Despite the adversities surrounding Vietnamese immigration to the United States, however, Vietnamese children have developed a reputation for outstanding academic achievement. In many school districts around the country, even in schools where there are only a few Vietnamese, Vietnamese American students outperform their native-born peers by large margins and frequently become their school's valedictorians and salutatorians. The students' extraordinary performance in school has puzzled many scholars, educators, social workers, and others who work with youth. At the same time, though, serious social problems plague many Vietnamese families and communities. Vietnamese youth gangs have emerged in many American cities and become notoriously threatening.
Some Vietnamese children have frequent scrapes with the law, and even commit violent crimes.
Between the valedictorians and the delinquents, ordinary Vietnamese children struggle in school with language problems and with limited knowledge of American society. These ordinary Vietnamese children find themselves in classes where teachers know little about Vietnamese social background and have access to only a few Vietnamese counselors. The purpose of this monograph is to offer a general account of the current state of Vietnamese America and to summarize existing research findings on Vietnamese children, both those who are native born and those born in Vietnam and raised in United States. Our goal is to provide insight into the unique experience of the young members of this ethnic group new to the U.S. in order to help educators, administrators, social workers, and others who work with them to deal effectively with their problems and to encourage their achievement. We begin by placing the Vietnamese American population in the historical context of the displacement from Vietnam and resettlement in the United States.