America has long been known to be the land of opportunity. In 2010 that included 7.2 million

Growing up in a family that have many relatives immigrating to the U.S in different ways, I always want to know more about people’s journey to the United States. Therefore, I decided to interview my Professor, Dr. Lan Hong about her journey coming to the U.S after Vietnam war.

Before the 1900th century, various countries such as China and France dominated the country currently known today as Vietnam. Throughout the countries history the Vietnamese people were often times mistreated. The Vietnamese people had a strong craving for independence. In the early 20th century one man united the liberation cause; that man was named Ho Chi Minh.

According to the 2010 United States Census, California has the largest Vietnamese population of 581,946 in the United States. Before 1975 there were very few Vietnamese living in the United States. After the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon in 1975, many Vietnamese refugees fled Vietnam resulting in three major waves of immigration. The first and second waves of immigration played a major role in Vietnamese refugees resettling in California. The last wave in the 1990s centered on family reunification. Since the 1970s, Vietnamese people escaping communist rule immigrated to the United States. Later they relocated to California hoping to start a life with many new opportunities. Attracted to California because of its clean environment, in turn they also influenced California’s agriculture.

Ever since the Mid-1970’s the immigrants from Vietnam; have become the sixth largest group to immigrate to the United States right behind Mexico, India, China, Philippines, and El Salvador (Zong and Batalova). When

Immigrants. America accepts about 1.5 million immigrants per year, creating 13.3% of our nation’s total population. Not surprisingly, these increase of immigrants is a good thing, with open arms we allowed the immigrants to have a better life than what they had before. Albert Einstein, a well known Physicist, emigrated to the US around the 1930’s from Germany after being a targeted by the Nazi’s. If America did not welcome Einstein into our Nation, he would have been killed and not be known as well as he is today. Yet there is two sides to this situation, America does live up to its ideal of “opportunity for all” or America does not live up to its ideal of “opportunity for all”. I believe America does live up to its ideal of “opportunity for all” because, America is

Ever since the end of the Vietnam war; Vietnamese immigrants have become the sixth largest immigration group coming in to the United States. Due to factors such as persecution, and government upheaval during the mid-1970’s to the late 1990’s. With three major waves of refugees, or immigrants comprise the majority of those coming in to the country. With a small steady flow between each major wave. Even though the first group did have advantages that other immigrant group would not have, they would still struggle to be accepted within the United States. The second group would face an even more difficult time assimilating in to the United States. They would consist of refugees that had very little resources compared to the first wave. They did not have access to the same levels of education, or were capable of speaking English like the first wave of immigrants. The third wave would still face difficulties, but had more resources when they arrived to the United States. Many of the immigrants of the third wave consisted of family members of people already here in the United States. They had access to a support system unlike those that were part of the second wave. Even though they have become part of society, they still face adversity like many other immigrant groups.

The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Vietnam. Vietnam use to be a peaceful country until the idea of communism started spreading across Vietnam. Many wanted to stay democratic but saw what happened to the Germans and started to lean towards communism. Many also wanted to stay democratic and still had it hopes high that it will soon get their lives and economy back on track.

The United States is known as the land of opportunity. With this belief present around the world, an individual from any country is confident that once he arrives on American soil, he will be able to create a better future for himself and his family based on his own hard-earned merit. Coupling this prevailing belief of opportunity with the country’s separation of Church and State, a powerful duo emerges. Immigrants are willing to seek residence in the capital of the free world. While such a promised land does exist, for the United States does in fact exist, living in this country is not so black and white. Immigrants learn that the transition into the American culture is not an easy one. When the basic freedoms of immigrants are denied,

The history of Vietnam is one of great struggle and conflict. For centuries the vietnamese people have had no choice but to change their society by force in order to gain their own freedom and independence. Pivitol events in Vietnamese history such as the Battle of Bach Dang in 939 and the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 are examples of how the conflict theory brought change to Vietnamese society and culture.

The United States of America is known as the land of opportunities, and this proves especially true to the more than 20 million students that enroll to a university or college annually in the US alone, ranking America as the number one country to send students to higher education. Yet, only 54.8 percent of these students will find themselves walking away with a degree, making the rank drop to around 20 for college completion (Gates). Causing doubt to the previous statement of America being a “land of opportunities”. But before we can conclude that there is no hope, let’s look at the worth of a degree, understand the reasons for college dropouts, and finally at a proposed solution of taking a gap year.

America has given its people several gifts through the years, but I feel as though one gift really outshines the rest. That would be the gift of opportunity. The Webster’s dictionary definition of the word opportunity is “ a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success.” America has given its citizens every chance to be successful, productive members of this society.

As people say “America is a land of opportunity”. For Amir that’s what it was, he get to start a new life, better education and like he wanted he get a chance to be close to his dad. As Amir said “ america was a place to bury my memories” even though he can’t forget what he did and he can’t erase what he saw but he still got a chance to not think about it.Unlike Amir for his dad Baba it was tragic, he lost everything he had his respect, wealth and more importantly he was forced to leave his birthplace

This history of the Vietnam war started before the idea of this war even started. Before the thought of war was conceived. The Vietnam war had the foreign involvement as its predecessor and its assistant, but not as a succeeder. The Vietnam war was started after two wars ravaged throughout the land know known as Vietnam, World War Two, and the French Independence movement. After all this fighting the stage was set for a war that had the history of foreign involvement and set for another country to involve. The start of the Vietnam war.

The unwelcomed transition from an entirely Vietnamese identity to a quasi-American one was like a rite of passage for most Vietnamese refugees. After the Viet Cong’s supposed liberation of South Vietnam, most South Vietnamese immediately wanted to leave. It did not matter which country would accept them so long it was any country that was not Vietnam. America was not the only ideal choice; Germany and Australia were also popular choices as worldwide demographic studies show (Miller). My aunt, the youngest and the first to leave Vietnam in the family, felt the same way. Anything, anyplace would be better than communist-ridden Vietnam—including a feeble boat.

Located in the continent of Asia, Vietnam covers 310,070 square kilometers of land and 21,140 square kilometers of water, making it the 66th largest nation in the world. Before French colonization, Vietnam had been takeover of China rule where the imposed the Chinese language, laws, values and cultures to the people of Vietnam. This rule lasted for thousands of years. Though Chinese colonization was bad, it wasn’t nearly as traumatic and devastating as the Direct French colonization in 1887.