Alien Winds: The Reeducation of America's Indochinese Refugees

(Hardback)

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Alien Winds presents the first critical analysis of U.S. refugee processing centers in Southeast Asia. Based on twenty months of work in refugee camps from 1983-1986 and an analysis of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, this book challenges the widely held view that the refugee education program results in successful resettlement. The author contends that in its zeal to Americanize Southeast Asians, this program seeks to replace ties to their traditional community with a commitment to the myths of American success ideology and the moral principle of self-sufficiency. He concludes that the program actually disempowers the refugees by robbing them of their sense of community, and often their dignity. Without regard to skills or education, it prepares refugees for long term employment in dead end minimum wage jobs. Of particular interest to teachers of English as a second language and scholars in the fields of education, sociology, anthropology, and Southeast Asian studies, Alien Winds concludes with recommendations for overseas centers and domestic resettlement programs. From its inception the U.S. refugee resettlement program faced difficult questions: What are the main difficulties facing Southeast Asians in the United States What do refugees need to know in order to resettle successfully How should successful resettlement be defined Should there be different notions of success for different groups of people What values do Americans share Must newcomers adopt these values Alien Winds examines the American answers to these questions as they are formulated and conveyed to the refugees. It also explores the sources of these answers. To this end it examines important assumptions about immigrants that originated in educational programs during the early part of this century. It further explores the aims and structures of the organizations which created and operate the processing centers. Finally, Alien Winds analyzes the role of the refugee program in America's shared memory of Vietnam.

Reviews

. . . .a powerful and eye opening account of the role of the PRPCs in preparing refugees for life in the United States. It should be required reading for all ESL educators.-TESOL Quarterly
. . . .challenges the widely held view that the refugee education programme results in successful resettlement of S.E. Asian refugees in the United States. The author contends that the programme seeks to replace refugees' ties to their traditional community with a commitment to the American success ideology and the principle of self-sufficiency. He concludes that this disempowers refugees by robbing them of their sense of community and often their dignity. Without regards to skills or education it prepares refugees for employment in minimum wage jobs. The book concludes with recommendations for overseas centers and domestic resettlement programmes.-Refugee Abstracts
Highly readable study of U.S.'s refugee policy where becoming American means undoing cultural bonds.-Writer's Northwest
The massive effort to Americanize' Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees fleeing war-torn Southeast Asia in search of a better life in the US comes under scathing attack in this vitriolic polemic penned by a former teacher at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center. Virtually nothing that the consortium of public and private agencies and offices are endeavoring to do to educate the refugees meets with Tollefson's approval or even grudging acquiescence. The author draws a portrait of the refugee educational and training effort in which the ethnic strengths of the clientele are discredited and debased by the American authorities in favor of presumed positive cultural and social traits that many Americans do not share or even advocate. Tollefson places his account in historical perspective, providing a useful overview of the goals and objectives of prior efforts to condition immigrants for American society; efforts, like those of the present, that were condescending in tone, insulting in content, and humiliating to the recipient. Although the narrative at times almost becomes a diatribe, the work provides a valuable corrective to the Panglossian accounts issued by official agencies and grant-seeking social service entities. College, university, and public libraries.-Choice
." . . .a powerful and eye opening account of the role of the PRPCs in preparing refugees for life in the United States. It should be required reading for all ESL educators."-TESOL Quarterly
." . . .challenges the widely held view that the refugee education programme results in successful resettlement of S.E. Asian refugees in the United States. The author contends that the programme seeks to replace refugees' ties to their traditional community with a commitment to the American success ideology and the principle of self-sufficiency. He concludes that this disempowers refugees by robbing them of their sense of community and often their dignity. Without regards to skills or education it prepares refugees for employment in minimum wage jobs. The book concludes with recommendations for overseas centers and domestic resettlement programmes."-Refugee Abstracts
"Highly readable study of U.S.'s refugee policy where becoming American means undoing cultural bonds."-Writer's Northwest
"The massive effort to Americanize' Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees fleeing war-torn Southeast Asia in search of a better life in the US comes under scathing attack in this vitriolic polemic penned by a former teacher at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center. Virtually nothing that the consortium of public and private agencies and offices are endeavoring to do to educate the refugees meets with Tollefson's approval or even grudging acquiescence. The author draws a portrait of the refugee educational and training effort in which the ethnic strengths of the clientele are discredited and debased by the American authorities in favor of presumed positive cultural and social traits that many Americans do not share or even advocate. Tollefson places his account in historical perspective, providing a useful overview of the goals and objectives of prior efforts to condition immigrants for American society; efforts, like those of the present, that were condescending in tone, insulting in content, and humiliating to the recipient. Although the narrative at times almost becomes a diatribe, the work provides a valuable corrective to the Panglossian accounts issued by official agencies and grant-seeking social service entities. College, university, and public libraries."-Choice

Author Bio

JAMES W. TOLLEFSON is an Associate Professor and Director of the M.A. Program in Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Washington. He has published one other book and more than twenty-five articles on second language acquisition, language policy, and language education.