Do “New Immigrants” Become “New Minorities”?: The Meaning of Ethnic Minority for Indochinese Refugees in the United States

Abstract

The term “new immigrants” describes the Asians, Latin Americans, and Caribbeans who have arrived in the United States since the liberalization of immigration laws in 1965. Sociologists have begun using terms like “new foreign minority” in their research on these migrants' adaptation to American society. This article questions this extension of a difference in international migration to a difference in race and ethnic relations by analyzing the emergence of a large Indochinese American population in less than fifteen years. There are three perspectives on the validity of distinguishing “new” and “old” minorities and they emphasize economics, race relations, or politics. Each perspective is supported when Indochinese refugees' relations with other ethnic minorities, whites, and the state are analyzed separately. But the fragmentary meaning of “ethnic minority” that emerges from the Indochinese case suggests that contemporary race and ethnic relations take place in three distinct arenas.