A Vietnamese Journey Toward the American Dream

By Andrew Lam, New America Media. Posted November 24, 2008.

And why not? The American dream has over time chased away the Vietnamese nightmare. And compared to the bloody battlefields, the malaria-infested new economic zone and communist gulags, the squalid refugee camps scattered across Southeast Asia, the murders and rapes and starving and drowning on the high seas, California is still paradise.

The drama of the initial expulsion is replaced over the years by the jubilation of a newfound status and wealth. A community that initially saw itself as living in exile, as survivors of some historical tragedy -- we were, after all, a people defeated in a civil war and forced to flee -- slowly changed its self-assessment. It began to see itself as an immigrant community. It began to see America as home. It reorganized and grew prosperous. Soon enough houses are bought, jobs are had, children are born, old folks are buried, businesses and malls are opened, community newspapers are printed, and economic and political organizations are formed. That is to say, ours is a community whose roots are burrowing, slowly but surely and deeply, into the American loam.

There are now politicians, writers, lawyers, judges, journalists of Vietnamese ancestry in California. Pick up a Vietnamese yellow pages phone book in Santa Clara or Orange County these days and you will be astounded at how organized the community really is. The new arrival may not need to speak English at all (though of course, he should learn it) -- he just needs to pick up the yellow pages, full of businesses that cater to an immigrant's every need: from law to dentist’s offices, from restaurants to computer programming training centers, from private schools to car rental to real estate services, from funeral services to wedding planning, from cosmetic surgery to travel services, he has an array of choices at his beck and call. Even when the economy is shaky, there is a kind of dynamic that seems unstoppable within the community.

The pangs of longing are thus dulled by the necessities of living and by the glory of newfound status and wealth. And the refugee-turned-immigrant (a psychological transition) turned naturalized U.S. citizen (more or less a transition of convenience) finds that the insistence of memories insists a little less as he zooms down the freeway toward a glorious chimerical cityscape to work each morning.

Vietnamese translation: Người Việt hải ngoại và California.

See more stories tagged with: immigration, american dream, vietnamese, opportunity, diaspora

 Lam is the author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Immigration! Sign up now »