New Pioneers in the Heartland: Hmong Life in Wisconsin

by Jo Ann Koltyk, Nancy Foner

A massive wave of immigration is currently sweeping across the US How do new immigrants, specifically the Hmong refugees from Laos, assimilate? KEY This book first traces the stages of the Hmong refugee experience and then looks at how Hmong families are adjusting and adapting to their new lives in America. From a family-centered focus, the reader gains an appreciation for how the Hmong see their own adaptational process and how they represent and define their Hmongness in America. Sociologists and anthropologists. Part of the New Immigrants Series.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 1997

Reviews

[gage sugden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Preface: this ethnography was assigned reading for an anthropology class several years ago (for some reason).

Now published a quarter century ago, it's a generation out of date, but still insightful in a "day in he life" kind of way for that generation's experience. The author's clinical approach to mundane, material details is appropriate, and these details are a strong point of the text. However, the generalizations the author draws as conclusions from essentially just a collection of anecdotes, unwittingly filtered through her own cultural lens are bizarre and very weakly supported by any meaningful evidence and are just not that valuable. The best interpretations in this text are quotes from other researchers. The author's analyses honestly read like undergrad research.

It's shoddy scholarship. Smh that a professor assigned it. I would hesitatingly recommend solely for the "day in the life" details alone. I found some of them quite interesting as I actually live in the area and have even gone to the church that's mentioned. But please look elsewhere for anything with more depth than that.

[Ker]

gfdsgfdgf

[Amanda W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read for my sociology class. Interesting and easy to read.