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Driving

Alcohol

Housing

Shortage of Women

Work and Finances

Health Care

Mental Health

Youth

Learning English

Early vs Recent Arrivals

The Montagnard Experience in North Carolina

The current arrivals are facing more challenges because of the slow economy.

Resettlement Issues

Refugees’ initial contact with Americans is often through sponsors and service providers who are typically very receptive to the newcomers and reflect middle-class standards and expectations. As the refugees settle into their new communities, they have more contact with working-class people in factories and neighborhoods. Here the refugees have to prove themselves.

The following briefly discusses some of the challenges and issues that the Montagnards have faced in their resettlement. Some of the problems result from a lack of understanding about U.S. culture and customs and can be dealt with fairly simply by sensitive, knowledgeable service providers. Other problems, however, are much more deeply rooted and not easily solved.

Driving

Issues relating to driving are chronic and the result of a combination of low income, the lack of good public transportation, and ignorance about U.S. laws. Problems relate to drinking and driving, the lack of insurance, and expired licenses, tags, registration, and inspection stickers.

Alcohol

Although evangelical churches oppose alcohol consumption, using traditional rice wine in celebrations is a common highly ritualized practice in the Highlands. Montagnard exposure to the U.S. military dispelled any taboos associated with drinking insofar as it related to Americans. Regular consumption of alcohol, mostly beer, is common practice for many Montagnards just as it is for their coworkers and neighbors. For some, it leads to alcohol abuse because of a possible chemical propensity toward addiction.

Housing

Landlords and neighbors commonly complain that the Montagnards do not maintain their houses and yards in accordance with U.S. customs. For example, furniture may be placed in yards or meat left to dry outside.

Shortage of Women

The shortage of women in the Montagnard community is an ongoing problem. It poses extraordinary challenges for the men because traditionally women are the family leaders and decision makers in many ways. Identity is traced through the wife, and the woman’s family arranges the marriage. Many Montagnard men have to move outside of their ethnic group if they hope to establish families in the United States. Yet few are culturally able to make this adjustment.

Work and Finances

Previous arrivals have gone directly to work upon resettlement and remained employed. Jobs have typically been factory and warehouse work, landscaping, maintenance, or other tasks that are physically challenging but require little English. Employers have been able to fill difficult and undesirable second- and third-shift jobs with Montagnards. Because of language difficulties, many Montagnards do not get promoted to higher-paying positions. Even though most try to study English, their many responsibilities at home and work and their lack of formal education make formal language study very difficult.

Within this context, people have done well because of their diligence. Some people work regular double shifts, or do exceptionally well at piece work jobs, and families have earned enough money to buy a house within the first 5 years of arrival.

The current arrivals are facing more challenges because of the slow economy. While it is reasonable to assume that they will have the same success as previous arrivals in factory jobs, resettlement agencies face significant barriers in helping them find work. Knowledgeable employers have been eager to hire Montagnards in appropriate positions, but there are not as many positions available now.

Health Care

In Vietnam, Montagnards traditionally enjoyed healthy lives when adequate food was available. But with the loss of traditional farm land and foods and the related poverty, there was a decline in nutritional health in the Highlands. There has always been a shortage of health care resources for the Montagnards, and the problem has increased since the end of the Vietnam War. War-related injuries and physical persecution have exacerbated heath problems. Problems with malaria, TB, and other tropical diseases have been common, and potential refugees are screened for these. Persons with contagious diseases may be delayed in resettlement and given special medical treatment.

Some Montagnards have been diagnosed with cancer. This is not known to be a traditional disease of the Central Highlands, and many refugees believe that it is the result of government poisoning of village wells to weaken the population. Some Montagnards also speculate that cancers may be related to their exposure to Agent Orange, the defoliant that the United States used in the Highlands during the war.

Public health screening and treatment are a regular part of refugee resettlement, and incoming health issues are usually addressed when treatable. Some arrivals need special assistance, often related to tropical parasites, and state health officials and the Center for Disease Control are involved in providing health resources.

Health insurance has been a problem for the Montagnard community. Because most Montagnards go to work quickly, they lose Medicaid eligibility, and it is difficult to find jobs with adequate health insurance in the current market. Like other low-income people, the Montagnards typically do not seek medical care except in emergencies because of the costs involved. The Montagnards do not traditionally think about disease prevention, and aggressive health education activities are needed for this population. In general, the population is cooperative and diligent when provided with health education and disease prevention information.

In both the animist and Christian communities, mental health problems are thought of as spiritual issues.

Mental Health

Mental health as conceptualized in the West is foreign to the Montagnard community. In both the animist and Christian communities, mental health problems are thought of as spiritual issues. In church communities, prayer, salvation, and the acceptance of God’s will are common responses to problems. Persons with severe behavioral disorders are generally tolerated within the community though they may be shunned if they are too disruptive or appear dangerous to others. Medication provided by health providers is accepted by the community, and the Montagnards are receptive to both religious and Western medical practices.

Montagnards suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), related to war, survivor guilt, persecution, and torture. For refugees, of course, the condition is aggravated by the loss of family, homeland, culture, and traditional social support systems. For many, though not all sufferers, PTSD will fade in time as they find employment and gain self-esteem associated with self-sufficiency, the freedom to practice their religion, and community acceptance.

An issue in the Montagnard community is the lack of positive role models.

Youth

Most Montagnard children are not prepared for the U.S. school system. Most arrive with little formal education and little if any English. They often do not know how to behave or dress appropriately; few have proper school supplies. If they have attended school in Vietnam, they expect a highly regimented authoritarian structure focusing on rote memory skills rather than on problem solving. They are unfamiliar with the great diversity found in the U.S. public school system. Almost all students would benefit significantly from tutoring and other supplemental programs, both for academic achievement and the development of social skills.

Montagnard parents are also unfamiliar with our public school system and the role of parent involvement that is expected of them. Parents are unable to help their children with homework or help them develop appropriate social behavior. Typically, children receive neither money from their parents for extracurricular activities nor the encouragement to participate in such activities. School personnel also complain that parents do not respond to notices, do not supervise their children at home, and allow their children to come to school sick.

Other issues with children emerge during the teen years. The issues are similar to those of other populations but are exaggerated in a community in which parents do not know English, do not understand American rules of behavior and methods of discipline (there is much confusion about child abuse), and do not approve of dating. As in other newcomer communities, intergenerational tensions are exacerbated when the children learn English more quickly than their parents do and become the culture brokers and interpreters for their families.

An issue in the Montagnard community is the lack of positive role models. Because the Montagnard population in the United States is small with only a brief resettlement history, the community lacks a cadre of successful Montagnards to provide guidance to young people. There are few college-educated Montagnards and few with experience and influence in mainstream social institutions. Moreover, many elders, the traditional source of guidance among the Montagnards, are preoccupied by the problems of families and communities struggling for cultural and literal survival in the Highlands. Without adult mentors within their ethnic community who can provide advice on how to deal with peer pressure and American expectations, first-generation children are easily led into trouble by their peers. Thus, American advocates, with access to resources and influence within the mainstream power structure, are key to Montagnard advancement.

The next generation of the Montagnards, the youth now growing up in the United States, will be the ones to lead the community to a new level of acculturation. Some will get sidetracked by the conflicts of youth that are especially prevalent among the first generation of newcomers. Others will follow their parents into factories and mills and become respected working-class citizens. If the right kinds of educational opportunities are provided, still others will go on to higher education and to positions of leadership in their community.

Younger children acquire oral English without great difficulty though they may suffer from limited literacy...

Learning English

Younger children acquire oral English without great difficulty though they may suffer from limited literacy since most will be living in homes where there are neither books nor the motivation to read. Older children and adults will progress more slowly in the acquisition of oral English but may make accelerated progress in written English if they are literate in their tribal language or in Vietnamese. Working adults arriving with limited English proficiency will have the greatest difficulty learning English because they will not have much time or energy to study. Typically their work environment encourages only rudimentary English unless employers develop some type of on-the-job English language training program for them. Some employers have implemented these programs to the great benefit of both management and workers.

Many long-term Montagnard residents have opened their homes and limited resources to the new group.

Relationships Between Early and Recent Arrivals

Among the earlier arrivals, a shared history serves to strengthen community ties and overcome tensions based on different attitudes toward the resistance movement in Vietnam and toward tribal identity. Most of these refugees were affiliated in some way with the resistance army of the old FULRO movement. Thus, the established Montagnard community, while made up of a number of tribes, has a long history of working closely together.

The new population share with the previous groups a concern about the Highlands, but their experiences there are more recent, and most were not part of the old FULRO movement. There are not as many overlapping family relationships or even tribal kinships between the two groups. Sometimes there is no shared language. (In fact, within the 2002 group there is no single common language, and not all know each other.) The two groups are at very different stages of adjustment.

Many long-term Montagnard residents have opened their homes and limited resources to the new group. However, trust, mutual respect, and the willingness to accept different opinions must be reinforced as the earlier arrivals attempt to incorporate these frightened and unprepared newcomers into their community.

The Montagnard Experience in North Carolina

The first group of Montagnard refugees were mostly men who had fought with the Americans in Vietnam, but there were a few women and children in the group as well. The refugees were resettled in Raleigh, Greensboro, and Charlotte, North Carolina, because of the number of Special Forces veterans living in the area, the supportive business climate with numerous entry-level job opportunities, and a terrain and climate similar to what the refugees had known in their home environment. To ease the impact of resettlement, the refugees were divided into three groups, roughly by tribe, with each group resettled in one city.

Beginning in 1987, the population began to grow slowly as additional Montagnards were resettled in the state. Most arrived through family reunification and the Orderly Departure Program. Some were resettled through special initiatives, such as the program for reeducation camp detainees, developed through negotiations between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments. A few others came through a special Amerasian project that included Montagnard youth whose mothers were Montagnard and whose fathers were American.

In December 1992, a group of 402 Montagnards were found by a UN force responsible for the Cambodian border provinces of Mondolkiri and Ratanakiri. Given the choice to return to Vietnam or be interviewed for resettlement in the United States, the group chose resettlement. They were processed and resettled with very little advance notice in the three North Carolina cities. The group included 269 males, 24 females, and 80 children.

Through the 1990s, the Montagnard population in the United States continued to grow as new family members arrived and more reeducation camp detainees were released by the Vietnamese government. A few families settled in other states, notably California, Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington, but by far North Carolina was the preferred choice for the Montagnards. By 2000, the Montagnard population in North Carolina had grown to around 3,000, with almost 2,000 in the Greensboro area, 700 in the Charlotte area, and 400 in the Raleigh area. North Carolina had become host to the largest Montagnard community outside of Vietnam.

In February 2001, Montagnards in Vientam’s Central Highlands staged demonstrations relating to their freedom to worship at local Montagnard churches. The government’s harsh response caused nearly 1,000 villagers to flee into Cambodia, where they sought sanctuary in the jungle highlands. The Vietnamese pursued the villagers into Cambodia, attacking them and forcing some to return to Vietnam. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees granted refugee status to the remaining villagers, most of whom did not want to be repatriated.

In the summer of 2002, close to 900 Montagnard villagers were resettled as refugees in the three North Carolina resettlement sites of Raleigh, Greensboro, and Charlotte, as well as in a new resettlement site, New Bern. The new population of Montagnards, like previous groups, is predominantly male, many of them having left wives and children behind in their haste to escape and with the expectation that they could return to their villages. A few intact families are being resettled.

How have the Montagnard newcomers fared? For the most part, those who came before 1986 adjusted quite well given their backgrounds-war injuries, a decade without health care, and little or no formal education-and given the absence of an established Montagnard community in the United States into which they could integrate. Their traditional friendliness, openness, strong work ethic, humility, and religious beliefs have served them well in their adjustment to the United States. The Montagnards rarely complain about their conditions or problems, and their humility and stoicism have impressed many Americans.

Among those who came between 1986 and 2000, able-bodied adults found jobs within a few months and families moved toward a low-income level of self sufficiency. Montagnard language churches were formed and some people joined mainstream churches. A group of recognized Montagnard leaders, representing the three cities and various tribal groups organized a mutual assistance association, the Montagnard Dega Association to help with resettlement, maintain cultural traditions, and assist with communication.

The adjustment process has been more difficult for the 2002 arrivals. This group had relatively little overseas cultural orientation to prepare them for life in the United States, and they bring with them a great deal of confusion and fear of persecution. Many did not plan to come as refugees; some had been misled into believing that they were coming to the United States to be part of a resistance movement. Moreover, the 2002 arrivals do not have political or family ties with the existing Montagnard communities in the United States since they come from villages and tribes that were not part of the earlier resistance movement.

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