Insufficient Funds: The Culture of Money in Low-Wage Transnational Families

304 Pages·2014·1.341 MB·English

by  Hung Cam Thai

INSUFFICIENT FUNDS

INSUFFICIENT FU NDS
The Culture of Money
in Low-Wage Transnational Families
Hung Cam Thai
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of
Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thai, Hung Cam, author.
Insufficient funds : the culture of money in low-wage transnational families /
Hung Cam Thai.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8047-7731-5 (cloth : alk. paper) --
isbn 978-0-8047-7732-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Vietnamese--United States--Economic conditions. 2. Vietnamese--United
States--Social conditions. 3. Immigrants--Family relationships--United States.
4. Immigrants--Family relationships--Vietnam. 5. Money--Social aspects--United
States. 6. Money--Social aspects--Vietnam. 7. Families--Economic aspects--United
States. 8. Families--Economic aspects--Vietnam. 9. Transnationalism--Social
aspects--United States. 10. Transnationalism--Social aspects--Vietnam. I. Title.
e184.v53.t45 2014
305.8959'22073--dc23
2013042134
isbn 978-0-8047-9056-7 (electronic)
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10.5/15 Adobe Garamond
To my students and teachers

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Translations xv
1 Six Tales of Migrant Money 1
2 The Making of a Transnational Expenditure Cascade 21
3 Money as a Currency of Care 32
4 The Migrant Provider Role 53
5 The American Dream in Vietnam 72
6 Compensatory Consumption 92
7 Emulative Consumption 111
8 The Cyclical Entrenchment of Monetary Habits 132
9 The High Price of Esteem Consumption 152
10 Tall Promises 172
Conclusion:
Special Money in Low-Wage Transnational Families 191
viii contents
Appendix: Methodology and Interviewees 205
Notes 215
Bibliography 249
Index 275
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My first gratitude is reserved for the more than 120 men and women who spent
time sharing with me stories about their lives. Some of them may disagree with
my analysis, but I hope they recognize the importance of their stories in helping
the world understand dilemmas associated with the culture of money among
transnational families.
My second thanks go to the institutions that provided financial support: the
Pacific Rim Fellowship, the Hewlett Foundation, the Freeman Foundation, the
John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, the Senior Research Fel-
lowship in the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore,
and the Faculty Residential Fellowship at the Institute of East Asian Studies
at Berkeley. Many thanks to former dean Cecilia Conrad at Pomona College
for providing generous research funds for fieldwork and for time off to write,
and to Associate Dean Jonathan Wright for approving the earmarking of such
funding, even when the earmarking seemed unconventional.
A team of research assistants from the United States and Vietnam was in-
volved in different phases of the project: from the United States, my students
Dani Carillo, Christopher Fiorello, Kyla Johnson, and Nicole Runge came to
Vietnam to help me collect data; and from Vietnam, Loc Mai Do, Nhat Minh,