Generational Struggles and Identity Conflict among 1.5 Generation Vietnamese Americans : Finding a Middle Ground

Abstract

Many post-war Vietnamese who immigrated to the United States at a young age have recently transitioned into parenthood. With this new position, these Vietnamese have begun to find themselves in the unexpected arrangement of becoming cultural brokers in their own homes, mediating relationships with older Vietnamese immigrants and Americans while also attempting to find a cultural balance for their children. Drawing from data generated from a filial piety scale and interviews conducted with Vietnamese immigrants in the Carolinas, this thesis explores the inner conflict faced by these individuals who are entrusted with maintaining some semblance of traditional Vietnamese identity within a contemporary Western context. The findings reveals that this group of 1.5 generation Vietnamese Americans continue to maintain filial piety in their daily lives, but in a contemporary, alternative mode where work and career success make up the essential elements of their filial relationship. Rather than submitting to the authority of elders in traditional filial piety, this generation instead looks at occupational success and family stability as the norm for filiality.