AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF VIETNAMESE SORORITY WOMEN: ACCULTURATION WITHOUT ASSIMILATION

This is an exploratory research in which I wish to examine the role of ethnic organizations and whether they create ethnic assimilation or ethnic separation in American society. An Asian sorority is used as a case study and Vietnamese sorority members as informants to represent one particular type of Asian ethnicity within an ethnic organization. I used one of the data analysis methods called axial coding to compare the categories and subcategories while re-reading the text to make sure that the categories and subcategories accurately represent interview responses and to explore how the categories and subcategories are related. The analysis of the interviews elicited thematic material which the researcher finally came up with four Categories of Explorations: Self-Identity, Kinship, Friendship, and Sorority Participation. In this research document, the researcher explored these four Categories of Explorations and analyze whether the beliefs and behaviors of the informants can be related to the role of the sorority, and to answer my main thesis question whether it creates more separation from or assimilation into American society. The results gained from doing the ethnographic analysis represent a paradox: the sorority creates more ethnic separation and at the same time stimulates acculturation without assimilation in American society.