From hostel to home : immigration, resettlement and community, the ethnic-Vietnamese in Australia, 1975-1995

This thesis is a social history of the immigration and resettlement of ethnic-Vietnamese in Australia between 1975 and 1995. Using the 'invention' paradigm (whichargues that community identities are in a constant process of re-invention or reinterpretation),the thesis investigates the historical processes which determinedVietnamese ethnic community formation in the host society. Analysing changes whichoccurred in Vietnamese communities, the thesis depicts and explains the societal andcultural influences on the 'invention' of ethnic identity and community formation.The thesis explains why, despite a strong legacy of opposition to so-called Asianimmigration, Australia accepted large numbers of Vietnamese for resettlement. Itdiscusses the interaction of societal structures, ethnicity ( or culture) and immigrant agencyas influences on community formation. In particular, it looks at the dynamics of host immigrantrelations during the early phases of resettlement, when many immigrants movedfrom government hostels into the broader community. The research also investigates thechanging nature of community organisations between the late-1970s and early-1990s -the transformation of Vietnamese migrant associations from a few highly politicisedgroups to a large and diverse number of ethnic organisations. This transition, it is argued,reflects the broader characteristics of social, cultural and political change in the Vietnamesecommunities, as priorities changed from political and ideological considerations tointegration and resettlement. To a significant degree, important sections of the verypoliticised community leadership were out of touch with their constituencies (who for themost part were more typically preoccupied with family and resettlement than with anti-Hanoi politics). The thesis also discusses the significance of familial change oncommunity formation, especially the revision of the gender and age-based status system- most significantly the relationship between parents and children. The alterations inkinship relations challenged, but did not nullify, the Vietnamese family system. Theseadaptations, it is argued, were made so that the kinship network would remain relevant tothe challenges of resettlement.Finally, the study analyses the relationship between community 'ideologies',ideological change and the 'invention' of immigrant community identities. It examinesnationalist ideologies, specifically those which embodied anti-communism, to reveal theway in which they changed to reflect broader community transformations. Similarly, aninvestigation of cultural change (as expressed in the transformation of musical genres, thecelebration of ethnic events and religious practices), showed that the new inventedimmigrant identities reflected revised social priorities and cultural identities. But thesecultural expressions still maintained strong ties with what were considered to be'traditional' Vietnamese conceptions of culture and family