Culture and its confounders: Disaster recovery within an immigrant enclave

Major paradigms of disaster recovery eschew a role for culture, but the robust recovery of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans has led many to wonder whether there may be important features of Vietnamese culture that are contributing to this success. Alternatively, might features of immigrant status that lead to a wide range of better-than-expected health outcomes benefit immigrants in disaster recovery as well? To explore these questions, a longstanding study of immigrants that includes both pre and post-Katrina waves is exploited to assess their recovery from that disaster and to compare and contrast their experience with other similarly-affected communities. A role for culture in this recovery is critically evaluated, and the policy implications of the findings are explored.