ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the adaptation process of refugees resettled in Denver, Colorado; a brief discussion of the refugees' background is provided to set the stage for understanding the adaptation process. Then the actual process of refugee adaptation to the United States is examined, utilizing the experience of refugees in Denver from 1975 to 1977 for illustrative purposes. The Refugee Relief Act of 1953 provided special visas for refugee-Immigrants, but few, if any, during the next few years allowed extensive immigration of Southeast Asians. Some conservatives feared that the incoming refugees would include communist infiltrators, while some liberals felt that they should return to Vietnam because their country needed them. Perhaps the most widely used theoretical construct in the field of migrant-refugee resettlement is "community" and its relation to the dislocated individual's self-concept. Community and noncommunity refugees were also very different with respect to employment and language ability variables.
