Vietnamese refugees and immigration to the United States

Reasons for Leaving Vietnam
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Re-education Camps
After the new communist government was formed, government officials sent anyone who favored the old government to re-education camps. Re-education camps were used as a method of revenge against government officials and military officers of the previous South Vietnam regime. The Vietnam government broadcast these camps as a a rehabilitation center where the people forced to be there would be trained to function back with current society through labor and education. In reality, these camps were prisons where people were tortured and many of them were killed during their time in these camps.

The war in Indo-China, "The Vietnam War"
The people of Vietnam fled their country to come to America during, but mainly after the wake of the war in Indo-China. The rescue and number of Vietnamese "boat people" included about 75% of the 62,000 Indo-Chinese people immigrating to America during the year of 1979. On April 30, 1975, South Vietnam was taken over by Communist forces of North Vietnam. Panic ensued in South Vietnam and fear of being persecuted by the Communists caused hundreds of thousands to flee.

The establishment of "new economic zones" was implemented because of the division drawn between North and South Vietnam after Ho Chi Minh declared the North a Communist nation. Also, thousands of people were imprisoned for political and militaristic involvement.

During the war, the people of Vietnam were forced to work in agricultural camps or drafted into the military if they stayed. Many Vietnamese left because they did not want to have to do either of these.

"'None of the reasons given by refugees for leaving are in isolation from others. Woven into the description of economic discontent and discrimination are stories from military draft or forced labor, lack of opportunity to study... and discrimination because of one's ethnicity or religious beliefs.  Most refugees have more than one of these complaints.  By far the most unifying element in the process of disenfranchisement is service to the government prior to 1975" (Cerquone 8).

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The persecution of ethnic Chinese
The ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam, 550,000 before the war, were being forced out because of persecution and prejudices against the Chinese minority; not just by Communist oppression but by the native Vietnamese peoples themselves.

Here is a quote from a Vietnamese merchant during an interview in Oklahoma City: "A Chinese [merchant] will cheat you. If he know[s], you are Vietnamese, he will charge you more... I do not like Chinese.  They think they are better than Vietnamese.  If I could, I would send them all back" (Rutledge 7).

Effects of War
As a largely agricultural nation, the devastating effects of the war on Vietnam’s land and resources became a great factor in the exodus of Vietnamese because of starvation and poverty.

Patterns of Immigration
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Before 1965
There was not a lot of immigrant activity from Vietnam before 1965 when the war in Indo-China, or "The Vietnam War", broke out in 1965 and lasted until 1968.

In 1964, only 603 Vietnamese people were living in the U.S.

After 1965
About 130,000 Vietnamese are estimated to have sought refuge in the United States after the fall of Saigon in 1975. This was the first significant immigration of Vietnamese to the United States and any other countries willing to take in the refugees such as Canada, Australia, and France. Though, the United States was the country that took in the most Vietnamese boat people, with 185,000.

In March 1977, The United States Immigration Service began admitting Vietnamese refugees with the seventh preference visas which applied to refugees escaping Communism or, if from the Middle East, fleeing persecution for religion, race, or politics.

Subsequent waves of refugees came to America into the 1980s, including racial minorities of Vietnam such as: the Cham, the Khmer, the Montagnards, and the Chinese.

By 1985, the number of immigrants had climbed to 643,200 Vietnamese living in the United States.

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Concentration of Vietnamese Population within the United States
Like the other major Asian ethnic populations within the United States, Vietnamese refugee and immigrant populations are most heavily concentrated in California. The next populous area is in Texas, where Houston has housed new Vietnamese Americans with each wave of immigration (Vu 27). Other states with a high concentration of Vietnamese include: Washington, Florida, and Virginia. In some cases, the Vietnamese immigrants created enclaves for themselves for communal support. Similar to the Chinatowns of major cities, Little Saigons sprouted in cities and were sometimes even part of a larger Chinatown.

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Vietnamese Refugees and Immigrants to America
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In the late 1970s, after the Vietnam war, America received an enormous amount of refugees from Vietnam running away from the newly formed communist government in search of asylum. These individuals were referred to as "boat people" but were not always well received in United States. Sometimes they would dock in countries but the authorities would arrest them and send them back to Vietnam or to other countries where they also were not wanted.

In the picture above, a Vietnamese mother is with her children who have just been rescued by a U.S. Navy ship. The picture below shows the types of boats these refugees would use for escape.

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Refugees would come on boats that carried up to 400 people and were horribly made and not meant to handle the seas or the weather. The majority of these boats that ventured out on these voyages never made it to their destination because they had no idea how to navigate through the seas. These unlucky boats would end up attacked by pirates or wandering months on the seas succumbing to disease and starvation. Although some boats were able to make it to countries close by, like Malaysia (which tended to receive them well), Thailand, and the Philippines. Those refugees who ended up in Thailand were exposed to large amounts of violence. Thai pirates would steal their goods and sell them for money and then these refugees would be sent to refugee camps in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries. These camps were in horrible conditions and many Vietnamese women and children were beaten and raped brutally. The U.S. government sent money to take care of the refugees, but this money typically did not get to the refugees. From 1979 until the 90s, the U.S. government made the issue of the Vietnamese refugees a humanitarian matter, and they strived to ensure the refugees’ wellbeing.

Operation Babylift
Another source of refugees came in with Gerald Ford’s Operation Babylift in April 1975. This operation was initiated as a means to send thousands of young orphans to America, Canada, Europe, and Australia for adoption, but some parents sent their children off as well (Safe Haven 115). Unfortunately, the operation was marred by a plane crash that killed 154 people out of the 176 onboard due to a mechanical problem (PBS).

Laws Enacted in Response to Vietnamese Immigration/Refugees

 * May 23, 1975: The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act - In efforts to assist Vietnamese refugees, the Ford Administration passed this act to give funding to help with Vietnamese and Cambodian evacuations, and place them in safer living situations.


 * March 3, 1980: The United States Refugee Act of 1980 – This act was passed to reinforce previous acts that protected these refugees. It solidified that this issue was a humanitarian concern that was meant to be effective in protecting and resettling refugees.


 * The U.S. made an administrative decision in 1982 that Vietnamese immigrants with no previous ties to the United States would not be allowed to resettle and were classified as P-6's, which is the "lowest priority of six processing categories used by immigration officials to delineate the strength of the connection persons seeking U.S. resettlement had with the U.S." (Cerquone 5). However, American authorities have not denied that they chose not to resettle some of the Vietnamese who had legitimate claims to the U.S. according to their papers in the P-6 file.

Refugee Resettlement
The thousands of Vietnamese refugees accepted into the United States were aided by both government and nongovernment organizations, which tried to provide housing, employment, health screenings and education. Though polls taken in 1979 show that over 60% of Americans opposed admission of refugees, they became part of the four million resettled in the United States since WWII (Safe Haven). The Vietnamese refugees make up the second largest population of refugees in the U.S. after the Cubans, and they risked their lives to leave Vietnam (Refugees in America 305). Of the Southeast Asians who arrived in 1979, 39 percent were under the age of 15 with a median age of 20. Many of the refugees suffered from minor health problems, but there was also a concern about malaria, hepatitis, and tuberculosis (Safe Haven 31).

Assimilation into American Culture
Refugees have a similar experience as immigrants because both must adjust culturally, economically and spiritually to their new home, but the refugees must also face a violent past which can make assimilation more difficult. They are also often pioneer immigrants and lack preexisting community structures, which lessons the chances of a strong support structure (Anderson 13). Additionally, as part of the immigration surge resulting from the 1965 revisions to the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Vietnamese were clumped into the category of Asian and discriminated against because of assumptions and associations(Safe Haven). Many refugees had problems particularly with social workers because of cultural differences which made assimilation even more difficult. Much of the success of the Vietnamese refugees or immigrants within American was dependent on when they arrived to the country. The first wave of refugees in the 70s came from predominantly urban areas and had white-collar professions in their pasts. They tended to have better education and spoke English more proficiently than the immigrants of the 1980s and later. The Vietnamese who immigrated in the 80s often left in more dangerous circumstances, were from rural areas, less educated, and entered the U.S. during a recession in an economy that no longer had as many blue-collar jobs. The first wave of refugees also had longer to adjust to American, and the younger generation was more likely to assimilate successfully into American culture (Refugees in America 39). Another important factor in employment led to a shift in familial power dynamics as well. Women became more prevalent in the work-force and became wage-earners for their families unlike previous patriarchal structures (Kibria 125).