June 2005
Alicia Campi, Ph.D.*
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Below is a summary of this publication. Read the full report in pdf.
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“We did not come here the way other migrants came. They came to paradise to realize their personal dreams. We were like trees uprooted and planted in a foreign land.” Phung Minh Tien (BBC Vietnamese Service, April 28, 2005)
The 20th century is often called the “Age of the Uprooted.” A prime example of this “uprooting” is the Vietnamese refugee crisis which unfolded in the mid-1970s after the end of the Vietnam War. The crisis resulted in both the creation of the modern Vietnamese American community and a fundamental reformulation of U.S. refugee policy. The 1.2 million-strong Vietnamese American community reflects upon this dramatic historical journey in 2005, which marks ten years since the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam, and 30 years since the fall of the Saigon government, which initiated the ‘first wave’ of Vietnamese refugees. Moreover, Vietnamese Americans celebrate the fact that they have moved far beyond their refugee origins and become successful economic and political players in U.S. society.
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