Global Economy, Citizenship Pluralism, Transmigrant Mobility, and the Sojourn-Immigrant Vietnamese Americans

Abstract

Drawing on empirical analysis, this essay examines the migrant experience of a new Vietnamese transmigrant community whose migratory impetuses are prompted by better educational and professional conditions in the United States and rendered possible by both their citizenship pluralism and their human/social capital. This newer Viet Kieu generation often has strong financial, business, and professional ties to the sending country; many either split their time equally between the two countries or have resettled or plan to resettle in Vietnam. Such migratory nuances and mobility blur the boundary between sojourner and immigrant and foster an interesting Vietnamese migrancy and new generation of Vietnamese American transmigrants, whom I call the sojourn-immigrant Viet Kieu. This article attempts to provide a counter-narrative to the often uni-directional studies of migration that presupposes the United States to be the permanent place of resettlement for Vietnamese migrants. I argue that a globalized sojourn-immigrant Viet Kieu identity has emerged and taken shape in response to fast-changing contemporary socioeconomic demands. The sojourn-immigrant identity thus encompasses a more flexible articulation of citizenship(s) to reflect a new form of Vietnamese transmigrant mobility within the Vietnamese diaspora.