Politics
Vietnamese immigration began with the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam war. As the People’s Army of Vietnam and the Viet cong occupied Saigon, which would become Ho Chi Minh City, the South Vietnamese who feared reprisals from the new Communist government fled to countries willing to take them in. The US was one of these. At the time, however, public opinion in the US was not in favor of the newly arrived refugees. The strong dislike of the Vietnam war carried over to the refugees, with only 36% of Americans supporting Vietnamese immigration in 1975. This translated to suspicions of ties to the new regime and witch hunts for possible Communists among the refugees. One example of this was a series of ads running for two months in two Texan Vietnamese newspapers urging immigrants to report possible spies for Hanoi to the FBI, with or without evidence. The official spokesperson for the FBI cited “underground Communist spies” as a legitimate concern despite the war-torn state of the new Vietnam and reported that over 200 people responded. In sharp contrast to the general suspicion of the public, the Ford administration in power supported the evacuation of the South Vietnamese to America. President Ford himself signed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act of 1975, which introduced a new definition for refugees and established a resettlement program that spread the immigrants throughout the country to avoid Vietnamese ghettos and separation from the mainstream culture. The second major exodus began in 1978, as Southeast Asians fled the re-education camps and the Chinese invasion of Vietnam. Two million Vietnamese left in anything that would carry them, including the infamous boats that would define them as the “boat people”. In 1979, a Geneva Convention on Indochina Refugees was held and the Orderly Departure Program signed by the US, UK, Australia , France and Canada. From 1975 through 2002, a total of 759,482 Vietnamese arrived in the United States as refugees under this program, which made an effort to stop illegal emigration in Vietnam and legitimize the departures.
As the Vietnamese arrived in America, they began to exercise their right to vote. Studies show that the Vietnamese-American are more politically active than any other Asian-American group and predominantly Republican, especially for the earlier generations. Their political party contrasts with the mostly Democratic Asian-American majority and, in polls taken of voting Vietnamese refugees, stems from the strongly anti-Communist Republican image that appeals to to some of the refugees. Vietnamese-Americans also are the most likely of the Asian-Americans to hold political rallies, protests, or form unions for their community. In nearly thirty years, the Vietnamese-Americans have held more than 200 recorded protests, mostly towards American policies in Vietnam. Other issues that have been protested most often include human rights violations in Vietnam, the removal of the embargo on Vietnam, and immigrant-central laws and education. Today, Vietnamese-Americans have made their way into politics, resulting in three California State Assemblyman, to make our mark on America.
As the Vietnamese arrived in America, they began to exercise their right to vote. Studies show that the Vietnamese-American are more politically active than any other Asian-American group and predominantly Republican, especially for the earlier generations. Their political party contrasts with the mostly Democratic Asian-American majority and, in polls taken of voting Vietnamese refugees, stems from the strongly anti-Communist Republican image that appeals to to some of the refugees. Vietnamese-Americans also are the most likely of the Asian-Americans to hold political rallies, protests, or form unions for their community. In nearly thirty years, the Vietnamese-Americans have held more than 200 recorded protests, mostly towards American policies in Vietnam. Other issues that have been protested most often include human rights violations in Vietnam, the removal of the embargo on Vietnam, and immigrant-central laws and education. Today, Vietnamese-Americans have made their way into politics, resulting in three California State Assemblyman, to make our mark on America.