This political dimension to social change is also evidenced in a recent study of the transnational linkages
between Vietnamese Americans and Vietnamese nationals. Valverde (2002) found that Internet Web
pages and listservs have emerged as important sites for the Vietnamese-American community to engage
in the exchange of personal and political opinions with Vietnamese nationals. While some of these
Internet groups restrict exchanges to non-politically sensitive topics, in other virtual sites, such as the Viet
Nam Forum, Vietnamese-Americans are able to mobilize across the Pacific Ocean to voice their concerns
and press for changes regarding labor abuses in foreign-owned companies in Vietnam and the civil and
political rights of Vietnamese-Americans living in Vietnam. Valverde argues that these trans-border
connections fostered through Internet communication have allowed Vietnamese-Americans to develop a
transnational identity that extends beyond their ethnic identity as an immigrant group in the US. Although
not specified in her work, Valverde (personal communication, June 3, 2003) notes that both Vietnamese
and English are used as languages of communication in these Internet forums created by VietnameseAmericans
and Vietnamese nationals. Hence, as in the case of postcolonial Palau, English is involved in
constructing the transnational identity of Vietnamese-Americans.