Tension as a Result of Patchworking
In her reading “Patchworking Households in the Economy” Nazli Kibria argues that age and gender tension in the Vietnamese immigrant/Vietnamese American family could be explained by the interaction of the patriarchal structure of the family and the new strategies employed by family to improve their socioeconomic position in the US. I personally agree with Kibria to a certain extent. Through my interviews of people I did find some tension because of patchworking. On the other hand I also found patchworking to be something that brought families and communities closer together. I also found that patchworking could also form family like bonds between people that are not related.
When the Vietnamese first arrived in the United States they were amazed at the amount of economic freedom that was in the United States compared to Vietnam. They were especially amazed in the ability to engage in business activities freely something that they could not do in Communist Vietnam. Among the amazement was a sense of worry. In Vietnam a person could earn enough for everyone. “Here, people need more; everyone needs to get a TV, a car, a house. Here I work very hard and very long, and still I’m not sure, do I have enough money? Because there’s always something more I have to buy” (Kibria 74). In a sense when they were in Vietnam they had to worry about the communist, after escaping they now have to worry about money.
Vietnamese Americans view on economic life in United States was uneasy. On one hand they liked the freedom and the justness of the economic life in the United Sates. On the other hand they did not like the fact that they were stopped in their efforts to succeeded economically. They liked the economic freedoms that were given to them, but hated the discrimination. They say that life in the United States is better in Vietnam because