Keeping up with the Nguyens: When Poor Immigrants Return to the Homeland

With few exceptions, the private use of money has been considered too personal and too mysterious for migration scholars to tackle, unless they examine “development issues,” such as daily household expenditures. Prof. Hung Cam Thai will focus on low-wage Vietnamese immigrants in the United States, who make up a significant portion of the aging Vietnamese diaspora, but also pay equal attention to their left-behind family members in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. Prof. Thai documents why these immigrants give such generous financial support to their left-behind family members, and why they spend beyond their means upon return visits, despite living in precarious situations abroad.

CUNY
The University
25 West 43rd Street











When: Fri., Mar. 29, 2019 at 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

With few exceptions, the private use of money has been considered too personal and too mysterious for migration scholars to tackle, unless they examine “development issues,” such as daily household expenditures. Prof. Hung Cam Thai will focus on low-wage Vietnamese immigrants in the United States, who make up a significant portion of the aging Vietnamese diaspora, but also pay equal attention to their left-behind family members in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. Prof. Thai documents why these immigrants give such generous financial support to their left-behind family members, and why they spend beyond their means upon return visits, despite living in precarious situations abroad.

CUNY
The University
25 West 43rd Street

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