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Creating a Sense of Place: the Vietnamese-Americans and Little Saigon

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Creating a Sense of Place: the Vietnamese-Americans and Little Saigon UC Irvine UC Irvine Previously Published Works Title CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE: THE VIETNAMESE-AMERICANS AND LITTLE SAIGON Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3km8x13g Journal Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20(4) ISSN 02724944 Authors MAZUMDAR, SANJOY MAZUMDAR, SHAMPA DOCUYANAN, FAYE et al. Publication Date 2000-12-01 DOI 10.1006/jevp.2000.0170 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Journal of Environmental Psychology (2000) 20, 319^333 0272-4944/00/040319 + 15 $35.00/0 # 2000 Academic Press doi:10.1006/jevp.2000.0170, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE: THE VIETNAMESE-AMERICANS AND LITTLE SAIGON 1 2 1 1 SANJOY MAZUMDAR ,SHAMPA MAZUMDAR ,FAY E DOCUYANAN AND COLETTE MARIE MCLAUGHLIN 1School of Social Ecology, Department of Urban and Regional Planning 2Department of Sociology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, U.S.A. Abstract Based on a study of Little Saigon, an ethnic enclave in Westminster, California, this paper examines the phy- sical, social, symbolic and emotional signi¢cance of such places in the lives of immigrants. We focus on three speci¢c aspects of the ethnic enclave: architectural elements, everyday social interaction within the enclave, and public ritual events. We highlight how the built architectural environment and the immigrants’ social, commercial, and ritual activities interact to create and sustain a sense of place, foster community identity, and structure social relations. We conclude that ethnic enclaves constitute an important aspect of an immi- grant’s place identity enabling him/her to simultaneously remain connected to the places left behind and yet appropriating and forging signi¢cant new place ties. # 2000 Academic Press Introduction ing a variety of important services (Lyman, 1974; Gold, 1992; Zhou, 1992). Portes and Manning (1986) see ethnic enclaves primarily as economic ventures, Ethnic enclaves as mini economies; that is, the primary purpose for their emergence is economic enterprise, for which Ethnic enclaves1 play a signi¢cant role in the immi- the three prerequisites they mention are ‘¢rst, the grant’s experience (Abrahamson, 1996; Gold, 1992; presence of a substantial number of immigrants Zhou, 1992) by mitigating the psychological trauma with business experience acquired in the sending of displacement, providing alternative economic country; second, the availability of sources of capi- structures, and facilitating the preservation of cul- tal; and third, the availability of sources of labor’ tural traditions. The literature asserts that migra- (Portes & Manning, 1986, p. 61). They suggest the tion is often traumatic, involving physical and ‘ethnic enclave’ as an alternate mode of incorpora- social displacement accompanied with feelings of tion of immigrants. This is understandable as their loss, separation and helplessness (Handlin, 1951; focus is on economic integration into the host coun- Kramer, 1970; Gold, 1992). Separated from family try (see also Wilson & Portes, 1980). In this model, and friends, isolated from their old and familiar so- however, there is little or no consideration given to cio-cultural institutions, immigrant groups seek to issues of symbolic communication, community for- create their own communities where their cultural mation, place identity and attachment. identity can be preserved and interaction with the new society mediated. Robert Park (1952, pp. 99^ Place identity 100) described such ethnic communities as a ‘mosaic of segregated people’ each trying to ‘preserve its pe- How do immigrants come to identify with such culiar cultural forms and to maintain its individual places? How do these places become the locus of a and unique conception of life’. Ethnic enclaves, then, community’s identity and attachment? According to provide new arrivals with a chance to adjust and the literature, place identity is a ‘substructure of the adapt (Gordon, 1964) by insulating them, tempering self identity of the person consisting of broadly con- the shock of transition (Kramer, 1970), and provid- ceived cognition about the physical world in which 320 S. Mazumdar et al. the individual lives’ (Proshansky et al., 1983, p. 59; see (Buttimer, 1980; Feldman, 1990). In these enclaves also Proshansky, 1978).While agreeing with Proshans- they build for themselves a life that has many spa- ky et al. (1983) on the importance of place, Twigger- tial characteristics that are either similar to or re- Ross and Uzzell (1996, p. 206) assert that place iden- miniscent of the places left behind, thus enabling tity is not merely a ‘separate part of identity’ (as pro- them to maintain continuity with place. Place conti- posed by Proshanskyet al., 1983) but rather ‘all nuity is maintained in two ways: ¢rst,‘continuity via aspects of identity have place related implications’. characteristics of place which are generic and They focus on the importance of continuity, distinc- transferable from one place to another’ (Twigger- tiveness self esteem and self e⁄cacy in the develop- Ross & Uzzell, 1996, p. 208) referred to in the litera- ment of place identity. Other linkages between ture as ‘place congruent continuity’ (Twigger-Ross people and places are expressed by Tuan (1980), Relph & Uzzell, 1996); and second, ‘continuity via places (1976), and conceptualized through such terms as ‘spa- that have emotional signi¢cance for a person’ (Twig- tial identity’2 (Fried, 1963) and ‘settlement identity’ ger-Ross & Uzzell, 1996, p. 208) also referred to as (Feldman, 1990).3 Physical settings, both home and ‘place referent continuity’ (Twigger-Ross & Uzzell, neighborhood, ‘re£ect and shape people’s understand- 1996).4 According to Jonassen (1948/1961) the Norwe- ing of who they are as individuals and as members of gians were drawn to the area near the Brooklyn groups’ (Brown & Perkins, 1992, p. 280). The notion of shipyards because the salt-water ships and ship- community-based identity is further developed by yards reminded them of their nautical heritage. ‘In Relph (1976), Rowles (1983), Hummon (1992), and Riv- this atmosphere of salt water and ships, men famil- lin (1987). According to Relph (1976, p. 35): iar with the sea could feel at home’ (Jonassen, 1948/ 1961, p. 266). To the Norwegians then ‘socialized in The relationship between community and place is the coast culture of Norway, this environment had indeed a very powerful one in which each reinforces meaning and value in terms of sustenance and psy- the identity of the other and in which the landscape is very much an expression of communally held be- chological satisfaction’ (Jonassen, 1948/1961, p. 270). liefs and values and of interpersonal involvements. Nostalgia for place helps immigrants regain what is lost (Eliade, 1982) and retain some semblance of Community identity, then, is ‘grounded in both so- continuity (Milligan, 1998) in their lives. Relocation, cial integration and environmental experience’ and then, is often characterized by the ‘struggles to de- ‘appears to build particularly on the personal mean- fend or recover a meaningful pattern of relation- ings of life experiences and the public images of lo- ships’ (Marris, 1976, p. 1). Places such as enclaves cal culture’ (Hummon, 1992, p. 262). come to serve as a kind of ‘psychic anchor’ (Cooper Marcus, 1982) for displaced people, providing them Ethnic enclaves, place identity and attachment with a ‘symbolic life line to a continuous sense of identity’ (Hummon, 1989, p. 219). Historically, in the United States, almost every Attachment to enclaves runs deep (Gans, 1962; newly arrived group has felt the need to express its Fried, 1963; Rivlin, 1987; Abrahamson, 1996). Rivlin community identity through the creation of its own (1982, 1987), describing the intense commitment of enclave, its own space and place. Chinatowns (Yuan, the Lubavitch Jewish community, argues that it is 1963; Loo, 1991), Polish enclaves (Lopata, 1964), the totality of their religious immersion and experi- Lebanese enclaves, such as the one in Dearborn, ence a¡orded by their Crown Heights neighborhood Michigan, Germantown and Little Havana (Abra- (such as the presence of the Rabbi and the network hamson, 1996) are some examples. From these ear- of kosher shops, mikvahs, yeshivas, synagogues and lier studies we have come to understand that other supportive institutions) that led to their at- enclaves are places where members of a group strive tachment to place. Loss of such places, according to ‘retrieve’, ‘engrave’, and ‘enclose’ segments from to Fried (1963, p. 232), represents a ‘disruption in their collective memory and their collective past one’s relationship to the past, to the present and (Halbwachs, 1980). They establish what Bellah et al. the future. Losses bring about fragmentation of re- (1985, p. 153) call a ‘community of memory’,‘one that lationship and expectation...’ . Some residents go does not forget its past’ and one that is ‘concerned in through a prolonged grieving process following a variety of ways to give a qualitative meaning to such loss (Abrahamson, 1996). Others make a ritual the living of life, to time and space’ (Bellah pilgrimage to lost enclaves to remember and relive et al., 1985, p. 282). In recreating their past, immi- their collective past. Abrahamson (1996, pp. 6^7) re- grants seek to reestablish a sense of home and counts the annual reunion held by a few dozen also to reconnect with what they have left behind Jewish men originally from the Brownsville section Creating a Sense of Place 321 of Eastern Brooklyn: ‘The place that was their en- a sense of place to foster community identity and clave is no more, but now they come from across place attachment. What are the speci¢c architectur- the country to meet every year because the Browns- al elements used to foster identi¢cation with place? ville of their youth is still an important part of How is the physical setting made meaningful to its their identities’. A similar example is described by members through its activities, services and interac- Gans (1962) and Fried (1963).
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