Migration, Adaptation and Age: A Study of Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Vietnamese and Chinese-Vietnamese Rufugee Families
Author(s):
Rumbaut, Ruben G.
Format:
Journal article
Publisher:
1984.
Language:
English
Abstract:
Findings from a cross-cultural panel study of the migration & integration of Southeast Asian refugee groups in San Diego County, Calif, where an estimated 40,000 Indochinese refugees have resettled since 1975, are reported. Approximately 50% of this population arrived in the US in or after 1980, following prolonged stays in refugee camps overseas. Their arrival coincided with a period of severe economic restriction, exacerbating the problems of absorption of this migrant population. Based on comprehensive interviews with equal numbers of adult men & women in a stratified random sample of Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Vietnamese, & Chinese-Vietnamese refugee families, analyzed are the roles of age & social support as adaptive resources in the resettlement process of older Rs under conditions of severe stress, poverty, & estrangement. A multiple regression model is used to analyze the effect of radical life change on the health & well-being of refugee Rs, as mediated by a set of adaptational resources & coping strategies. The data are drawn from the ongoing Indochinese Health & Adaptation Research Project at the U of California, San Diego, supported by Grant #R01-HD15699 from the National Instit of Child Health & Human Development.