Changing Perceptions of “Home”? Transnationalism, Incorporation and Vietnamese American Attitudes toward the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 1994-2004 Christian Collet Doshisha University ccollet@mail.doshisha.ac.jp collet.chris@gmail.com Hiroko Furuya Kyoto University furuyahr@gmail.com Abstract: How are an immigrant’s perceptions of “homeland” politics affected by life in America? What role does transnationalism play in shaping their views? In this paper, we examine these questions in the Vietnam-US context where, beginning in the early 1990s, the more than 600,000 Vietnamese living in America had new opportunities to (re-) engage with their country of origin. Using the results of a telephone poll of 1,046 foreign-born Vietnamese residing in two California counties, we find that while unfavorable ratings of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRVN) have grown overall since the normalization of ties, that Vietnamese in America have made a notable shift from supporting direct regime change to believing diplomacy is the more effective approach. In subsequent analysis, we find that behavioral transnationalism – higher levels of direct contact, remitting and return travel to Vietnam – contributes to a higher rating of the Vietnamese government, while sustained cognitive transnationalism – being tied to Vietnam through media or word-of-mouth – alone has the opposite effect. American citizenship is found to be a crucial intervening factor; incorporation as a registered voter in the US encourages a more positive views of Vietnam and preferences for diplomacy. Theoretically, the results suggest an important distinction be made when operationalizing transnationalism, as “thinking of home” and frequent engagement with “home” can have different political consequences. In a larger sense, our findings highlight the conflicting dynamics of immigrant political socialization in America, but reinforce the notion that transnationalism and domestic incorporation – for Vietnamese, at least – are not mutually exclusive, but inherently linked. Prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, August 30-September 2, 2007. Manuscript date: August 21, 2007 Word count: 8,612 Keywords: transnationalism; incorporation; public opinion; migration; Vietnam; Vietnamese American; Asian American The second author thanks the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for providing support that allowed for the collection of some of the data presented within.