Weathering Katrina: Culture and Recovery among Vietnamese Americans

Synopsis

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Most Vietnamese-American residents lived in a remote, low-income are that flooded badly. Many arrived decades earlier as refugees from the Vietnam War and were marginally fluent in English. Yet, despite these odds, the Vietnamese made a surprisingly strong comeback in the wake of the flood. In Weathering Katrina, public health scholar Mark VanLandingham analyzes their path to recovery, and examines the extent to which culture helped them cope during this crisis. Combining longitudinal survey data and interviews with Vietnamese residents, VanLandingham finds that on the principal measures of disaster recovery—housing stability, economic stability, health, and social adaptation—the Vietnamese community fared better than other communities. By Katrina’s one-year anniversary, almost 90 percent of the Vietnamese had returned to their neighborhood, higher than the rate of return for either blacks or whites. They also showed lower rates of post-traumatic stress disorder than other groups. And by the second year after the flood, the employment rate for the Vietnamese had returned to its pre-Katrina level. While some commentators initially attributed this resilience to cultural traits unique to the Vietnamese, VanLandingham shows how multiple factors fostered their rapid recovery. First, these immigrants were highly selected—those who settled in New Orleans were wealthier and in better physical health than those who stayed in Vietnam. Also, as a small, tightly knit community, the New Orleans Vietnamese could pass on information about job leads, business prospects, and other opportunities to one another. Finally, they had access to a number of special programs that were intended to facilitate recovery among immigrants, and enjoyed a positive social image in New Orleans, which motivated some people and charities to offer the community additional resources. In sum, their successful recovery depended less on their specific cultural values than on a combination of several material and social advantages and a shared sense of identity. By disentangling the elements that enabled the swift recovery of the Vietnamese in New Orleans, Weathering Katrina enriches our understanding of this understudied immigrant community.

Copyright:

2017

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781610448642

Related ISBNs:

9780871548726

Publisher:

Russell Sage Foundation

Date of Addition:

04/12/17

Copyrighted By:

Russell Sage Foundation

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Social Studies

Grade Levels:

Tenth grade

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.