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According to the 2000 Census , there are 1,122,528 people who identify themselves as Vietnamese alone or 1,223,736 in combination with other ethnicities. Of those, 447,032 (39.8%) live in California and 134,961 (12.0%) in Texas . The largest concentration of Vietnamese found outside of Vietnam is found in Orange County, California , totaling 135,548. Vietnamese American businesses are ubiquitous in Little Saigon , located in Westminster and Garden Grove , where they constitute 30.7% and 21.4% of the population, respectively. States such as Pennsylvania, Illinois, Washington, and Virginia have fast growing Vietnamese populations.


HISTORY


The history of Vietnamese Americans is a fairly recent one. Prior to 1975, most Vietnamese residing in the United States were wives and children of American servicemen in Vietnam or academics, and their number was insignificant. The Fall Of Saigon (termed the "liberation of Saigon" by the Communist Government Of Vietnam ) on April 30 , 1975 , which ended the Vietnam War , prompted the first large-scale wave of immigration from Vietnam. Many people who had close ties with the Americans feared promised Communist reprisals, and 125,000 of them left Vietnam during the spring of 1975 . This group was generally highly-skilled and educated, and their leaving constituted a severe ' Brain Drain ' for Vietnam. They were airlifted by the U.S. government to bases in the Philippines and Guam , and were subsequently transferred to various refugee centers in the United States . The tragedy of forced evacuation was compounded on Friday, April 4 of 1975, when a C5A "Galaxy" cargo aircraft, which was being used to airlift out an estimated group of two hundred fifty Vietnamese orphans and forty-four "non-essential" DAO personnel during " Operation Babylift " crash-landed after an 'explosive de-compression', with great loss of life. These South Vietnamese refugees initially faced resentment by Americans following the turmoil and upheaval of the Vietnam War, and a poll taken in 1975 showed only 36% in favor of Vietnamese immigration. Even so, President Gerald Ford and other officials strongly supported them and passed the Indochina Migration And Refugee Act in 1975, which allowed them to enter the United States under a special status. In order to prevent the refugees from forming ethnic enclaves and to minimize their impact on local communities, they were scattered all over the country. Within a few years, however, many resettled in California , Texas and Virginia , giving those states the largest Vietnamese American populations.

The year 1978 began a second wave of Vietnamese refugees that lasted until the mid-1980's. As captured South Vietnamese people, especially former military officers, faced being sent to Communist " Reeducation Camp s" (essentially forced labor concentration camps) or being forced to evacuate to "new economic zones," or being drafted into a Vietnamese occupation army sent to Cambodia, about two million people fled Vietnam in small, unsafe, and crowded boats. These " Boat People " were generally less-educated and skilled than the people in the first wave. If they escaped Pirate s, they usually ended up in asylum camps in Thailand , Malaysia , Singapore , Indonesia , Hong Kong or the Philippines , where they might be allowed to enter countries that agreed to accept them. Congress passed the Refugee Act Of 1980 , reducing restrictions on entry, while the Vietnamese government established the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) under the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees in response to world outcry, allowing people to leave Vietnam legally for family reunions and for humanitarian reasons. Additional American laws were passed, to allow children of American servicemen and former political prisoners and their families to enter the United States. Between 1981 and 2000, the United States accepted 531,310 Vietnamese political refugees and asylees.


VIETNAMESE AMERICANS TODAY

street festooned with the flags of the former South Vietnam and of the United States ]]

Van Tran , elected to the California Legislature in 2004 ]]

As a relatively recent immigrant group, most Vietnamese Americans are either first or second-generation Americans. They have the lowest distribution of people with more than one race among the major Asian American groups. As many as 1,009,627 people 5 years and older speak Vietnamese at home, making it the 7th most spoken Language In The United States . As refugees, Vietnamese Americans have some of the highest rates of naturalization.

Vietnamese Americans are much more likely than those in Vietnam to be Christian . While Christians (mainly Roman Catholics ) make up about 8% of Vietnam's population, they compose as much as 30% of the Vietnamese-American population.

However, as with native-born descendants of other minority immigrant groups, the younger generations of U.S.-raised and educated Vietnamese Americans are increasingly speaking English than the mother tongue of Vietnamese. Additionally, the younger generations have become much more acculturated to the mainstream culture of America than traditional Vietnamese culture. The Confucianist paternal hierarchy found in Vietnamese culture has gradually broken down as Vietnamese American females take on careers.


Politics

As refugees from a Communist country, many are vehemently anti-Communist. Vietnamese Americans regularly stage protests against the Vietnamese government, its Human Rights policy and those whom they perceive to be sympathetic to it. For example, in 1999, protests against a video store owner in Westminster who displayed the Vietnamese Communist Flag and a picture of Ho Chi Minh peaked when 15,000 people held a vigil in front of the store in one night, causing severe disruptions in traffic. Membership in the Democratic Party was once considered anathema among Vietnamese Americans because it was seen as less supportive of the Vietnam War, at least toward the war's end, in comparison to Nixon-era Republicans. However, their support for the Republican Party has somewhat eroded in recent years, since the Democratic Party is seen in a more favorable light by the second generation as well as the newer, poorer refugees.

Recently, Vietnamese Americans have exercised considerable political power in Orange County , Silicon Valley , and other areas. Many have won public offices at the local and statewide levels in California (mostly as Republicans). Several Vietnamese Americans serve or served in the city councils of Westminster and Garden Grove; the mayor pro tempore of Westminster is a Vietnamese American. In 2004, Van Tran and Hubert Vo were elected to the state legislatures of California and Texas, respectively. Some Vietnamese Americans have recently lobbied many city governments to make the former South Vietnamese Flag instead of the current flag of Vietnam the symbol of Vietnamese in the United States, a move that the Vietnamese government objected to.


Economy

In addition, many Vietnamese Americans have established businesses in Little Saigon s and Chinatowns throughout North America . Indeed, Vietnamese immigrants - particularly those of pureblood ethnic Chinese origin - have been highly instrumental in intiating the development of new Little Saigon communities and the redevelopment of once declining older Chinatowns. Like many other immigrant groups, the majority of Vietnamese Americans are Small Business owners. Throughout the United States, many Vietnamese, especially first or second-generation immigrants, open supermarkets, restaurants (serving either Vietnamese Cuisine , Chinese Cuisine , or both; hence, pho and cha gio has since become popular Vietnamese food in the United States), Banh Mi restaurants, Beauty Salons and barber shops, and auto repair businesses. Additionally, some Vietnamese Americans provide upper-tier professional services to fellow immigrants. Some of these businesses have been owned by Vietnamese Americans of Chinese ethnicity. In the Gulf Coast region ( Louisiana , Texas , Mississippi , and Alabama ) some Vietnamese Americans are involved with the Fish and Shrimp industries. In California's Silicon Valley , many work in the valley's computer and networking businesses and industries, although many were laid off in the aftermath of the closure of many high-technology companies.

Vietnamese Americans vary widely in income and social class levels. Many Vietnamese Americans are Upper Class professionals who fled from the increasing power of the Communist Party after the Vietnam War , while others work primarily in Blue-collar jobs. In San Jose, California , for example, this diversity in income levels can be seen in the different Vietnamese-American neighborhoods scattered across Santa Clara County . In the Downtown San Jose area, many Vietnamese are working-class and are employed in many Blue-collar positions such as restaurant cooks, repairmen, and movers, while the Evergreen and Berryessa sections of the city are affluent middle-class to upper middle class neighborhoods with large Vietnamese American populations, many of whom work in Silicon Valley 's computer, networking, and aerospace industries. In Little Saigon in Orange County, there are significant socioeconomic disparities between the established and successful Vietnamese Americans who arrived in the first wave and the later arrivals of solely Vietnamese-speaking and low-income refugees (many of whom were former political prisoners of the re-education camps of post-war Vietnam), with the latter group somewhat looked down upon by the former.

A majority of Vietnamese Americans have done very well for themselves and their families. The first wave of immigrants in 1975-1985 have worked their way up from menial labor to have their second generation children attend universities and become successful Entrepreneur s, Lawyer s, Doctor s, Engineer s, Dentist s and Pharmacist s.

Recent immigrants who do not speak English well tend to work in menial labor jobs like assembly, restaurant/shop workers, nail and hair salons. A high percentage (about 37% nationwide and 80% in California according to ''Nguoi Viet Daily'' newspaper) of nail salons are owned and operated by Vietnamese Americans. The work involved in nail salons takes skilled manual labor but requires only limited English speaking ability. Vietnamese Americans see that working in nail salons as a fast way to build wealth one manicure at a time. This concept and economic niche has proven successful that visiting overseas Vietnamese entrepreneurs from Britain have also adopted the Vietnamese American model and opened several nail salons in the United Kingdom as well, where few previously existed.


Perception and portrayal of Vietnamese Americans

As with other ethnic minority groups in United States, Vietnamese Americans have came into conflict with the larger U.S. population, particularly how they are perceived and portrayed. There have been degrees of hostility directed toward Vietnamese Americans. For example, in the U.S. Gulf Coast , the white fishermen complained of competition from there Vietnamese American counterparts resulting in the hostility. In the Vietnamese fishing village of Los Angeles , Vietnamese American fishermen are banded together to forming the first Vietnamese Fishermen Association of America to represent their interests.

Poor African Americans have complained that the Vietnamese refugees newcomer are receiving more government assistance upon arrival than they did.

Gang activities have become a concern among the Vietnamese American population with law enforcements. For example, in 1992 in Sacramento , a major robbery and shoot-out occurred at an electronic retailer between Vietnamese American gangs and the local police—the media sensationalized this incident. Another example is that Vietnamese American gangs commit the violent home invasion robberies toward the wealthy Vietnamese American families. Cafes in Little Saigon of Orange County have been rumor to be fronts for gang activity. In the movie Better Luck Tomorrow , a Vietnamese American youth was portrayed as a gun-toting gang member.


Ethnic subgroups

While the census data only count those who report themselves to be Ethnically Vietnamese , the way some other ethinic groups from Vietnam view themselves may affect census reporting.


Vietnam-born Chinese ('' Hoa '')

A large fraction of Vietnamese Americans consists of ethnic Overseas Chinese who immigrated to Vietnam centuries ago. Ethnic Chinese made up a large fraction of the commercial elite who left after the fall of Saigon , and also after the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, which led to discrimination against ethnic Chinese and contributed to a large fraction of them to become boat people. As a result, many Vietnamese Americans also speak fluent Cantonese (although with the Vietnamese influence, "Vietnamese" Cantonese slightly differs from Cantonese spoken in Guangdong , China and in Hong Kong ) and serves somewhat as a bridge between the Vietnamese American and Chinese American communities, which in turn helps create the Asian American identity. Chinese Vietnamese Americans generally Code-switch between Cantonese and Vietnamese when conversing with fellow ethnic Chinese immigrants from Vietnam. Some Vietnamese Americans may also speak Mandarin as a third or fourth language, in all aspects of business and interaction. However, due to the possession of Vietnamese-style names and the Vietnamese language, ethnic Chinese Vietnamese are often referred to as "Vietnamese" and mistaken for ethnic Vietnamese by Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan . Interestingly, while ethnic Chinese Vietnamese Americans are seen and also see themselves as overseas Chinese (or ''huayi'') they generally do not classify themselves as Chinese American, nor are they seen as thus. Paradoxically, however, some Chinese Vietnamese may consider themselves more Chinese than Vietnamese which may affect census reporting.


Eurasians and Amerasians

Some Vietnamese Americans are racially Eurasian s—persons of European and Asian descent. These Eurasians are descendants of ethnic Vietnamese and (Caucasian/ European) French settlers and soldiers during the French colonial period (1883-1945) or during the Franco-Vietnamese War ( First Indochina War )(1946-1954). Amerasians are descendants of ethnic Vietnamese and white (sometimes black) American personnel (mostly military) during the Vietnam War (1961-1975). Many of the these Amerasians, as well as their mothers, experienced significant social discrimination in Vietnam following the American withdrawal in 1973 (such discrimination was typically greater for children of African American servicemen). As a result, the United States government made efforts to help them, and sometimes family members, emigrate to the U.S. Some, however, continued to face discrimination within the Vietnamese-American community after their arrival in America.


Ethnic Khmer

Some ethnic Khmer refugees who were born in Vietnam can also be included in the category of Vietnamese Americans.


WRITING AND PUBLISHING

Both Vietnamese writers in Vietnam and Vietnamese-American writers have a unique set of challenges they encounter when trying to step out of the shadows of writing and publishing. In Vietnam, few literary writers are endorsed by the state and respected by their literary peers; for artists of all types, particularly literature, Vietnam has a climate of repression and harassment. Writers must find ways to get around these barriers and sometimes when they do, they are severely reprimanded or - more infrequently - jailed for their writing. In the United States, a new generation, often referred to as the 1.5 Generation (those born in Vietnam, but who came to the United States at an early age), of Vietnamese-American writers are figuring out how to portray themselves outside of the experiences of the Vietnam War and fall of Saigon. Many Vietnamese-American writers are for the first time, stepping away from the topic of war and displacement, to the far more urgent subject of identity, or what it means to have a divided cultural identity.

The Vietnamese-American writing and publishing scene has been steadily growing since the mid/late-1990s and shows no signs of slowing down. In 1997, Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge - considered the first novel written by a Vietnamese-American about the immigrant experience - was published by Viking Press. In the semi-autobiographical novel, a young girl and her mother leave Vietnam after the war, bound for America, and once settled in, have to deal with issues that typify the immigrant experience. A slew of similarly themed novels and memoirs have followed as the 1.5 generation has come of age and begun to articulate their identity as both Vietnamese and American, a (sometimes successful) fusion of Eastern traditions in a Western society, and the confusion that resulted from growing up Vietnamese in American culture.

In the United States, Vietnamese-American writers have the freedom to explore both negative and positive aspects of their cultural and societal experiences. Only recently, though, has the 1.5 generation, who has the advantage of being raised with the English language, really starting to develop a literary scene and any type of movement. The first generation Vietnamese-Americans had the disadvantages of not knowing English and needing to find work to support themselves and/or their families. Not only do Vietnamese-Americans have the freedom to explore these issues, but people in American society are increasingly interested in those issues as well, as evidenced by the success of Monique Truong’s novel Book of Salt.

If the literary scene in the United States has been a bit fragmented, there seems to be signs of it unifying and strengthening as more novels, short stories, and poetry is published every year. And Vietnamese-Americans are being recognized, apart from ethnicity, for solid literary writing that depicts the outsider experience, allowing people of all ages, ethnicities, and other cultural divides, to connect with one another and with the written word.


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