What explains all this? One theory, recently popularized by Amy Chua’s books “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” and “The Triple Package,” is that some groups — in particular, many Asian immigrants — are predisposed to success because of certain cultural attributes. This perspective is generally eschewed by social scientists who study disaster recovery because it plays down material disadvantages: Hurricanes, for example, are devastating in low-lying areas that are often more affordable to, and disproportionately populated by, the poor. To accurately assess recovery, it is important to consider how victims were doing beforehand.

But at first glance, the Vietnamese community in New Orleans seems to vindicate a “Triple Package”-style thesis. After all, when the community began moving to the city, in 1975, its members settled in a low-lying area where housing was cheap — and today, despite experiencing the same Katrina-related hardships as other groups, they are thriving. A closer look, however, shows that the example of the Vietnamese actually complicates, if not undermines, the culture-as-cause thesis.