Patrick Du Phuoc Long with Laura Ricard

About the author: Patrick Du Phuoc Long is a counselor to Indochinese children in juvenile correctional and rehabilitation facilities in California. Laura Ricard is coauthor of The Dream Shattered: Vietnamese Gangs in America.

Asian immigrants sometimes have a difficult time assimilating into American society. Some immigrant children are placed in classes that are too advanced for them; embarrassed and humiliated at their failure to understand their lessons, they start to skip school to hang out with gang members on the streets. Other Asian teens feel that they do not belong and are not accepted or understood by their parents or American society. The only place they feel a sense of belonging is in a gang with other alienated Asian youth.

Until South Vietnam...