The Latest Newcomers: Karens in U.S. schools

• In Event: The Southeast Asian Diaspora

Abstract

This study is an ethnographic study of Karen (pronounced Ka-REN) refugee students’ educational experiences at a public charter school. Grounded in the literature on racialization and Asian American identity, this study explores how Karen refugee youth both embrace and contest becoming Asian American. In doing so, I examine how Karen youth are structurally racialized and contingently resist the binary U.S. black-white racial construct that renders Asian Americans invisible.

Author

• Insil Jeon, University of Minnesota