Vietnamese first came to the United States as refugees in the 1970s, after the Vietnam War. "The Vietnamese Americans," written by a former Vietnamese refugee, is the only in-depth resource especially for students and general readers with a solid introduction to Vietnam, the history of Vietnamese immigration, and a forthright analysis of Vietnamese Americans' struggles to forge a better future. As their adjustment process is chronicled from the perspectives of the family and ethnic community, the label of the model minority is debunked to reveal both minor economic successes and serious problems such as high school dropouts and gang activity. With the increasing emphasis in the curriculum on Asians and the debates on new immigration, "The Vietnamese Americans" provides an essential component to understanding the evolving ethnic mosaic in this country.

After an overview of Vietnam, culminating in a brief history of U.S. involvement there, the U.S. Government policies on Vietnamese immigration and the eventual resettling of the refugees themselves in more hospitable climates, such as in California, are detailed. Do describes how early immigrants paved the way for later ones with the building of ethnic communities. Crucial issues in the Vietnamese American community, such as mental health and gang activity, are highlighted. An important chapter on employment and education trends reveals a precarious position on the ladder to success. These immigrants' impact on the larger society is explained with descriptions of two important festivals, Vietnamese restaurants, the Little Saigon enclaves, and political participation, including some pressure on the government to influence events in Vietnam. A concluding chapter addresses the future of the Vietnamese American community, assessing the model minority myth, economic survival, cultural preservation, political agenda, and problem generations and community development.

Based on ethnographic research by an interdisciplinary team of scholars and activists, "Religion at the Corner of Bliss and Nirvana" illuminates the role that religion plays in the civic and political experiences of new migrants in the United States. By bringing innovative questions and theoretical frameworks to bear on the experiences of Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, Salvadoran, and Vietnamese migrants, the contributors demonstrate how groups and individuals negotiate multiple religious, cultural, and national identities, and how religious faiths are transformed through migration. Taken together, their essays show that migrants' religious lives are much more than replications of home in a new land. They reflect a process of adaptation to new physical and cultural environments, and an ongoing synthesis of cultural elements from the migrants' countries of origin and the United States.

As they conducted research, the contributors not only visited churches and temples but also single-room-occupancy hotels, brothels, tattoo-removal clinics, and the streets of San Francisco, El Salvador, Mexico, and Vietnam. Their essays include an exploration of how faith-based organizations can help LGBT migrants surmount legal and social complexities, an examination of transgendered sex workers' relationship with the unofficial saint Santisima Muerte, a comparison of how a Presbyterian mission and a Buddhist temple in San Francisco help Chinese immigrants to acculturate, and an analysis of the transformation of baptismal rites performed by Mayan migrants. The voices of gang members, Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhist nuns, members of Pentecostal churches, and many others animate this collection. In the process of giving voice to these communities, the contributors interrogate theories about acculturation, class, political and social capital, gender and sexuality, the sociology of religion, transnationalism, and globalization. The collection includes twenty-one photographs by Jerry Berndt.

"Contributors." Luis Enrique Bazan, Kevin M. Chun, Hien Duc Do, Patricia Fortuny Loret de Mola, Joaquin Jay Gonzalez III, Sarah Horton, Cymene Howe, Mimi Khuc, Jonathan H. X. Lee, Lois Ann Lorentzen, Andrea Maison, Dennis Marzan, Rosalina Mira, Claudine del Rosario, Susanna Zaraysky