Khmer American: Identity and Moral Education in a Diasporic Community. (Book Reviews: Social Anthropology)

Beginning of article

SMITH-HEFNER, NANCY J. Khmer American: identity and moral education in a diasporic community. xx, 237 pp., illus., table, bibliogr. London, Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 1999. [pounds sterling]42.00 (cloth), [pounds sterling]14.95 (paper)

How does a minority ethnic group maintain its cultural distinctiveness in a dominant society? This is the question that Smith-Hefner asks about Cambodians who have settled in the United States since the demise of the Khmer Rouge regime. Among the Southeast Asian refugee communities in the United States, Cambodians are among the least successful at adapting and assimilating, according to measures of educational and economic …