Refugee Dispersion Policy

America, the land of opportunity, a place where people can have the freedom to express themselves, own property, and have a chance to be successful in life. These unique ideals that shaped America throughout its history was truly shown during the post-WWII era, an era known as the rise of American Consumerism, the postwar boom, and most importantly, the rise of suburbia. The rise of the suburbs in the United States after the end of WWII was as a result of American GI’s coming back home from the war, thus the rise in American families. To answer this, the United States government expanded its housing to accommodate the growing number of American families. The end result of such actions brought about tremendous changes to America in the most …show more content…
governments Refugee Dispersion Policy was aimed to dispersed and resettle Vietnamese refugees across the states, in hope to avoid financially burdening local social services, prevent the creation of ethnic ghettos, and as a way to force the Vietnamese to quickly assimilate. Basically, it was the deliberate policy of the government to disperse the Vietnamese refugees with the intent to impede the formation of Vietnamese communities. However, contrary to this policy and for survival purposes, the Vietnamese regrouped themselves into geographic areas in states where they could find better social services, employment, and education. They clustered into large ethnic enclaves mostly located in northern and southern California. These insular ethnic areas gave the new Vietnamese immigrant refugees the means to establish services in their ethnic languages and the material necessities to function in their new society. The feeling of being isolated and lonely was solved in these enclaves, and they found psychological comfort, especially those yearning for their former lives and their homeland, among the co-ethnics who shared their language, culture, and history. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, approximately 45 percent of the Vietnamese households report they are “linguistically isolated” compared to 25 percent of the Asian American population, meaning “all members fourteen years old and over have at least some difficulty with English.” …show more content…
Leading to the eventual growth and influence of the Vietnamese community in Orange County, through their cultural characteristics, and lastly, to the significance and effect that Orange County and Little Saigon still has today in California. By focusing on these analytical questions, the explanation on how the Vietnamese refugees built such a prosperous community from just little to nothing can be answered. As Vo from, Constructing a Vietnamese American Community, said, “In the last thirty years, Vietnamese refugees and immigrants have not merely transformed the racial landscape of the county but, even with their limited resources, are also translating their demographic growth, residential density, and economic concentration into political