Immigrant communities as resources for emancipation: a comparison of bounded solidarity in two Cambodian communities

Abstract

This article compares the sense of bounded solidarity as perceived by a selection of its community members and leaders in two Cambodian communities. Resettled Cambodians’ experiences were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with informants in Lyon, France, in 2010 and in Long Beach (CA), USA, in 2011, as well as by the study of literature and archival sources. The starting point of the research is the assumption that Cambodian refugees’ resettlement and social adaptation is sustained, primarily, by their immigrant communities. An immigrant community may provide the resources for social adaptation through organizing solidarity in a social network of voluntary and autonomous social organizations. Bounded solidarity is understood as a mechanism by which social ties are turned into sources of social capital for in-group members. In the discussion, both the constructive as well as the destructive attributes of the social capital related to bounded solidarity are taken into account. This is relevant as a comparison of experiences of a shared sense of solidarity in these two localities and may provide important insights into the impact of institutional structures and national ideologies on immigrants’ social adaptation as well as the span of community leaders’ agency in bringing together an immigrant community.