C.N. Le

Most people think that assimilation involves just behavior -- how a newcomer acquires the norms and values of the majority society. But as society becomes increasingly diverse, globalized, and transnational, we need to rethink how newcomer groups assimilate into the American mainstream. Le broadens the idea of assimilation to include socioeconomic and institutional examples of integration by analyzing outcomes such as income, occupational prestige, small business ownership, residential segregation, and intermarriage for five Asian American groups, with an emphasis on Vietnamese. The results show that most Vietnamese Americans experience little disadvantage or inequality compared to other Asian Americans (and many times with Whites) when it comes to achieving structural integration. Le hypothesizes that Vietnamese have been able to overcome challenges in a relatively short amount of time by using collective resources and maintaining ethnic solidarity to weave together a pattern of achievement and mobility combined with tradition and cohesion.