Vietnamese Americans
Total population | |
---|---|
2,347,344 (2023)[1] 0.7% of the total U.S. population (2023)[2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
| |
Languages | |
Vietnamese, English | |
Religion | |
Buddhism (37%) • Christianity (36%) Unaffiliated (23%)[4] • Vietnamese folk religion • Caodaism • Hòa Hảo | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Vietnamese people, Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese Canadians, Vietnamese Australians, Asian Americans, Chinese Americans, Hmong Americans |
Vietnamese Americans (Vietnamese: Người Mỹ gốc Việt) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry.[5] They constitute a major part of all overseas Vietnamese. As of 2023, over 2.3 million people of Vietnamese descent live in the United States, making them one of the largest Asian American ethnic groups.[6] The majority (60%) are immigrants, while 40% were born in the United States.[7]
The Vietnamese American population grew significantly after 1975, when a large wave of South Vietnamese refugees arrived in the U.S. following the end of the Vietnam War.[8] Today, over half of Vietnamese Americans reside in California and Texas, particularly in metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, Houston, and San Jose.[9][10]
History
[edit]Early Vietnamese presence in the United States (pre-1975)
[edit]The history of Vietnamese Americans is relatively recent. Historical records indicate that a small number Vietnamese, including Ho Chi Minh, arrived during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[11][12]
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics reports that the earliest recorded instances of Vietnamese individuals obtaining lawful permanent resident (LPR) status in the United States occurred between 1951 and 1959, during which 290 Vietnamese were granted residency.[13] These numbers began to grow during the Vietnam War, with approximately 2,949 Vietnamese obtaining LPR status between 1960 and 1969.[13]
First wave of immigration: 1975 and the Fall of Saigon
[edit]The Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, which marked the end of the Vietnam War, triggered the first major wave of Vietnamese immigration, as many with ties to the United States or the South Vietnam government feared reprisals from the communist regime.[14]
In the week leading up to the Fall of Saigon, between 10,000 and 15,000 people departed on scheduled flights, followed by an additional 80,000 who were evacuated by air.[15][16] The final group was transported aboard U.S. Navy ships.[15][17] Altogether, approximately 125,000 to 130,000 Vietnamese refugees were evacuated and resettled in the United States during the first wave.[18][19][20]
After leaving Vietnam, the refugees first arrived at reception camps in the Philippines and Guam before being transferred to temporary housing at U.S. military bases, including Camp Pendleton (California), Fort Chaffee (Arkansas), Eglin Air Force Base (Florida), and Fort Indiantown Gap (Pennsylvania).[21] Following resettlement preparations, they were assigned to voluntary agencies (VOLAGs), which provided assistance in securing financial and personal support from sponsors in the U.S.[22][23]
Most first-wave refugees were better educated, wealthier, and more proficient in English than those in subsequent waves.[24][22] According to 1975 U.S. State Department data, over 30% of first-wave household heads were medical professionals or technical managers, 16.9% worked in transportation, and 11.7% held clerical or sales jobs in Vietnam. Less than 5% were fishermen or farmers.[25]
The resettlement of South Vietnamese refugees in the U.S. initially faced mixed reception, fueled by fears of job competition, welfare strain, and cultural concerns.[26] According to a 1975 Gallup poll, only 36% of Americans approved of the resettlement, while 54% disapproved.[26]
Despite initial public reluctance, President Gerald Ford emphasized a "profound moral obligation" to assist the refugees,[27] calling it a "great human tragedy."[28] In response, Congress passed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975, providing special entry status and $455 million in resettlement aid.[29]
To prevent the refugees from forming ethnic enclaves and minimize impact on local communities, they were distributed throughout the country,[22] but within a few years, many resettled in California and Texas.
Second wave of immigration: "boat people" (1978–1980s)
[edit]Between 1978 to the mid-1980s, a second major wave of refugees from former South Vietnam fled, primarily by sea on fishing boats, becoming known as "boat people."[30] This group represented a diverse range of backgrounds, including South Vietnamese elites, former South Vietnam military and government officials, Chinese minorities, religious minorities, farmers, fishermen, and merchants.[30][31]
Many fled persecution following the fall of Saigon, where many South Vietnamese, particularly former South Vietnamese military officers and government employees, were detained in re-education camps for political indoctrination, forced labor, and torture.[32][33][34] A significant number of boat people included ethnic Chinese, Hmong, and other minority groups, many of whom were Vietnamese citizens.[35] Notably, ethic Chinese were specifically targeted for expulsion and accounted for 50% to 80% of the over 50,000 monthly refugee arrivals at Southeast Asian camps in 1979.[36][35][37]
The boat people were often rescued up by foreign ships and transported to asylum camps in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. From these camps, many were resettled in countries that agreed to accept them, including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, and others.[22][25][23]
Between 1975 and 1979, limitations in existing refugee admission laws required U.S. presidential actions to admit approximately 300,000 Southeast Asian refugees, including many from Vietnam.[38] In response to the plight of Vietnamese boat people, Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980 to ease restrictions on refugee admissions.[38][39]
In 1979, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) established the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) to facilitate legal emigration from Vietnam to the U.S. and other countries.[40] The ODP initially succeeded in relocating an average of 16,500 individuals annually—over 115,000 people by 1986, including 50,000 to the United States.[41] However, progress eventually stalled due to disagreements over priorities, as the U.S. focused on specific groups such as Amerasian children and re-education camp prisoners, while Vietnam prioritized the exodus of ethnic Chinese.[41]
Vietnamese Fishermen's Association Antitrust Suit
[edit]Vietnamese refugees in the Gulf Coast faced discrimination as they arrived throughout the 1970s and 1980s. White fishermen complained about unfair competition from their Vietnamese American counterparts. "Non-Vietnamese docks refused to allow Vietnamese American boats to dock, [and] wholesalers refused to buy shrimp from Vietnamese Americans." The Ku Klux Klan attempted to intimidate Vietnamese American shrimp fishermen, at one time having plans to burn Vietnamese shrimp boats.[42] The Vietnamese Fishermen's Association, with the aid of the Southern Poverty Law Center, won a 1981 antitrust suit against the Klan, disbanding the "private army of white supremacists."[43]
Shifts in Vietnamese immigration pathways (post-1980s)
[edit]While Vietnamese immigration has remained relatively steady since the 1980s, the pathways for Vietnamese immigrants to obtain lawful permanent resident (LPR) status have changed dramatically.
Prior to 1998, the majority of Vietnamese green card holders were granted LPR status on humanitarian grounds, such as through refugee or asylum programs.[44] In 1982, for example, 99% of Vietnamese immigrants received green cards via these channels.[44]
By 2022, this figure had fallen to less than 1%, or fewer than 100 Vietnamese. Instead, the majority of Vietnamese immigrants (87%) gained green cards through family reunification, a rate much higher than the overall figure of 58%.[44] About 12% secured LPR status via employment sponsorship.[44]
Demographics
[edit]Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
1980 | 261,729 | — |
1990 | 614,517 | +134.8% |
2000 | 1,122,528 | +82.7% |
2010 | 1,548,449 | +37.9% |
2023 | 2,347,344 | +51.6% |
As of 2023, nearly 2.4 million Vietnamese Americans lived in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, [47][48] with approximately 60% being immigrants ("foreign-born") and 40% born in the U.S.[49][50]
The largest populations concentrated in California (38%), Texas (14%), and Washington State (5%).[51] Florida, Virginia, Georgia, and Massachusetts each accounted for about 3% to 4% of the Vietnamese American population.[51]
Major hubs for Vietnamese Americans include Orange, Santa Clara, and Los Angeles counties in California, and Harris County in Texas, together making up 31% of Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S.[51]
Little Saigon, located in Westminster and Garden Grove, is the largest and oldest Vietnamese-American enclave in the United States.[52] According to the 2023 United States Census American Community Survey (ACS), Vietnamese Americans account for 43.8% and 32.6% of the population, respectively.[53][54]
Rank | County | State | Population |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Orange County | California | 149,000 |
2 | Santa Clara County | California | 99,800 |
3 | Los Angeles County | California | 95,600 |
4 | Harris County | Texas | 72,900 |
5 | King County | Washington | 34,500 |
6 | San Diego County | California | 34,200 |
7 | Alameda County | California | 27,500 |
8 | Sacramento County | California | 26,400 |
9 | Tarrant County | Texas | 23,700 |
10 | Fairfax County | Virginia | 23,300 |
Language
[edit]According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey, approximately 1.5 million people aged five and older speak Vietnamese at home, making it the fifth most commonly spoken language in the U.S., after English, Spanish, Chinese, and Tagalog.[55]
Additionally, the survey indicates that 57% of Vietnamese speakers reported speaking English "less than very well."[55] This percentage is higher than that of Spanish (39%) and Tagalog (30%) speakers, and comparable to Chinese speakers (52%).[55]
English proficiency varies significantly between U.S.-born and foreign-born Vietnamese Americans. While 90% of U.S.-born Vietnamese Americans are fluent in English, only 35% of the foreign-born counterparts report the same level of proficiency.[56]
Income
[edit]In 2023 Vietnamese Americans had a median household income of $88,467 which was significantly higher than the total population. However, they had a per capita income of $40,037 which was lower than the total population and non-hispanic whites.[57] Vietnamese Americans were more likely to be home-owners than all Asians. Vietnamese American individuals had a poverty rate of 11.5% which was higher than all Asians.
In 2019, the median household income for U.S.-born Vietnamese Americans was around $82,400[58]
Employment
[edit]The U.S. Census Bureau reports in 2016 among working Vietnamese Americans (civilian employed population 16 years and over): 32.9% had management, business, science, and arts occupations; 30.9% had service occupations; 17.0% had sales and office occupations, 4.3% had reported natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations; and 15% had natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations.[59]
Religion
[edit]According to the Pew Research Center, 37% of Vietnamese Americans identify as Buddhist, 36% as Christian, and 23% have no religious affiliation, while smaller proportions adhere to other faiths (2%), identify as Muslim (<1%), or did not provide an answer (3%).[61][62]
In 2024, Vietnamese Americans are more likely to identify as Christian compared to those in Vietnam. While Christians, primarily Roman Catholics, make up about 10% of Vietnam's population,[63] they make up approximately 36% of the Vietnamese American population.[62] Due to hostility between Communists and Catholics in Vietnam, many Catholics fled the country after the Communist takeover, and many Catholic Churches had sponsored them to America.[64]
Many practice Mahayana Buddhism,[22][25] Taoism, Confucianism and animist practices (including ancestor veneration) influenced by Chinese folk religion.[65] Vietnamese are a major ethnic group notable among Asian American Catholics.[66] Hòa Hảo and Caodaism are two of the other religions of Vietnamese Americans.
There are 150 to 165 Vietnamese Buddhist temples in the United States, with most observing a mixture of Pure Land (Tịnh Độ Tông) and Zen (Thiền) doctrines and practices.[67][68] Most temples are small, consisting of a converted house with one or two resident monks or nuns.[67] Two of the most prominent figures in Vietnamese American Buddhism are Thich Thien-An and Thich Nhat Hanh.[68] There are also Theravada-based Vietnamese temples like Chua Buu Mon in Port Arthur, Texas.
Education
[edit]Coming from different waves of immigration, Vietnamese Americans have a lower educational attainment than overall Asian American population but it is higher than other Southeast Asian groups and is also trending upward, with each generation more likely to attain higher degrees and/or qualifications overall than the generation prior.[69] As of 2019, 32% of Vietnamese American (of which 27% foreign born and 63% of U.S. born) had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 54% of all Asian Americans and 33% of all Americans.[56]
View of education
[edit]Vietnam's traditional Confucianist society values education and learning, and many Vietnamese Americans have worked their way up from menial labor to have their second-generation children attend college and become successful.[citation needed]
Community issues
[edit]Language barrier
[edit]Language was the first barrier Vietnamese refugees with limited English proficiency had to overcome. English uses tonal inflection sparingly (primarily for questions); Vietnamese, a tonal language, uses variations in tone to differentiate between meanings of a sound. Ma can have one of seven meanings, depending on tone: "mother", "ghost", "but", "code", "rice plant", "cheek" or "tomb".[22] Another difference between Vietnamese and English is the former's widespread use of relationship-related pronouns. You is the widely used second-person singular pronoun in American English, but the Vietnamese second-person singular pronoun varies such as by gender (anh or chị) and relationship (bạn, cậu or mày).[25]
Employment
[edit]Vietnamese Americans have arrived in the U.S. primarily as refugees, with little or no money. Census data indicates that Vietnamese Americans are an upwardly-mobile group; their economic status improved substantially between 1989 and 1999.[70]
Most first-wave Vietnamese refugees initially worked at low-paying jobs in small services or industries.[71] Finding work was more difficult for second-wave and subsequent immigrants, due to their limited educational background and job skills. They were employed in blue-collar jobs, such as electrical engineering and machine assembling.[25] In San Jose, California, the economic difference can be seen in the Vietnamese American neighborhoods of Santa Clara County. In downtown San Jose, many Vietnamese work as restaurant cooks, repairmen and movers. The Evergreen and Berryessa sections of the city are middle- to upper-middle-class neighborhoods with large Vietnamese American populations, many of whom work in Silicon Valley's computer, networking and aerospace industries.
According to a 2002 Census Bureau survey of Vietnamese-owned firms, slightly more than half of the businesses are personal services or repair and maintenance. The period from 1997 to 2002 saw substantial growth in the number of Vietnamese-owned business.[72] In 2002 34.2 percent of Vietnamese-owned businesses were in California, followed by Texas with 16.5 percent.[72]
Young Vietnamese Americans adults are well educated, and often provide professional services. Since older Vietnamese Americans have difficulty interacting with the non-Vietnamese professional class, many Vietnamese Americans provide specialized professional services to fellow immigrants.[citation needed] Of these, a small number are owned by Vietnamese Americans of Hoa ethnicity. In the Gulf Coast region (Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama), Vietnamese Americans are involved with the fishing industry and account for 45 to 85 percent of the region's shrimp business. However, the dumping of imported shrimp from Vietnam has impacted their livelihood.[73] Many remain employed in Silicon Valley's computer and networking industry, despite layoffs following the closure of various high-tech companies.[74]
Politics and activism
[edit]Naturalization
[edit]According to a 2008 Manhattan Institute study, Vietnamese Americans are among the most-assimilated immigrant groups in the United States.[75] Although their rates of cultural and economic assimilation were comparable to other groups (perhaps due to language differences between English and Vietnamese), their rates of civic assimilation were the highest of the large immigrant groups.[75] As many were refugees from South Vietnam, Vietnamese Americans viewed their stay in the United States as permanent and became involved in the political process at a higher rate than other groups.
Vietnamese Americans have the highest naturalization rate among all immigrant groups.[76] As of 2023, 78% of eligible Vietnamese immigrants in the United States had become U.S. citizens, compared to 53% of the total foreign-born population.[77][76]
However, there are "substantive within-group differences among Vietnamese Americans and that the classical linear assimilation hypothesis does not adequately explain political incorporation. Although naturalization does appear to increase steadily over time, with earlier waves more likely to have acquired citizenship, the same pattern of associations does not appear for our analysis of registration and voting. Notably, it was the third wave of Vietnamese immigrants who were most likely to cast ballots in the last presidential election."[78]
Opposition to communism
[edit]According to a 1995 study, the relationship between Vietnam and the United States has been the most important issue for most Vietnamese Americans.[25] As many are refugees from South Vietnam, many are strongly opposed to communism; this attitude could also take root during and after the Indochina Wars, injustice in reeducation camps as well as other issues with the communist government.[79] In a 2000 Orange County Register poll, 71 percent of respondents ranked fighting communism as a "top priority" or "very important."[80] Vietnamese Americans stage protests against the Vietnamese government's policies.[81]
In 1999, opposition to a video-store owner in Westminster, California who displayed the flag of Vietnam and a photo of Ho Chi Minh peaked when 15,000 people held a nighttime vigil in front of the store;[82] this raised free speech issues. Although few Vietnamese Americans enrolled in the Democratic Party because it was seen as more sympathetic to communism than the Republican Party, Republican support has eroded in the second generation and among newer, poorer refugees.[83] However, the Republican Party still has strong support; in 2007, in Orange County, Vietnamese Americans registered as Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats (55 and 22 percent, respectively).[84]
Political preferences
[edit]According to the 2008 National Asian American Survey, 22 percent identified with the Democratic Party and 29 percent with the Republican Party.[85] Exit polls during the 2004 presidential election indicated that 72 percent of Vietnamese American voters in eight eastern states polled voted for Republican incumbent George W. Bush, compared to the 28 percent voting for Democratic challenger John Kerry.[86] In a poll conducted before the 2008 presidential election, two-thirds of Vietnamese Americans who had decided said that they would vote for Republican candidate John McCain.[85] The party's vocal anti-communism is attractive to older and first-generation Vietnamese Americans who arrived during the Reagan administration.
Although most Vietnamese overall are registered Republicans, most young Vietnamese lean toward the Democratic Party. An Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) poll found that Vietnamese Americans aged 18–29 favored Democrat Barack Obama by 60 percentage points during the 2008 presidential election.[87] According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, 47% of registered Vietnamese American voters leaned Republican and 32% Democratic. Among Vietnamese Americans overall (including non-registered voters), 36% leaned Democratic and 35% Republican.[88]
Political representation and leadership
[edit]Vietnamese Americans have exercised political power in Orange County, Silicon Valley, and other areas, and have attained public office at the local and statewide levels in California and Texas. Janet Nguyen is a member of the California State Assembly; Andrew Do is part of the five-member Orange County Board of Supervisors; Bao Nguyen was mayor of Garden Grove, California, and Vietnamese Americans have also been the mayors of Rosemead and Westminster, California. Several serve (or have served) on the city councils of Westminster,[89] Garden Grove and San Jose, California,[90] and Hubert Vo is a member of the Texas state legislature.[91] In 2008, Westminster became the first city with a majority Vietnamese American city council.[92] In 2004, Van Tran was elected to the California state legislature. Viet Dinh was the Assistant Attorney General of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and the chief architect of the Patriot Act. In 2006, 15 Vietnamese Americans were running for elective office in California.[93] In August 2014, Fort Hood Col. Viet Xuan Luong became the first Vietnamese American general in U.S. history.[94] Four Vietnamese Americans have run for a seat in the United States House of Representatives as their party's endorsed candidate.[95][96][97] In 2008, Katrina activist Anh "Joseph" Cao won Louisiana's 2nd congressional district seat in the House of Representatives; Cao was the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress.[98]
Advocacy for the South Vietnamese flag
[edit]Some Vietnamese Americans have lobbied city and state governments to make the flag of South Vietnam (rather than the flag of Vietnam) the symbol of the Vietnamese in the United States, and objections were raised by the Vietnamese government.[99] The California and Ohio state governments enacted laws adopting the South Vietnamese flag in August 2006. Since June 2002, 13 states, seven counties and 85 cities had adopted resolutions recognizing the South Vietnamese flag as the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag.[100][101]
Community activism post-Hurricane Katrina
[edit]During the months following Hurricane Katrina, the Vietnamese American community in New Orleans (among the first to return to the city) rallied against a landfill used to dump debris near their community.[102] After months of legal wrangling, the landfill was closed.[103][104]
Support for Hong Kong protests
[edit]Since the onset of Hong Kong protests in June 2019, Vietnamese Americans have been the most active Asian Americans rallying in favor of the pro-democracy (pro-Labor Union) Hongkongers, organizing vocal marches in California, where their largest community exists. They clashed with pro-communist Mainland Chinese immigrants.[105][106][107] Trúc Hồ, a famed Vietnamese American singer, wrote a song in July 2019 to praise the Hong Kong protesters. The song went viral among Vietnamese and Hong Kong citizens.[108]
Political alignment since 2016
[edit]Among Asian Americans, Vietnamese Americans have been the most supportive of Donald Trump since his 2016 presidential election. They have also shown the strongest support for Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.[109] According to a AAPI.org survey, 46% of Vietnamese Americans supported Trump in the 2020 presidential election, compared to 36% for Joe Biden.
The reasons credited for the strong support of Trump by Vietnamese Americans is his strong stances against socialism and communism in particular and the left wing of politics as a whole; supporting conservative-oriented freedom; and disliking mainland China's trade policies and alleged currency manipulation. Many pro-Trump rallies were organized by Andy Ngo to support his re-election during the 2020 campaign throughout the country.[110]
Many Vietnamese Americans gained headlines for participating in the January 6 United States Capitol attack by waving the South Vietnamese flags and marching alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist supporters.[111][112] Some Vietnamese Americans, particularly younger generations, voiced their disappointment over the flag's display during the Capitol riot, especially its association "with hate, with racism, with supremacy."[113] They stressed that "the ideas of authoritarianism, of overturning the people's will, are not the principles that this flag stands for,"[114] and remarked that the incident made them feel as though they "looked like clowns."[113]
It was reported that due to the incident, "many younger people started questioning their elders' unyielding loyalty to and interpretation of the banner's [South Vietnam Flag] values".[114][115]
Student associations
[edit]A number of colleges have a Vietnamese Student Association, and an annual conference is hosted by the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations for current or future members.[116]
Culture
[edit]While adapting to a new country, Vietnamese Americans have tried to preserve their traditional culture by teaching their children the Vietnamese language, wearing Vietnamese traditional dress for special occasions and showcasing their cuisine in restaurants throughout the country. Family loyalty is the most important Vietnamese cultural characteristic, and more than two generations traditionally lived under one roof. The Vietnamese view a family as including maternal and paternal grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. In adapting to American culture, most Vietnamese American families have adopted the nuclear pattern while trying to maintain close ties with their extended families.[25]
Vietnamese family culture is reflected in veneration of the dead. On the anniversary of an ancestor's death (ngày giỗ), relatives gather for a festive meal and to share stories about the person's children, works or community.[22] In a typical Vietnamese family, parents see themselves with a vital role in their children's lives; according to a survey, 71 percent of Vietnamese American parents said that being a good parent is one of the most important things in their lives.[117] Generations of Vietnamese were taught to help their families without question, and many Vietnamese Americans send American goods and money and sponsor relatives' trips or immigration to the U.S. In 2013, remittances sent to Vietnam via formal channels totaled $11 billion, a tenfold increase from the late 1990s.[70]
Vietnamese Americans observe holidays based on their Vietnamese calendar, with Tết Nguyên Đán (commonly known as Tết) the most important. Falling in late January or early February, Tết marks the lunar new year. Although the full holiday lasts for seven days, the first three days are celebrated with visits to relatives, teachers and friends. For Tết, the Vietnamese commemorate their ancestors with memorial feasts (including traditional foods such as square and round sticky-rice cakes: bánh chưng and bánh giầy) and visits to their ancestors' graves.[22][25][23] For Vietnamese Americans, the celebration of Tết is simpler. In California, Texas and other states with substantial Vietnamese communities, Vietnamese Americans celebrate Tết by visiting their relatives and friends, watching community-sponsored dragon dances and visiting temples or churches.[25][23]
Tết Trung Nguyên (Wandering Souls' Day, on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month) and Tết Trung Thu (Children's Day or the Mid-Autumn Festival, on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month) are also celebrated by many Vietnamese Americans. For Tết Trung Nguyên, food, money and clothes made of special paper are prepared to worship the wandering souls of ancestors. Along with Tết Nguyên Đán, Tết Trung Thu is a favorite children's holiday; children holding colorful lanterns form a procession and follow a parade of lion dances and drums.[22][25][23]
Ethnic subgroups
[edit]Although census data counts those who identify as ethnically Vietnamese, how Vietnamese ethnic groups view themselves may affect that reporting.
Hoa
[edit]The Hoa people are Han Chinese who migrated to Vietnam. In 2013, they made up 11.5 percent of the Vietnamese American population, and in majority, identified itself as Vietnamese.[118] Some Hoa Vietnamese Americans also speak a dialect of Yue Chinese, generally code-switching between Cantonese and Vietnamese to speak to both Hoa immigrants from Vietnam and ethnic Vietnamese. Teochew, a variety of Southern Min which had virtually no speakers in the US before the 1980s, is spoken by another group of Hoa immigrants. A small number of Vietnamese Americans may also speak Mandarin as a third (or fourth) language in business and other interaction.
Eurasians and Amerasians
[edit]Some Vietnamese Americans are Eurasians: people of European and Asian descent. They are descendants of ethnic Vietnamese and French settlers and soldiers (and sometimes Hoa) during the French colonial period (1883–1945) or the First Indochina War (1946–1954).
Amerasians are descendants of an ethnic Vietnamese (or Hoa) parent and an American parent, most commonly white or black. The first substantial generation of Amerasian Vietnamese Americans were born to American personnel, primarily military men, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1975. Many Amerasians were ignored by their American parent; in Vietnam, the fatherless children of foreign men were called con lai ("mixed race") or the pejorative bụi đời ("dust of life").[119] Since 1982, Amerasians and their families have come to the United States under the Orderly Departure Program. Many could not be reunited with their fathers, and commonly arrived with their mothers. In some cases, they were part of false families that were created to escape from Vietnam.[23] Many of the first-generation Amerasians and their mothers experienced significant social and institutional discrimination in Vietnam, where they were denied the right to education; discrimination worsening after the 1973 American withdrawal, and by the U.S. government, which discouraged American military personnel from marrying Vietnamese nationals and frequently refused claims of U.S. citizenship that were lodged by Amerasians born in Vietnam if their mothers were not married to their American fathers.[120][121][122]
Discrimination was even greater for children of black servicemen than for children of white fathers.[123] Subsequent generations of Amerasians (children born in the United States) and Vietnamese-born Amerasians whose American paternity was documented by their parents' marriage or their subsequent legitimization have had an arguably more favorable outlook.[124]
The 1988 American Homecoming Act helped over 25,000 Amerasians and their 67,000 relatives in Vietnam, to emigrate to the United States. Although they received permanent-resident status, many have been unable to obtain citizenship and express a lack of belonging or acceptance in the US because of differences in culture, language and citizenship status.[125][126]
Ethnic Tai-Lao
[edit]The Thái peoples, including the Laotians, Nungs and other Tai ethnicities who migrated to the United States were majority from Northern Vietnam. The community, overall, do not develop a separate ethnic identity sentiment due to long friendly relations with the Vietnamese rulers, thus the community don't regard itself Thai Americans or Laotian Americans, and see itself part of Vietnamese American diaspora.[127][128][129]
Cham
[edit]Cham are an ethnic minority of Vietnam and Cambodia, and a small number of them came to the United States as refugees fleeing the Cambodian Genocide. The main Cham populations in the United States are located in Orange County, California, Portland, and Seattle.[130][131]
See also
[edit]- Asian Americans
- List of Vietnamese Americans
- List of Vietnamese American groups
- List of U.S. cities with large Vietnamese-American populations
- Vietnam–United States relations
- Vietnamese language in the United States
References
[edit]- ^ "US Census Data". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
- ^ "US Census Data". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
- ^ "Vietnamese American Populations by Metro Area 2010 Census" (PDF). Hmongstudies.org. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Rotolo, Besheer Mohamed and Michael (October 11, 2023). "Religion Among Asian Americans". Pew Research Center. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- ^ James M. Freeman. Vietnamese Americans. Microsoft Encarta Online. Encyclopedia 2008. Archived from the original on April 4, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
- ^ "U.S. Census Bureau Releases Key Stats in Honor of 2023 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month | U.S. Department of Commerce". www.commerce.gov. May 1, 2023. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
The estimated number of people of Chinese (except Taiwanese) descent in the United States in 2021. The Chinese (except Taiwanese) population was the largest Asian group, followed by Indian (4.8 million), Filipino (4.4 million), Vietnamese (2.3 million), Korean (2.0 million), and Japanese (1.6 million). These estimates represent individuals who reported a specific detailed Asian group alone as well as those who reported that detailed Asian group in combination with one or more other detailed Asian groups or another race(s).
- ^ Greenwood, Shannon (August 6, 2024). "Vietnamese Americans: A Survey Data Snapshot". Pew Research Center. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
A majority of Vietnamese Americans are immigrants (60%) and 40% are U.S. born. California is home to the largest share of Vietnamese Americans (35%), with 16% living in the Los Angeles metropolitan area alone.
- ^ Batalova, Jeanne Batalova Jeanne (October 10, 2023). "Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States". migrationpolicy.org. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
- ^ Batalova, Jeanne Batalova Jeanne (October 10, 2023). "Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States". migrationpolicy.org. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
Immigrants from Vietnam were highly concentrated in California (38 percent), followed distantly by Texas (14 percent) and Washington State (5 percent) in the 2017-21 period. Florida, Virginia, Georgia, and Massachusetts were each home to about 3 percent or 4 percent of the Vietnamese population. The top four counties for Vietnamese immigrants were three in California (Orange, Santa Clara, and Los Angeles counties) and Harris County, Texas. Together these four counties accounted for 31 percent of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States.
- ^ Budiman, Abby (April 29, 2021). "Vietnamese in the U.S. Fact Sheet". Pew Research Center. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- ^ "Truong - Ancestry.com". Search.ancestry.com. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
- ^ "Nguyen - Ancestry.com". Search.ancestry.com. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
- ^ a b Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: Fiscal Year 2022 (PDF) (Report). U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics. 2023. p. 8. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
- ^ "Dead Men Walking | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
- ^ a b Levinson, David; Ember, Melvin, eds. (1997). American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation. Vol. 2. Macmillan Reference. p. 926. ISBN 0028972082.
The first major wave of emigration from Vietnam consisted of those who left South Vietnam at the time of its collapse in April 1975. This group included the governing elite, those who had worked for the U.S. government, and the high-ranking military with their families. Some ten to fifteen thousand people left in the week before the collapse of the South Vietnamese government. In the beginning this was an orderly departure by scheduled flights... An additional eighty thousand were evacuated, mainly by aircraft, during the last part of April. The last group in this wave consisted of those who were picked up by U.S. Navy ships offshore. Altogether some 125,000 arrived in the United States from Vietnam in 1975.
- ^ "Miki Nguyen's Story | Last Days in Vietnam". PBS LearningMedia. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
- ^ "Last Days in Vietnam: Refugees". PBS LearningMedia. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
- ^ Batalova, Jeanne (October 10, 2023). "Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States". migrationpolicy.org. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
The end of the Vietnam War and the rapid U.S. military pullout in 1975 marked the beginning of large-scale migration from Vietnam to the United States. The U.S. government evacuated about 125,000 Vietnamese that year, most of whom had close ties to the U.S. military and could have been persecuted by the new Communist government.
- ^ Bui, Daniel Hiếu Thuận (2023). "From Forced Relocation to Social Ascension: An Examination of Vietnamese Migratory Trends, Adjustment, and Social Advancement in America". UC Berkeley: Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative: 3.
By the end of 1975, around 130,000 Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian refugees (of which 125,000 were Vietnamese) were accepted and resettled throughout the country...
- ^ Rutledge, Paul James (1992). The Vietnamese Experience in America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0253349974.
Following the fall of Saigon, the first wave of Vietnamese refugees, estimated at approximately 132,000 people, left Vietnam seeking haven principally within the United States.
- ^ Levinson, David; Ember, Melvin, eds. (1997). American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation. Vol. 1–2. Macmillan Reference. p. 926. ISBN 0028972082.
After departure from Vietnam, planned resettlement was mediated through reception camps, mainly in the Philippines. In 1975, this was followed by temporary housing at U.S. Army camps in Arkansas, California, Florida, and Pennsylvania. The refugees were then dispersed throughout the United States with sponsorship by individuals frequently associated with church or other voluntary charitable groups.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wieder, Rosalie. "Vietnamese American". In Reference Library of Asian America, vol I, edited by Susan Gall and Irene Natividad, 165-173. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1996
- ^ a b c d e f Nguyen-Hong-Nhiem, Lucy and Joel M.Halpen. "Vietnamese". In American Immigrant Cultures, vol 2, edited by David Levinson and Melvin Ember, pp. 923-930. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998
- ^ Rutledge, Paul James (1992). The Vietnamese Experience in America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0253349974.
The characteristics of this first wave would prove to be distinctly different from subsequent waves of Vietnamese refugees. They were, by comparison, better educated, wealthier, and had political connections within the U.S. government. Many spoke English or at least had a working familiarity with the language. They included high-ranking soldiers, professional people who had worked with American personnel or companies in Vietnam, ethnic Vietnamese who had been educated within the United States educational system, and individuals who had family ties to America.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bankston, Carl L. "Vietnamese American." In Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America vol 2, edited by Judy Galens, Anna Sheets, and Robyn V. Young, 1393-1407. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1995
- ^ a b Kneeland, Douglas E. (May 2, 1975). "Wide Hostility Found To Vietnamese Influx (Published 1975)". New York Times. Archived from the original on April 18, 2024. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- ^ "Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress Reporting on United States Foreign Policy. | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
I must, of course, as I think each of you would, consider the safety of nearly 6,000 Americans who remain in South Vietnam and tens of thousands of South Vietnamese employees of the United States Government, of news agencies, of contractors and businesses for many years whose lives, with their dependents, are in very grave peril. There are tens of thousands of other South Vietnamese intellectuals, professors, teachers, editors, and opinion leaders who have supported the South Vietnamese cause and the alliance with the United States to whom we have a profound moral obligation.
- ^ "The President's News Conference | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
We are seeing a great human tragedy as untold numbers of Vietnamese flee the North Vietnamese onslaught. The United States has been doing and will continue to do its utmost to assist these people. I have directed all available naval ships to stand off Indochina to do whatever is necessary to assist. We have appealed to the United Nations to use its moral influence to permit these innocent people to leave, and we call on North Vietnam to permit the movement of refugees to the area of their choice.
- ^ Rep. Rodino, Peter W. (May 23, 1975). "H.R.6755 - 94th Congress (1975-1976): The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975". www.congress.gov. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
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Following the first wave of refugee, which had started in the mid of 1975, the second large-scale wave of refugee began in 1978 and lasted until the mid 1980s. The migrants mostly fled by sea on fishing boats which gave rise to their name 'The Boat People'. They were wide-ranging in social background, including members of the South Vietnamese elite, Chinese minorities, religious groups, non-partisan individuals and fishers.
- ^ Levinson, David; Ember, Melvin, eds. (1997). American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation. Vol. 2. Macmillan Reference. p. 926. ISBN 0028972082.
Unlike the well-educated and highly skilled first group, this second wave was more diverse in terms of class origin. Many were semiliterate farmers, fishermen, and small-town merchants with little or no familiarity with large cities. There were also former military and government officials included in this wave. Many were genuine political refugees, but others also saw economic opportunity in leaving an impoverished Vietnam. They put to sea in available boats capable of carrying at least a few dozen people.
- ^ Rutledge, Paul James (1992). The Vietnamese Experience in America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. p. 63. ISBN 0253349974.
Following the fall of Saigon, the Vietnamese government began a strategy of reconstruction which involved reeducation camps, new economic zones, and the nationalization of private enterprises. The reeducation camps were subtly disguised places of indoctrination and torture. Any refugee fleeing these camps was certainly understood to be a political refugee.
- ^ Roos, Dave (August 29, 2023). "How the End of the Vietnam War Led to a Refugee Crisis". history.com. Archived from the original on December 19, 2024. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
South Vietnamese intellectuals and other potential enemies of the revolution were rounded up and shipped off to 'reeducation' camps, which were really forced labor camps designed to break the will of the South Vietnamese and indoctrinate them with communist ideologies. Many residents of Saigon, the former South Vietnamese capital, were forced to move to the countryside to labor on collective farms.
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- ^ a b Rutledge, Paul James (1992). The Vietnamese Experience in America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. p. 5. ISBN 0253349974.
As a result of internal conflict, and renewed pressure by the Vietnamese government to expel ethnic Chinese peoples, including those who were citizens of Vietnam, thousands of persons fled to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Ethnic Chinese, Hmong, and other groups who had small representative numbers in the first wave, suddenly began to emerge in overwhelming numbers.
- ^ Rutledge, Paul James (1992). The Vietnamese Experience in America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 5, 63. ISBN 0253349974.
Among those defined as boat people were a large percent-age of ethnic Chinese. In 1979, when camps throughout the Southeast Asian region were handling more than 50,000 arrivals a month, fifty to eighty percent of the arrivals were ethnic Chinese fleeing Vietnam.
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In 1977, about 15,000 Vietnamese sought asylum in Southeast Asian countries. By the end of 1978, the numbers fleeing by boat had quadrupled and 70 per cent of these asylum seekers were Vietnamese of Chinese origin.
- ^ a b "Refugee Act of 1980". National Archives Foundation. Archived from the original on December 16, 2024. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the need for a change in American policy concerning refugees became apparent as hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians fled political chaos and physical danger in their homelands. Between 1975 and 1979, some 300,000 of these refugees were able to come to the United States through Presidential action, as the law at the time restricted refugee admissions. Seeing this, many members of Congress wanted to establish a more regular system of immigration and resettlement that would establish a clear and flexible policy.
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In 1979, the plight of the boat people made international news when the United Nations called a conference to address the situation. The U.N. persuaded the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and France to allow more Vietnamese refugees into their countries... In the United States, Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980, allowing Vietnamese refugees to come directly to America if they had family in the U.S.
- ^ Kumin, Judith (January 1, 2008). "Orderly Departure from Vietnam: Cold War Anomaly or Humanitarian Innovation?". Refugee Survey Quarterly. 27 (1): 104–117. doi:10.1093/rsq/hdn009. ISSN 1020-4067.
In May 1979, UNHCR and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a program for legal emigration from Vietnam, known as the Orderly Departure Program, or ODP. The ODP was intended to make it possible for persons wishing to leave Vietnam to do so in a safe and orderly manner, rather than having to join the ranks of the Vietnamese boat people. It is the only time UNHCR has extended its assistance on a large scale to help persons to leave their country of origin. Well over half a million people emigrated from Vietnam under the auspices of the program. The existence of the ODP made it possible for the international community to reach consensus on how to tackle problems relating to Vietnamese refugees and asylum-seekers at two major conferences, once in 1979 and another in 1987.
- ^ a b Robinson, W. Courtland (September 1, 2004). "The Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indochinese Refugees, 1989–1997: Sharing the Burden and Passing the Buck". Journal of Refugee Studies. 17 (3): 319–333. doi:10.1093/jrs/17.3.319. ISSN 0951-6328.
Although ODP succeeded in moving an average of about 16,500 people peryear in its first seven years (by mid-1986, more than 115,000 Vietnamese hadtravelled safely, legally and directly to receiving countries, including 50,000 to theUnited States) its full potential was thwarted by continued mistrust between theVietnamese and American sides. By late 1985 (and throughout 1986 and most of1987) the ODP was in decline as Vietnam halted new interviews until the USagreed to clear up a growing backlog of cases already interviewed by USprogramme officials and awaiting exit visas. Put simply, the United States wanted more people of higher priority: immediate family members of US citizens, former employees, Amerasian children, and, perhaps most significantly, current and former prisoners from re-education camps. The Vietnamese had other priorities, among them the continued exodus of Sino-Vietnamese.
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Further reading
[edit]- Chan, Sucheng, ed. (2006). The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation: Stories of War, Revolution, Flight, and New Beginnings 323pp
- Yến Lê Espiritu, “Toward a Critical Refugee Study: The Vietnamese Refugee Subject in US Scholarship,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 1 (1–2): 2006: 410–433;
- Yến Lê Espiritu, “The ‘We-Win-Even-When-We-Lose’ Syndrome: US press Coverage of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the ‘Fall of Saigon,’” American Quarterly 58 (2): 2006: 329–352; online.
- Ho, Canary H. "Perspectives of First-Generation Vietnamese Americans and Filipino/a Americans : Lack of Representation and the Model Minority Myth" (EdD dissertation, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2023. 30494382).
- Kelly, G. P. From Vietnam to America: A chronicle of the Vietnamese immigration to the United States (Routledge, 2019). .
- Lipman, Jana K. In Camps: Vietnamese Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, and Repatriates (University of California Press, 2020)
- Nguyen, Nhi T. Not an American Dream: first-generation Vietnamese females’ success in higher education. ( Thesis, California State University, Long Beach; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019. 22589873).
- Ho Peché, Linda; Vo, Alex-Thai Dinh; Vu, Tuong, eds. (2023). Toward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community, and Memory. Temple University Press.; see also online book review and further readings
- Segui, Alan Serrano. "The immigration generation: Nativity and the political socialization of Filipino and Vietnamese Americans" (Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2009. 3379510)
- Tran, Tuyen Ngoc. Behind the Smoke and Mirrors: The Vietnamese in California, 1975–1994 (PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 2007).
- Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston (1998). Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation
External links
[edit]- Vietnamese American Heritage Project, Vietnam Center & Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University.
- Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project at University of California, Irvine.
- Other oral history projects about Vietnamese Americans.
- Vietnamese in the Diaspora Digital Archive.
- Vietnamese Heritage Museum.
- US–Vietnam Research Center at University of Oregon.