Cambodians and the New American Citizenship.

Smith-Hefner, Nancy J.

This article presents information about the book "Buddha is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America," by Aiwa Ong. The book is an ethnographic exploration of the requirements of American citizenship as seen through the experiences of Khmer refugees living in northern California. Ong takes citizenship to be a social process--the mediated production of values concerning freedom, autonomy, and security. Her aim is to examine the construction of citizenship in the course of everyday interactions between Cambodian immigrants and the social agencies that facilitate their becoming American. Drawing heavily from Michel Foucault's work on the social technologies of governmentality, the book examines the ways that the state and its agents attempt to instill American values and habits in its citizen-subjects. For newly arriving Cambodian refugees the domains in which this disciplining takes place include--among others--encounters with immigration officials, social workers, medical practitioners, the police, and church workers.

CAMBODIA; BUDDHA Is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America (Book); ONG, Aiwa; BOOKS & reading; ETHNOLOGY; REFUGEES; FOUCAULT, Michel, 1926-1984; IMMIGRANTS; PUBLIC welfare

Anthropological Quarterly, 2004, Vol 77, Issue 2, p349

0003-5491

Academic Journal

10.1353/anq.2004.0027