A story that will always stick out to me is my Mom’s experience as a Vietnamese woman coming to America. Her full name at the time was Diem Nguyen Van Ngoc.  As the Vietnam War came to a close and tensions started rising, her family began to realize that their way of life was about to dissolve. When Saigon fell to North Vietnam’s communist forces in 1975, Diem’s family immediately began making plans to leave. According to her, this was initially a difficult decision, as her youngest brother was a newborn that weighed only 2 pounds at the time. But for them, the fear of living under communist rule–a push factor–was powerful enough for them to want to take the risk. For weeks, her family was forced to wait in a refugee camp in Guam for sponsorship to America. Eventually, a couple from a Lutheran church made the decision to help resettle them. It is only through them that Diem’s family was able to be transported to Albany, New York, where the couple provided them with housing, a job for her father, and support for their transition. 

As seen in the first image, there were many efforts made to assimilate young Vietnamese children into American culture. Diem was taught to be Christian, speak English, and was eventually placed into an all white school. Although Diem’s father spoke some self-taught English, both parents struggled to find work in their fields as a direct result of the language barrier. With little support and an inability to find a stable job, they eventually moved to states where there were larger Vietnamese enclaves. Their final settling place was Houston, Texas.

– AS

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant