Portraits, Patterns, and Predictors of the Refugee Adaptation Process: Results and Reflections from the IHARP Panel Study

Abstract

This paper reports the development and major findings of the Indochinese Health and Adaptation Research Project (IHARP), a comprehensive longitudinal study of the migration and resettlement of Vietnamese, Chinese-Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao and Hmong refugees in San Diego County, California. IHARP is based on random samples of men, women, adolescents, and school-aged children from each of the main Indochinese ethnic groups resettled in the United States between 1975 and 1983. Unlike earlier studies carried out in the wake of the evacuation of the 1975 (mostly Vietnamese) refugees or subsequent research that focused on specific aspects of the adaptation of some of the "second wave" ethnic groups, the IHARP study encompassed both of the major "waves" and all of the major Southeast Asian refugee groups; it distinguished the sizable segment of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam (who constituted between a quarter and a third of all refugee admissions from Vietnam at the time, and who differ in significant ways from the Vietnamese) as a separate sample for analysis; it focused on refugee women (whose central role is often neglected in studies of migration and mobility) and their children, and not solely on male heads of household; it combined quantitative survey research with qualitative "oral histories" and in-depth open-ended interviews; and it allowed for a longitudinal rather than cross-sectional analysis of the refugee "adaptation process," broadly conceived. The study, the largest of its kind, originally funded during 1982-1985 by NICHD, was expanded thereafter into related quantitative and qualitative research projects based on the original IHARP data set, including a qualitative-quantitative study of the educational and occupational attainment of refugee youth; and longitudinal analyses of fertility and infant health and mortality in the Indochinese population of San Diego County.

Keywords: Refugees, Indochinese Health and Adaptation Research Project (IHARP), Longitudinal Study, Migration, Resettlement, Vietnamese, Chinese-Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, Hmong, San Diego County