"Communities of practice" for civic and political engagement: Asian Indian and Vietnamese immigrant organizations in a Southwest

The voluntary immigrant associations that provide the context for the events described in the vignettes that follow are important to processes of political incorporation and good citizenship because it is often through such organizations that immigrants become aware of the problems and possibilities of American civic life and participation in the public sphere-that is, the realm between the private and that of governmental institutions (Habermas 1989).