| This is a study of unemployed Vietnamese Chinese youth. It seeks to examine how they handle their unemployment and whether Chinese culture influences their ways of coping. It is a qualitative study of six young Vietnamese Chinese and relies on in-depth interviews. From their stories, we understand that these six youth suffer from unemployment financially and psychologically. They also have problems in obtaining effective job search information. In terms of coping, as many other studies have shown, family is the only vital support for these six research participants, although sometime, friends help them psychologically. Although all of them were participants in a government funded training program, they do not see that government has been sufficiently helpful to them.; Despite their strong Chinese identity and their recognition of the different ways the Chinese and Caucasians cope with unemployment, they do not think that Chinese culture has influenced their way of coping. To explain this apparent inconsistency in their answer, two theoretical explanations have been advanced. First, that the non-reflexive nature of the concept of culture may lead to their unawareness of the Chinese cultural influence. Second, that living in Toronto, they have become bicultural entities who need to seek an equilibrium between Chinese and Caucasian cultures. Their denial of Chinese cultural influence may be an unconscious way of maintaining this equilibrium. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
