Making Sense of Fractured lives: The Intersection of Migration, Culture, and Mental Health Among Vietnamese Americans

Abstract

Refugee mental health is a critical global health problem. For refugees, exposure to war, violence, torture, and other forms of trauma can leave deep physical, psychological, and emotional imprints with long-term consequences on mental health. But beyond the exposures to the violence happening in their homelands, refugees’ migration journeys, resettlement, and on-going acculturation experiences also add to their mental distress. Without treatment, mental distress continues to surface to disrupt the recovery and adaptation of families and communities. Using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, this qualitative study examines the long-term consequences of exposure to trauma, resettlement and on-going acculturation stress on refugee communities’ mental health. The study focuses specifically on the Vietnamese refugee community in King County, Washington as a case study. Vietnamese refugees make up one of the largest and oldest refugee communities in the United States since the establishment of the Refugee Act of 1980. There is a sense that many Vietnamese refugees have “made it” as an acculturation story. Across major U.S. cities, we see the presence of the Vietnamese people establishing roots and rebuilding families and communities. But underneath this layer of success lies a great many untold stories of pain that have been overshadowed by the need to move forward. Many Vietnamese continue to face challenges connected to past exposure to trauma as well as on-going acculturation stress. The findings from this case study will further our understanding of the long-term impacts of exposures to trauma, migration, and acculturation on the community’s recovery and adaptation with implications for research, practice, and community education.