An Ethnoburb in Oregon? Vietnamese Settlement in Suburban Portland

82 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Geography and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Spring 2005.Many immigrants in recent years have opted against settling in traditional urban ethnic enclaves and chosen instead to reside in suburban locales. Some of these immigrants have formed communities in the suburbs, a phenomenon that geographer Wei Li calls the ethnoburb. Ethnoburbs resemble traditional ethnic communities yet have more linkages to the global and regional economy, and their residents generally have higher socioeconomic statuses than their urban counterparts. in the Portland, OR metropolitan area, both Beaverton, OR and Aloha, OR in suburban Washington County have higher percentages of Asian residents than Portland itself. This thesis examines the Vietnamese communities of Beaverton and Aloha to determine whether they have formed an ethnoburb according to Li's definition. Moreover, the thesis analyzes the impact that the varying "waves" of post-Vietnam War refugee migration have had on settlement patterns in the Portland metropolitan area, and it discusses the multicultural politics of newly diverse suburban communities