CULTURE PROFILE| << | CHAPTER |
| MONTAGNARDS
— THEIR HISTORY AND CULTURE
CULTURE PROFILE |
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CONTENTS | PREFACE | INTRODUCTION | LAND | PEOPLE | ECONOMY | HISTORY | RELIGION | DAILY LIFE & VALUES | LANGUAGE & LITERACY | EDUCATION | CROSS-CULTURAL CHALLENGES | BIBLIOGRAPHY | ||||
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Preface This booklet is a basic introduction to the history, cultures, and resettlement experiences of the Montagnard people of Vietnam. It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting Montagnard refugees in their new communities in the United States. The principal writer is Raleigh Bailey, the founding director of the Center for New North Carolinians at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and a senior research scientist in the Department of Social Work at UNCG. This is the author’s 8th year as director of ACCESS (Accessing Cross Cultural Education Service Systems), a cluster of projects designed to help immigrant and refugee groups gain access to services and to improve communication and understanding between these groups and mainstream communities. From 1989 to 1993, he lived in Southeast Asia, first in Thailand where he administered a refugee training program through the Department of State, and then in Cambodia where he administered a U.S. government-funded prosthetics project for landmine victims. From 1984 to 1989, the author served as the director of Refugee Programs for Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas. During that time, he directed the initial Montagnard resettlement project in the United States. Information for this profile has been drawn from numerous sources. Information and insights provided by Montagnards who have resettled in North Carolina have been especially helpful. In particular, the author wants to acknowledge the contributions of Pierre K’Briuh, who served as the Montagnard project director for Lutheran Family Services in the late 1980s under the author’s supervision, and Y Hin Nie who currently serves as a Montagnard community development worker under the author’s supervision through the Center for New North Carolinians. Both men have had many other leadership roles in the Montagnard community in the United States and overseas. This profile has also profited from the perspectives of a group of Montagnard young people who have served their community through the AmeriCorps ACCESS Project over the last 7 years. Additional acknowledgements are due to the staff of Lutheran Family Services, who have overseen much of the Montagnard resettlement in North Carolina, and to the staff from Catholic Social Services, who have also been involved with Montagnard resettlement. In particular, we would like to thank Pat Priest, director, and Janet Johnson, immigration specialist, of Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas, for providing key information on statistics and other issues associated with the resettlement of the Montagnard population in North Carolina. We would also like to express our appreciation to Donald A. Ranard for his thorough and timely editing assistance and to Vincent Sagart for his design expertise. Finally, we would like to thank the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the U.S. Department of State, whose support made this profile possible. |
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www.culturalorientation.net |