Limited Kindness: A Study Of Vietnamese Refugees In The United States, 1975-1982

In late April of 1975, with the impending collapse of the South Vietnamese regime, the United States began to evacuate Vietnamese refugees. About 125,000 Vietnamese refugees had arrived in the United States until Mid-May. However, the change of this figure didn't come to an end with the cessation of the Vietnam War. After the reunification, the social reconstruction gave rise to the second tide of emigration of Vietnamese refugees. But some southeast countries and regions excluded Vietnamese refugees and some western countries did not care about them. Under various kinds of pressure, in order to fulfill the moral responsibility for the Vietnamese refugees as well as to enhance the national image, status and the hegemony of capital with the Soviet Union. American government admitted a large number of Vietnamese refugees. Until 1982, the number of Vietnamese refugees in the United States had reached nearly 400,000. For the large-scale influx of Vietnamese refugees, the federal government intended to reduce its impact to American's society and accelerated theirs assimilation, so decided to dispersal resettlement to the Vietnamese refugees. However, dispersal settlement did not achieve the Americans'desired effect, Vietnamese refugees still keen on ethnic enclaves. This essay is divided into three parts:the preface, the body part and the conclusion.The preface mainly discusses the reasons and the significance of choosing to study the Vietnamese refugees in the United States and gives a brief introduction of the reason why the author chooses the period of 1975-1982. In addition, this section also provides a literary review of the research situation nowadays both home and abroad.The body part is made up of three chapters.Chapter one mainly introduces the Refugee Legislation of the United States after the World War II. At the same time, it analyses the policies and measurements that America took in face of the coming of Vietnamese refugees.Chapter two analyses the reasons why Vietnamese refugees flees from Vietnam and why they were accepted by the United States. This part is developed from the perspective of the interference of America in Vietnam War, the social reconstruction of Vietnam, and the rejection attitude of other southeast countries towards Vietnam. What should be paid attention to here is that the United States accepted Vietnamese refugees because of its moral responsibility to former-ally and the consideration of taking it as the means of propagating the appeal of America as a free and democratic society.Chapter three mainly concerns about the dispersal resettlement of Vietnamese refugees by the United States and its influence. To lessen the influence on American society exerted by the surge of Vietnamese refugees and accelerate their process of assimilation, the United States determined to implement the policy of dispersal resettlement. But the true fact proved its failure, as the policy was America government's own wishful thinking and did not take the feeling of Vietnamese refugees into consideration. This is an important reason for the second tide of immigration of Vietnamese refugees.On the basis of the preface and the body part, the conclusion part ponders over the essence of the acceptance of Vietnamese refugees by America government. Although it showed humanism, the real purpose was to serve America's political aim and diplomatic policy. Therefore, it can be said that the behaviors of the United States on the issue of Vietnamese refugees is a limited kindness.