ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the cultural transformation of the Southeast Asian refugee family as seen from the perspective of the older generation. It examines the impact of the significant changes on the elder Southeast Asian refugee. For the elderly in Southeast Asian refugee families, the experience of aging in America is very different from what they had expected for their second half of life. Refugee elders must cope with the gender role differences practiced in the homeland versus those in the United States. Even before migration, traditional gender roles were changing in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. The ability of refugees to perform work roles outside the family also shows a gender pattern. The immigrant from another culture is touched and transformed by American culture. T. V. Tran found that elderly refugees who lived within the nuclear or extended family had a better sense of social adjustment than those living outside the family context.
