When Eggs Fight Against Rocks: Southeast Asian Refugee Resistance Against Gentrification and Displacement

• In Event: Resistance to Gentrification and Housing Insecurity: Centering the Situated Knowledge of Youth, Parents, and Community-Based Educational Spaces

Abstract

"How can eggs fight against rocks," sighed the Vietnamese business owner in his late 50s. An age-old Asian proverb found itself in an American context. In 2019, eight Southeast Asian small businesses found themselves with eviction notices and just three months to vacate Hoa Binh Plaza—the first Southeast Asian shopping center in the tri-state area (PA-NJ-DE). The rocks? The local developer that purchased the plaza with plans to demolish it and build luxury condominiums. Hoa Binh Plaza, or “Peace Plaza” opened in 1990 by Southeast Asian refugees who resettled in Philadelphia in the late 1980s. Its name symbolized the hope of new beginnings. Now, the children of those same refugees and their allies are fighting to save the plaza. Exactly, how do eggs fight against rocks? This paper centers the anti-gentrification activism of Southeast Asian youth activists and youth workers to explore the following research questions: How do youth activists and youth workers of refugee backgrounds make sense of and respond to gentrification? What does gentrification 'teach' refugees about resettlement, belonging, and their 'place' in the US?

Guiding Literature
This paper is informed by studies of refugees that argue that all encounters between refugees and state institutions, e.g., welfare, healthcare, education, and housing are inherently educational. Specifically, US institutions teach refugees the limitations and contradictions of citizenship in a society highly stratified along race and class lines (Besteman, 2016; Bonet, 2022; Inhorn, 2018; Ong, 2003; Tang, 2015). My study picks up where this body of literature often drops off—the children of refugees, Southeast Asian Americans. Studies of refugees often exclude their American-born children from refugee status. In contrast, I draw from the field of critical refugee studies and understand 'refugee' to be a critical conceptual idea (Espiritu, 2006; Tang, 2015; Um, 2015). The articulation of Southeast Asian Americans as refugees allow for nuanced critique of the success or failure of policies and institutions responsible for refugee resettlement.

Methods & Data Collection
This paper uses data from a larger ethnographic study of a social justice Southeast Asian community-based organization in Philadelphia from 2017 to 2020. Approximately 2000 hours of observations were conducted of youth and youth workers across programs related to gentrification, civic engagement, and schooling. I also conducted 45-90 minute interviews with youth (n=72), and youth workers and organizational leaders (n=11).

Findings & Significance
For Southeast Asians, gentrification is experienced as another form of displacement in a long series of state-sanctioned uprootings. Hoa Binh Plaza was utilized as a strategic site of education to highlight the following: ongoing, invisibilized displacement of refugees and shared class struggles of Black, brown, and Southeast Asian communities. This strategy facilitated cross-racial solidarity and increased awareness of Southeast and Asian American stories. Findings call attention to intersecting systems of erasure in education and gentrification that work hand in hand to contribute to multi-generational displacement. Moreover, this study complicates the parameters of the refugee label and contributes to conversations around policies and practices of resettlement/incorporation.

Author

• Linda M. Pheng, University of Pennsylvania