Family, ethnicity, and power: Chinese Cambodian refugees in the Washington metropolitan area

An important urban minority in Cambodia, ethnic Chinese suffered greatly under Pol Pot's regime after the 1975 Khmer Rouge victory. Emphasis on a "pure" Khmer people and a policy of agricultural revolution meant that Chinese ethnic society was destroyed and their families decimated. In 1979, some Khmer and Chinese were able to flee Cambodia and a small number of ethnic Chinese Cambodian refugees eventually settled in the Washington metropolitan area. Because the family is the most salient unit of Chinese society, the dissertation seeks (1) to describe how the area's Chinese from Cambodia are re-forming families and kin-based groups, (2) to see whether and/or how the re-formed groups further constitute an ethnic group, and (3) from their history and experience, to ascertain what individual, family, and ethnic identity means in contexts of fluctuating power. Data for the research was gathered from observation, structured questionnaires, and, most importantly, life stories. The life stories, divided into sub-texts and arranged by categories suggested by the data, are analyzed for principles and patterns underlying the said and unsaid. Data show Chinese Cambodian refugees are re-forming families and kin-based units by marrying and bearing children, bringing surviving family members together, and using the intricate and flexible Chinese kinship system to pull distantly related kin and non-related friends into closer circles of kinship. There is no evidence that Chinese Cambodians are acting as an ethnic group yet, rather they are emphasizing families as repositories of ethnic identity. Refugee status acts as an ethnic marker separating them from other groups, including the area's older Chinese community, and encouraging greater participation in the host community. Looking at the data differently to focus on incentives and constraints under which Chinese Cambodians make choices, patterns of general behavior are discernible: Chinese Cambodian refugees value their families and their behavior generally, specifically, and consistently promotes family welfare; redefinitions of identity allow ethnic and/or family identity to contract or expand with other identities; and Chinese Cambodian refugees are accruing resources lost during Pol Pot.