International Programs

The effects of internal and external migration on Vietnamese families are explored via two case studies, one conducted in a government-relocated fishing village in Vietnam, the other in Portland, Oregon in the United States. Vietnamese people have migrated throughout historic time, but since the late 1800s have been forced to resettle frequently to avoid pressure created by war and conflict within the country.
Vietnamese society has traditionally been based around family. Confucian influences dating to the Chinese occupation of Vietnam caused the development of a rigid patriarchal family organization that provided a sense of cohesion and a community in which important decisions could be made. The influences of Western culture and war on the Vietnamese family, dating from the French occupation on Vietnam, have caused the tradition of filial piety to erode, as women’s and children’s roles in the family become less subservient to the male head of the household.
Tan Lap village struggles with issues of health and sanitation, as well as the long term sustainability of their ecosystem and income source. Recent immigrants to Portland, Oregon face the same difficult issues of learning English, educating their children, and surviving economically in the unfamiliar political climate of the United States, as those families who arrived immediately after the end of the Vietnam War. How these different groups are coping with the short and long term effects of their displacement, and how well they have adapted to their new environments, are dual subjects of this thesis.