Southeast Asian Refugees in North America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl L. Bankston
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Southeast Asian Refugees ◽  
American Society

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia have historically been nations with large Buddhist populations. While Mahāyāna Buddhism predominates in Vietnam, most people in Cambodia and Laos have been dedicated to Theravāda Buddhism. In 1975, these three countries came under the domination of Communist governments, which had earlier been in conflict with factions militarily supported by the United States. This led to the beginnings of the massive movement of refugees from Southeast Asia to North America. An especially radical regime had taken power in Cambodia, and after war broke out between Cambodia and Vietnam the flow of refugees became a flood. All of the new governments of these countries were hostile to independent religious organizations and practices. The Khmer Rouge in power in Cambodia took its antagonism to religion to an extreme, attempting to violently eradicate traditional Buddhist practices and institutions. As refugees settled in ever-greater numbers in North America and other locations, they established Buddhist temples and other organizations in the new homelands. In consequence, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao communities in the United States and Canada have also become sites for the rapid growth of North American Buddhism. Southeast Asian Buddhism has become a part of a pluralistic religious environment, adding new rites, celebrations, and cultural activities to American society. Buddhism has also played a central part in maintaining ethnic identity among refugee populations and their descendants, as well as in helping Buddhists adapt to life under changing circumstances.

Southeast Asian Defense Treaty

1954 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-613
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Southwest Pacific ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Collective Defense

On September 8, 1954, representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, France, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand signed the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, a protocol designating the areas to which the treaty was to apply, and the Pacific Charter, a declaration setting forth the aims of the eight countries in southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific. Negotiations leading up to the actual signature of the treaty had been underway throughout the summer of 1954 and had culminated in an eight-power conference in Manila which opened on September 6.

Calvinism in the United States

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darryl Hart
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
American Society

The history of Calvinism in the United States is part of a much larger development, the globalization of western Christianity. American Calvinism owes its existence to the transplanting of European churches and religious institutions to North America, a process that began in the 16th century, first with Spanish and French Roman Catholics, and accelerated a century later when Dutch, English, Scottish, and German colonists and immigrants of diverse Protestant backgrounds settled in the New World. The initial variety of Calvinists in North America was the result of the different circumstances under which Protestantism emerged in Europe as a rival to the Roman Catholic Church, to the diverse civil governments that supported established Protestant churches, and to the various business sponsors that included the Christian ministry as part of imperial or colonial designs. Once the British dominated the Eastern seaboard (roughly 1675), and after English colonists successfully fought for political independence (1783), Calvinism lost its variety. Beyond their separate denominations, English-speaking Protestants (whether English, Scottish, or Irish) created a plethora of interdenominational religious agencies for the purpose of establishing a Christian presence in an expanding American society. For these Calvinists, being Protestant went hand in hand with loyalty to the United States. Outside this pan-Protestant network of Anglo-American churches and religious institutions were ethnic-based Calvinist denominations caught between Old World ways of being Christian and American patterns of religious life. Over time, most Calvinist groups adapted to national norms, while some retained institutional autonomy for fear of compromising their faith. Since 1970, when the United States entered an era sometimes called post-Protestant, Calvinist churches and institutions have either declined or become stagnant. But in certain academic, literary, and popular culture settings, Calvinism has for some Americans, whether connected or not to Calvinist churches, continued to be a source for sober reflection on human existence and earnest belief and religious practice.

Southeast Asian Americans

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia Youyee Vang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
Asian American ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Southeast Asian Americans ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Brunei Darussalam

In geopolitical terms, the Asian sub-region Southeast Asia consists of ten countries that are organized under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Current member nations include Brunei Darussalam, Kingdom of Cambodia, Republic of Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos), Malaysia, Republic of the Union of Myanmar (formerly Burma), Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Kingdom of Thailand, and Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The term Southeast Asian Americans has been shaped largely by the flow of refugees from the American War in Vietnam’ however, Americans with origins in Southeast Asia have much more diverse migration and settlement experiences that are intricately tied to the complex histories of colonialism, imperialism, and war from the late 19th through the end of the 20th century. A commonality across Southeast Asian American groups today is that their immigration history resulted primarily from the political and military involvement of the United States in the region, aimed at building the United States as a global power. From Filipinos during the Spanish-American War in 1898 to Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, and Hmong refugees from the American War in Vietnam, military interventions generated migration flows that, once begun, became difficult to stop. Complicating this history is its role in supporting the international humanitarian apparatus by creating the possibility for displaced people to seek refuge in the United States. Additionally, the relationships between the United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore are different from those of other SEA countries involved in the Vietnam War. Consequently, today’s Southeast Asian Americans are heterogeneous with varying levels of acculturation to U.S. society.

Hepatitis B Virus Infection among Children Born in the United States to Southeast Asian Refugees

1989 ◽  
Vol 321 (19) ◽  
pp. 1301-1305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele L. Franks ◽  
Cynthia J. Berg ◽  
Mark A. Kane ◽  
Barbara B. Browne ◽  
R. Keith Sikes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hepatitis B Virus ◽  
Virus Infection ◽  
Hepatitis B ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Hepatitis B Virus Infection ◽  
Southeast Asian Refugees ◽  
B Virus

Sponsored-Out

1987 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-15
Author(s):  
Eileen Mulhare
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Program ◽  
Indochinese Refugees ◽  
Private Citizens ◽  
American Society

In the spring of 1975, with the conclusion of the war in Southeast Asia, 130,000 Indochinese refugees were granted emergency entrance visas to the United States. Their incorporation into American society was handled through a precedent-setting national program, involving temporary detention in U.S. military camps followed by permanent resettlement through the voluntary sponsorship of private citizens. Release from detention was contingent on being "sponsored-out," that is, obtaining an American sponsor.

scholarly journals Keeping the tradition alive: An analysis of contemporary Jain religious education for children in India and North America

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shivani Bothra
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Schools ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
Part Time ◽  
American Society

<p>How do Jains, adherents of one of the oldest minority religions in India, maintain their identity and protect their way of life when surrounded by non-Jain religions? Even more striking, how do Jains in the United States, where they constitute a minority within the Indian minority, maintain their traditions amidst a multi-cultural American society? Seeking upward mobility, Jains in post-independence India, have migrated locally, regionally, and internationally and these migrations have disrupted their social, religious, and cultural practices. My thesis looks at the ways in which Jains have addressed these disruptions. I analyse how they have restructured their traditional religious education, transforming it in a variety of ways, producing a range of contemporary Jain religious schools for children, both in India and the United States.  I argue that these new religious schools serve an important function in maintaining ancient Jain traditions, but have, at the same time, initiated significant structural as well as curricular changes that have transformed some of those traditions: widening the gap between Jain children and Jain mendicants, and reallocating authority within the Jain community by enabling laywomen to shape the curriculum and to teach in part-time religious schools, to name a few. The thesis pays attention to these changes, the reasons for the changes, and their consequences.  Using in-depth curriculum analysis and formal interviews, I examine contemporary Jain religious schools for children in the image-worshipping Digambar tradition and the non-image worshipping Shvetambar Terapanth tradition in India, and in mixed traditions in the United States. These Jain schools are growing exponentially in number and popularity within India and America, but have largely remained unexamined. This study aims to fill an important gap by closely analysing the rituals, leadership, and curricula of these new religious schools and their role in shaping modern Jain traditions.</p>

Southeast Asia and the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenton Clymer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asian Countries

The U.S. relationship with Southeast Asia has always reflected the state of U.S. interactions with the three major powers that surround the region: Japan, China, and, to a lesser extent, India. Initially, Americans looked at Southeast Asia as an avenue to the rich markets that China and India seemed to offer, while also finding trading opportunities in the region itself. Later, American missionaries sought to save Southeast Asian souls, while U.S. officials often viewed Southeast Asia as a region that could tip the overall balance of power in East Asia if its enormous resources fell under the control of a hostile power. American interest expanded enormously with the annexation of the Philippines in 1899, an outgrowth of the Spanish-American War. That acquisition resulted in a nearly half-century of American colonial rule, while American investors increased their involvement in exploiting the region’s raw materials, notably tin, rubber, and petroleum, and missionaries expanded into areas previously closed to them. American occupation of the Philippines heightened tensions with Japan, which sought the resources of Southeast Asia, particularly in French Indochina, Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia). Eventually, clashing ambitions and perceptions brought the United States into World War II. Peeling those territories away from Japan during the war was a key American objective. Americans resisted the Japanese in the Philippines and in Burma, but after Japan quickly subdued Southeast Asia, there was little contact in the region until the reconquest began in 1944. American forces participated in the liberation of Burma and also fought in the Dutch Indies and the Philippines before the war ended in 1945. After the war, the United States had to face the independence struggles in several Southeast Asian countries, even as the Grand Alliance fell apart and the Cold War emerged, which for the next several decades overshadowed almost everything. American efforts to prevent communist expansion in the region inhibited American support for decolonization and led to war in Vietnam and Laos and covert interventions elsewhere. With the end of the Cold War in 1991, relations with most of Southeast Asia have generally been normal, except for Burma/Myanmar, where a brutal military junta ruled. The opposition, led by the charismatic Aung San Suu Kyi, found support in the United States. More recently American concerns with China’s new assertiveness, particularly in the South China Sea, have resulted in even closer U.S. relations with Southeast Asian countries.

Coda

2019 ◽  
pp. 177-182
Author(s):  
Wen-Qing Ngoei
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Domino Effect ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
At Home

This coda concludes the book by examining how the United States and its Southeast Asian allies responded to the fall of Saigon to communist forces in 1975. It shows that the regimes of the arc of containment did not proceed to topple like dominoes to communist factions at home, or bow to Chinese or Soviet power, but instead elected to reinforce their ties with Washington. Equally, U.S. policymakers discerned this “reverse domino effect” across Asia (or so they termed it) and unreservedly renewed American economic, political and military commitments to their allies in the region. Given that the arc of containment underpinned imperial transition and the rise of U.S. empire in Southeast Asia, the coda contends that reversals of the domino theory, not its fulfilment, were the true prevailing motif of American interference in the region’s fraught decolonization after the Pacific War.

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