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Title Refugee Integration within Host Cultures: A Study of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer and The Committed

Author(s) Sobia Javed

Abstract Title: Refugee Integration within Host Cultures: A Study of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer and The Committed This study aims to analyze Viet Thanh Nguyen’s works, The Sympathizer and The Committed for the evidence of refugees’ problems in the host cultures and their integration process therein. Using Tony Bennet’s cultural studies as a research method, the selected works have been analyzed through the lens of Gulay Ugur Goksel’s theoretical concept on integrating refugees within the host cultures. Goksel challenges assimilation and multiculturalism as inadequate ideologies because these offer a one-way route. Contrarily, Goksel introduces the concept of integration as a two-way process that stimulates both the dominant group (host countries) and marginalized groups of refugees to live together. The current research investigates Nguyen’s works as a representative voice of the marginalized section of refugees. The study reflects upon the Vietnamese refugees’ issues/concerns after their displacement from their country to the host cultures due to the persecution of the American-Vietnam War. The refugees face multiple issues that hamper the integration process because the local community of the host countries takes them as security threats and economic burdens. Therefore, the people of the host countries refuse to give them acceptance and basic rights. However, the refugees have to face racial discrimination, gender inequality, and economic problems in the host countries due to their ethno-cultural background. The study concludes that there are certain individuals and institutions in the host countries which give acceptance to refugees to accelerate the integration process. They help the refugees by providing them with education, jobs, citizenship, and basic human rights. In the selected texts, the characters like Claude and the Congressman from America and BFD, and Maoist PhD from France seem active in promoting the integration process.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2025-03-07

Subject English Literature

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