In 2007 refugee resettlement organizations in San Diego, CA began accepting arrivals of refugees from Burma/Myanmar. Little ethnographic research had been done on their resettlement experience, as they are one of the newest groups of refugees to arrive to the United States. What research had been done focused on the ethnic and religious majority, the ethnic Christian Karen. This thesis is a qualitative research of refugees from Burma reconciling their expectations with the realities of their new life. This thesis gives ethnographic descriptions of the narrated reasons for choosing to resettle to the United Stated and the refugees' expectations and realities of their economic situation and transnational social fields after arrival to San Diego, CA. Theoretical frameworks of subjectivity, transnationalism, and structural violence are used to analyze and discuss the data. It addition, the data showed that the diversity of the group manifests into differential access to institutional resources, exhibiting the importance of incorporating the diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious variations of this particular group of refugees into both research and social service programs.
