course of resettlement, adaptive differences remain after pre-arrival characteristics and resettlement context have been controlled. The adverse effect of Chinese ethnicity on adaptation is especially noticeable for the refugee expected to be most adaptable by virtue of their more favorable socioeconomic backgrounds and of the more facilitative circumstances of their resettlement.