Abstract
The following paper will discuss Vietnamese Americans and their journey to America. I will talk about how these incredible and resilient people fought to succeed it a world that seemed to hold the odds against them. The culture, beliefs, and challenges of Vietnamese people are a precise paradigm of their strength and perseverance.
Unfortunately, Vietnamese Americans make up only a small percent of the total American Population today. There are many stereotypes associated with the Vietnamese, but the truth is, we really know very little about their culture. After the Viet Nam War, many Vietnamese citizens immigrated to the United States to escape political Prosecution and poverty. Faced with a variety of obstacles and
…show more content…
The act was implemented in 1989 and called The Vietnamese Amerasian Homecoming Act. Amerasian is a term used to describe children of Vietnamese mothers and American fathers (or vice versa). Enabling approximately 25,000 Amerasian children into the country with their immediate families, the act allowed over 77,000 Vietnamese immigrants into the United States. Overall, between 1981 and 2000, over 531,000 Vietnamese citizens, voluntarily immigrated to the United States and were accepted. Although the United States progressively allowed more Vietnamese immigrants into the country, if there were never limits to the number of legal refuges, tens of thousands of lives may have been spared.
Currently, the United States continues to limit the number of immigrants permitted to enter the country. Politicians are even trying to upgrade the charge to a felony offense if immigrants are caught entering the United Sates illegally. The interesting part of this phenomenon is that the only people who are native to America are the Native American Indians. Other than that, everyone's family had immigrated to America at some point. Having said that, maybe we should be more forthcoming when trying to pass a law by stating that now, since our family is already here, we should start to limit the number of new immigrants that enter. I find the hypocrisy of our government to somewhat overwhelming.
At this point, the American people
World War II brought a new set of immigrants, and eventually the passing of the Displaced Persons Act of 1947. This allowed people, displaced by war to enter the country above quota limits
As a proud second generation Vietnamese American, I proudly associate myself with my Catholic Vietnamese community. Like all members in my group, we are indoctrinated with the typical immigrant values of perseverance, freedom, and respect for others and our cultural identity. The church that binds us together, Our Lady of Lavang, is the center where most of the Catholic Vietnamese Community gathers all over West Michigan. Since the 1st grade, I went through the Church's school program every Sunday to learn about Christian moral values, Vietnamese traditions, and language. These lessons has heavily influenced my outlook on life, enabling me to use faith to build confidence with myself, maintain integrity, and to love and respect every individual.
every time my father revisited Vietnam, all my own family members and spouse and children gathered to speak about the cultural variations between Vietnam and the usa. of their discussions, a few could ask questions based on the yank politics, authorities, regulation enforcement, education and freedom. In turn, my father could give an explanation for that the yankee way of life and way of socialization become completely specific from Vietnam. further, he supported the american social notion in equality and freedom of religion irrespective of someone’s historical past, beginning and social creativeness. After listening to their discussions, i might move and share the important data acquired, with my friends and associates, who would completely
Thesis: African Americans played a key role in Vietnam War and, in the process, changed the complexion of the U.S. Armed Forces
America is the land of freedom and opportunity. It is a place where anyone can take refuge from harm and pursue their own dreams. However, the novel, The Refugees, by Viet Thanh Nguyen, portrays another perspective of being a refugee in the United States. The retelling of him becoming accustomed to America practices indicated that he faced an identity crisis. Specifically, he faces a contentious dilemma concerning how he would strike a balance between seeing himself as a person of Vietnamese heredity or of his American lifestyle. He amplifies the significance of this issue through the inquiry of certain practices of the community, his mixed views about fighting Communism, and his interactions with his family.
In 1975, the ‘Fall of the Saigon’ marked the end of the Vietnam War, which prompted the first of two main waves of Vietnamese emigration towards the US. The first wave included Vietnamese who had helped the US in the war and “feared reprisals by the Communist party.” (Povell)
A little under fifty years ago, there was a sudden increase in Vietnamese refugees. In order to save their independence and lives, immigrating to another country was the only option for these people. Throughout their time in California, an area dominated by Asian refugees, they have found ways to practice their traditional culture thousand of miles away. However, the difficulty in assimilating to a new culture was a hurdle they needed to fight. With this in mind, the Vietnamese community constructed business such as: salons, markets, and restaurants. A band of refugees who were originally exiled, steadily adapted to their new home in which they flourished by innovating the Vietnamese culture with American life.
The focus of our group project is on Chinese Americans. We studied various aspects of their lives and the preservation of their culture in America. The Chinese American population is continually growing. In fact, in 1990, they were the largest group of Asians in the United States (Min 58). But living in America and adjusting to a new way of life is not easy. Many Chinese Americans have faced and continue to face much conflict between their Chinese and American identities. But many times, as they adapt to this new life, they are also able to preserve their Chinese culture and identity through various ways. We studied these things through the viewing of a movie called Joy Luck Club,
The book, The Latehomecomer, is a fascinating story about a Hmong family and their struggle to get out of Laos and come to America as refugees. The Hmong people are a very proud people and they do not want to forget their culture. One can clearly see that the Hmong people hold close their identity and do not want to conform to the Vietnamese way. They take pride in their culture, their society, and the way they view how government should run. Hmong people did not agree with the Vietnamese communist government and were willing to join forces and help the United States as much as possible so that they could fight for what they believed in. Even though most of the young men and boys that fought in the war died in battle or were
In the middle 1960s, every male in America had to register for Selective Service Draft at age 18. He would then be eligible for the draft and could be inducted into the Army for a period of two years. If you were a college student, you could receive a deferment and would be able to finish college without the fear of being drafted. However, once finished with college, a students name would be put to the very top of the draft list and could be deployed at anytime. The anti-war movement was about young men being drafted and then sent into war that most Americans did not believe threatened the security of the US. The Vietnam War was America’s rebellious war, a war without popular support
The Vietnam war brought Amerasians, American and Vietnamese children. According to long time journalist David Lamb of L.A times magazine, the children of the American and Vietnamese race were viewed as unpopular and named “children of the dust”. Some of the American
The subject of my interview is a 68 year elderly Vietnamese man named Minh “Bi” Ngo. Mr. Ngo has white long hair, a medium long white beard and a distinctive mole on the bottom of his left eye and a thick Vietnamese accent. He was born and raised in Vietnam on April 3rd, 1947. He is also a widow who is currently living with his daughter in Westminster, Orange County. Originally, Mr. Ngo was from the city of Buon Ma Thuot in the province of Dak Lak, Vietnam. He then immigrated to Falls Church, Virginia where he began his new life in the United States. At the time of the interview, Mr. Ngo looked very exhausted yet grateful at the same time. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Ngo through his daughter, who is a friend of my cousin. I conducted the interview on the afternoon of September 24th, which lasted for two hours. During the interview Mr. Ngo shared with me his experiences during the Vietnam war, his times in the Vietnamese Reeducation camps, his immigration to the United States, and his involvement in the Vietnamese community today. As the interview continues on, I began to comprehend a little bit more on the way it was back then and how the common folks
The Vietnam War's Effects on American Society Abstract The Vietnam War had a profound effect on American society. It changed the way we viewed our government, the media, and our Constitutional rights. Because of this shift in perspective, the country was torn apart and yet still came together in new and different ways. The Vietnam War's contraversiality spurred a great many sources of protest, against our government's use of power, how far we could stretch the rights of free expression, and primarily against the violence of the war itself.
The Vietnam War was marked by brutality, death, protests, and psychological tolls. No war caused such great division among the American people like the Vietnam War. The war was extremely costly, and it left long-term effects on people all over the world. As a whole, the American people agree that the Vietnam War was a waste of time, money, and life.
Vietnam was so significant to the United States partly as it would be the first war they would lose. It also had a tremendous financial impact on the country and the casualties were also more in the public eye than ever before due to the media. They learnt that: "a long war for limited objectives, with its steady stream of body bags, will not be supported by the American people" (Martino, 1996, p37). Some suggest that the US should have avoided any involvement in the war.