Community, adaptation, and the Vietnamese in Toronto

grantor: University of TorontoIn the late 1970s, in the midst of the "Boat People" crisis, Canada began accepting large numbers of Vietnamese refugees. Vietnam continued as one of the leading sources of refugees and immigrants arriving in Canada up until the early 1990s. This study is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the adaptation of Vietnamese-origin individuals in the Toronto area. The research findings are organized into two main sections with the intention of focusing attention upon the intrinsic contributions of both the Vietnamese (as individuals and also as members of social collectivities) as well as the institutional actors of the host society within the process of adaptation as it has occurred in the spatial setting of the Toronto area. The first half of the study is concerned with the internal dynamics of the Toronto Vietnamese aggregate. The demography of the population, the internal social structure of the "community", residential trajectories, the relationship between residence and institutional participation, and the functional significance of ethnic institutions in the lives of Vietnamese are topics of individual chapters. The latter half of the study is concerned with the relationships of the Vietnamese population with the institutions of the host society in Toronto. Chapters in this section address the insertion of the Vietnamese in the labour market, and the interactions between Vietnamese individuals and ethnic community organizations with the mainstream media and criminal justice representatives.Ph.D