Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore how demographic factors of age, gender, marital status, education and occupation contributed to economic self-sufficiency of Vietnamese refugees from 1975–2000, thus eliminating the need for government assistance. Theoretical framework. Locus of control theory developed by Julian Rotter was the theoretical foundation used to examine the valence of demographic factors in contributing to economic self-sufficiency. Research methodology. The measurement instrument was a questionnaire of fifteen questions in both English and Vietnamese languages. Using a nonprobability, convenience sample of Vietnamese residing in Orange and Los Angeles Counties, surveys were sent to 1,000 respondents in the spring of 2002, with a return of 702 responses (70.2 percent) of which 661 were usable. Findings. The findings revealed that of the three waves of Vietnamese immigrants from 1975–2000, only 10 percent failed to achieve economic self-sufficiency as defined in the study, and these were students and the elderly. In 2000, in U.S., there were 2.4 percent of Vietnamese who had annually earned incomes over $100,000; 16.1 percent had over $60,000, 17.2 percent had from $40,000 to 59,000, 32.3 percent had from $20,000 to $39,000, 27.1 percent had under $19,000, and 4.9 percent didn't have an earned income. In 2000, Vietnamese in wave one and wave two had higher earned income and educational levels than the Vietnamese in wave 3. The total annual earned income of Vietnamese, based on per capita income and population, in 1980 was about $10 billion ($9,944,094,600) and in 1990 was more than $66 billion ($66,641,961,696). The U.S. policies that governed whether Vietnamese received public assistance for a longer or shorter period of time apparently affected the level of education and income of Vietnamese refugees in each wave. Regression analysis revealed that, U.S. occupation and U.S. education were the strongest contributors to self-sufficiency. Conclusions and recommendations. Immigration policymakers may consider demographic factors and their concomitant underlying values within groups of immigrants to better predict economic self-sufficiency and less dependence on social welfare programs in the United States.