Our studies of Vietnamese youth in an ethnic enclave in New Orleans during the mid1990’s showed a growing trend of “bifurcation,” a situation in which youth were diverging in two distinct directions—valedictorian (or achiever) versus delinquent. As predicted by the segmented assimilation theory, we found that Vietnamese youth with close connections to their ethnic community through their families were likely to concentrate on upward social mobility through education and that they were able to do so because of the support, control, and direction that they received from their ethnic community. In contrast, those with weak connections to their families and the ethnic community, or whose families were detached from the ethnic community, were likely to develop Vietnamese variations of an oppositional youth subculture and thus became delinquent “outsiders.”