HUMAN 1C Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Refugee Act, Well-Founded Relation, Orange County, California
Lecture #10 (De)Constructing Refugee Narratives
Vietnamization
● Paris Peace Accords 1973 - they plan on letting the Vietnamese fight it out themselves,
pulling out US troops although still funding the South Vietnamese. They knew this
probably would result in Northern victory.
● Vietnam War “ends” on April 30, 1975 and leads to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
● When they knew the North was going to win, the South Vietnamese military stripped
themselves of their clothing so they wouldn’t be identified as supporting the south. Piles
of clothes were left in the street
Exodus, Displacement, and Diaspora
● Seeking asylum vs. being granted asylum
○ Refugee is a political status that has to be recognized by different countries. It is
a very political move, if we are enemies with a country we are more likely to give
their citizens refugee status.
● Internally displaced persons
● Refugee: A refugee is a person who, “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for
reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion, is outside the country of his nationality.” -United Nations’ Refugee Convention
1951
● South Vietnamese civilians climbed the 14 foot wall of the US embassy in Saigon, trying
to reach evacuation helicopters. They were terrified of being classified as an enemy of
the state. Even though they were Vietnamese, the Civil War had led to massive killing on
both sides and this reality did not go away when this ended. The North Vietnamese were
still fearful of intervention so they cut the country off so no one could enter or leave, and
they imprisoned South Vietnamese personnel and sent them to re-education camps, and
took punitive measures against their families.
Militarized Refugee Resettlement
● Indochina Migration and Refugee Act 1975
● U.S. refugee camps - there were refugee camps in Camp Pendleton where individuals
would have to find sponsors that wanted to help resettle them. U.S. government also
provided funding to each state to help resettle the refugees.
● Dispersion and assimilation policies - they dispersed them across all 50 states to help
assimilate them as soon as possible. Many refugees already had an education and
contact with Westerners, and it was much easier for them to settle than for others.
● The military played the role of “rescuing” the refugees rather than understanding how we
created the conditions that made them refugees in the first place.
● Little Saigon in Orange County is the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam.
Moral Imperatives and Obligations
● There was a large debate on whether or not we should accept these refugees. The
American polls at the time showed that the majority of Americans did not want to accept
the refugees- it was a war the US lost and a painful reminder of the lost, they had not
been shown very positive images of the Vietnamese throughout the war and people
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Document Summary
Paris peace accords 1973 - they plan on letting the vietnamese fight it out themselves, pulling out us troops although still funding the south vietnamese. They knew this probably would result in northern victory. Vietnam war ends on april 30, 1975 and leads to the socialist republic of vietnam. When they knew the north was going to win, the south vietnamese military stripped themselves of their clothing so they wouldn"t be identified as supporting the south. Piles of clothes were left in the street. Refugee is a political status that has to be recognized by different countries. It is a very political move, if we are enemies with a country we are more likely to give their citizens refugee status. South vietnamese civilians climbed the 14 foot wall of the us embassy in saigon, trying to reach evacuation helicopters. They were terrified of being classified as an enemy of the state.