Ethnic Origins: The Adaptation of Cambodian and Hmong Refugees in Four American Cities

Appendix A: Overview of Methodologies

Appendix A Overview of Methodologies Archival Sources I examined articles about the Hmong, Cambodians, and other Southeast Asian refugees in the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, Rochester Post-Bulletin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and several citywide and neighborhood newspapers in Chicago. I have not provided page numbers for quotations from these newspaper articles for two reasons. First, I obtained many of the newspaper articles from on-line databases rather than the original newspaper. There is often no way to determine page numbers from the electronic version of an article. Second, articles from clipping files at a library or the office of the newspaper itself often do not contain page numbers. It would have been inconsistent to cite page numbers for quotations from some newspaper articles but not others. I do, of course, cite page numbers for all quotations from books, journals, and magazines. Standardized Survey Between 1996 and 1999, five co-ethnic interviewers administered the survey questionnaire following the principle of dimensional sampling (Arnold 1970). They took between six and twelve months to complete this activity in each city, starting with Eau Claire and ending with Milwaukee. The interviewers used a community profile checklist I created to select respondents based on sex, age, marital status, years of U.S. residence, and employment. Once the quota for a category had been filled, such as twenty-five males, the remaining respondents had to be from the other category. Although not a random sample, this dimensional sampling produced an extremely diverse quota sample (see tables A.1, A.2, and A.3). Semistructured Personal Interviews I conducted semistructured face-to-face interviews in English with 28 of the 179 survey respondents (whom I call informants when they spoke to 247 248 Ethnic Origins Table A.1 Social and Demographic Characteristics of Survey Sample, 1996 to 1999 Hmong Cambodians Mini- Maxi- Mini- MaxiVariable mum mum mum mum Percentage foreign-born 100 — — 100 — — Percentage living in 60 — — 50 — — small city Percentage male 49 — — 46 — — Percentage never 18 — — 26 — — married Mean current age 36 18 76 39 18 70 Mean age at arrival 23 1 65 26 2 53 Mean years of U.S. 13 2 23 13 4 21 residence Percentage U.S. citizens 44 — — 41 — — Percentage Christian 34 — — 17 — — Mean level of Englisha 2.0 0 3 1.9 0 3 Percentage speaking 8 — — 2 — — no English Percentage speaking 41 — — 24 — — English very well Mean years of U.S. 5.6 0 20 3.6 0 16 educationb Percentage with no U.S. 42 — — 51 — — education Percentage with B.A. or 24 — — 6 — — M.A. Degree Mean occupational levelc 2.3 0 5 1.7 0 5 Percentage laborers 14 — — 18 — — Percentage professionals 26 — — 8 — — Source: Author’s compilation. Note: N = 80 Hmong, 99 Cambodians. aRespondents’ self-designated level of proficiency: none (0), only a little, difficulty speaking and make many mistakes (1), enough to make myself understood but still make mistakes (2), speak very well, can almost always say what I mean (3). bEducation in primary, middle, and high school in U.S., as well as two- and four-year colleges, and graduate school. Excludes English as a Second Language classes. cType of current job or last job if currently unemployed: never employed (0), laborer (1), production (2), service (3), technical service (4), professional (5). Overview of Methodologies 249 Table A.2 Distribution by Neighborhood of Survey Sample in Chicago and Milwaukee (as Percentage of Sample) Neighborhood Cambodians Hmong Chicago Uptown 56 — Albany Park 42 — Other 2 — Milwaukeea Near North Side — 63 Near South Side — 22 Other — 13 Source: Author’s compilation. Note: N = 32 Hmong, 50 Cambodians aData are missing for one respondent. Table A.3 Distribution of Clans in Hmong Survey Sample (as Number of Respondents) Hmong Clansa Hmong Xiong 20 Vang 16 Yang 14 Lee or Ly 9 Lor 6 Her 4 Moua 4 Thao 3 Vue 3 Cha 1 Source: Author’s compilation. Note: N = 80 a The Xiong, Vang, and Yang clans are the three largest clans, in that order, in both Eau Claire and Milwaukee (Hmong American Residence and Business Directory 1999). me in person). Extending a technique used by Mary Waters (1990) to understand how European Americans answer the U.S. census question on ancestry, I used several of my survey questions as the outline for the interviews. I asked each informant about her or his answers to some of the closed...