Title: What Older People Want: Lessons from Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Immigrant Communities
Abstract: In 2000, the United States Census estimated that Asians (defined for purposes of the federal government as having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcon- tinent) constituted a little more than 4 percent of the total population in the U.S. In Fairfax County, Virginia, where the total population was reported to be 969,749 people in Census 2000, Asians made up 13 percent of the county's population; the largest ethnic group populations were Korean (2.9 percent), Asian Indian (2.7 per- cent), Vietnamese (2.4 percent), and Chinese (1.8 percent). This number has been increasing over the years, especially for the older adult pop- ulation. A study conducted by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors' Committee on Aging anticipates that by 2010, approximately 45 per- cent of the county's total population will be racial and ethnic minorities and 39 percent may speak a language other than English at home. With the increasing need to serve diverse populations in Fairfax County, many Asian elders who have limited English proficiency are being affected. This article presents my understanding of what older adults from the Chinese, Korean, and Viet- namese communities in Fairfax County want, based on findings I collected through focus groups conducted with immigrant elders, partici- pation in a national con- ference for Vietnamese trauma survivors and elders, and interviews with service providers in these ethnic communities. This article intends to provide a perspective on what older adults from these communities want and is not intended to contribute to or reinforce stereotypes. LANGUAGE, GENERATIONS, COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS Serving older adults in the Asian communities presents unique challenges, including linguistic and cultural issues, some of which are patterned along generational lines, as well as the need for government-community partnerships in order to win the trust of older adults. Language is a challenge for immigrants living in America who need access to public services, particularly those who have a low level of education, as many older adults in immigrant communities do. Information in their language should be presented at the fifth- or sixth-grade level, according to two Fairfax County community-based organizations that serve Vietnamese and Cambodian elders. Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese elders say that being bilingual is not enough to serve their population. The volunteer or service provider must be mindful of the culture to understand older adults' hesitancy or embarrassment in using public services. Korean and Vietnamese say that a sense of shame exists among the older adults because it is the children's duty to take care of elderly parents. If the elderly parents begin to seek service outside the home, they feel that they are shaming or bringing a bad name to their children and others will say that their children are not showing appropriate filial respect (which is emphasized in Confucian teachings and engrained in many East Asian cultural traditions, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese cultures). Effective outreach requires being cognizant of the and in a population containing both older and very old adults. While generation gap refers to the in age, generation differences refers to the different waves of immigration or the different ways someone has immigrated to the United States. According to Chinese elders, many first-generation elders welcome all the information they can get on available services and actively seek free services. Some secondanti third-generation Chinese Americans, however, feel offended when they are offered public assistance, associating it with welfare. They don't mind volunteering to translate or interpret for first-generation elders, however. Vietnamese attitudes seem to correspond to the different waves of immigration. Vietnamese elders who had immigrated to the U. …
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 11
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