New roots and voices: The education of Southeast Asian students at an urban public university

Based on six sources of qualitative data and three approaches to data analysis, this study examines how Southeast Asian refugee students at an urban public university define and deal with difficulties they confront in college. Specific problems, including cultural and linguistic barriers, family responsibilities, racial discrimination, and social and academic isolation in school, are analyzed in relation to four distinct dimensions which characterize their backgrounds as Southeast Asians, as refugees, as immigrants, and as racial minorities. The findings challenge popular images of Asian American students as super-achieving whiz-kids who have no problems in school.;Individual coping strategies identified in this research, such as choosing majors in technical fields and not speaking up in class, though allowing for short-term and limited success in school, may actually compound their problems over the long-term and reinforce patterns of isolation that characterize Southeast Asian students' experience in both academic and social domains of college.;The example of an Asian American Studies curriculum is explored as an alternative context within the university that successfully integrates Southeast Asian students socially as well as academically. Sources of student motivation to persist in and depart from college are also examined.;By applying a multidimensional theoretical framework and drawing lessons from both grounded theory and narrative analysis in this qualitative study, implications for research on student persistence in higher education and for institutional practice in relation to refugee, immigrant, and minority students are provided.