During class last week, we spoke about the three waves of immigration, migration, and the United States playing their major role as a “nation of immigrants.” The reading that my expert question reflected on was from the Aguilar-San Juan’s piece, Staying Vietnamese: Community and Place in Orange County and Boston. The article starts off by explaining what is needed to form a strong sense of community and the patterns involving community and place. He mainly focuses on the Vietnamese American population in the culturally diverse Boston, Massachusetts and the homogenous suburb, Orange County, California.

The reading compares both Vietnamese American populations and tries to understand the differences of the make up of their communities. It is found that the affluent population of Orange County has a stronger sense of place than the smaller population found in the bigger and more diverse city of Boston. This was puzzling because it goes against what Claude Fischer’s subcultural theory of urbanism suggests, which we also were introduced to in class two weeks ago. In the reading, this theory explains that “cities tend to enhance ethnic distinction, at least at an ecological level, because cities have more people than smaller places do. Boston is more culturally diverse sand more densely populated than Orange County. Thus, one would expect Boston to contain more distinct and recognizable Vietnamese American places than Orange County” (Aguilar-San Juan, 48). My expert question then aimed to circulate around this unexpected conclusion that Aguilar-San Juan comes to. I asked whether or not anyone could reflect on where they grew up and/or personal experiences that could either support or weaken this paradox.

Although there were not many personal examples mentioned, the discussion revolved around answering why this paradox exists. We spoke about how Boston has less critical mass than Orange County, leading to the main issue. This problem in Boston stems from the fact that Boston is such a diverse urban city that it is then difficult to congregate together as a Vietnamese American population. Boston is filled with immigrants from all over, therefore, making it challenging to assemble a strong sense of a community for one culture. Although there is a distinct village called Fields Corner, other Bostonians don’t realize that this is the “Vietnamese Village” of Boston (Aguilar-San Juan, 37). On the other hand, people pointed out that because there are more institutions established in Orange County’s Little Saigon – their Vietnamese American community – there is a more distinctive sense of their culture. Authenticity of culture was also a major point that was brought up in class because with it creates a physical space that reflects your hometown culture accurately. Overall, we concluded that because Orange County is much smaller, yet has a more critical mass of Vietnamese Americans, it is easier for them to collectively form a stronger sense of community and place there.

This discussion in class raised another question in my mind. I understand the pattern that most immigrants usually choose to reside in large urban cities when they come to the U.S. because of the opportunities that exist there. However, because of this paradox, I am curious about whether or not moving out to the suburbs will become more of the norm than living in these big cities for immigrants. Because critical mass plays such an important role, do you think that the popularity of living in the cities is going to decrease because it’s harder to create these strong senses of community?