It was Hanoi’s active role in organizing the departures of ship people that stirred up international controversies in political circles, but it was the boat people’s sufferings at the hands of cruel pirates and local authorities that awoke human conscience and compassion in citizens around the globe. The ruthless eviction practices of first-asylum countries and the pirates’ brutal attacks on the defenseless boat people were unprecedented, and consequently prompted many communities around the world to quickly engage in one of the greatest rescue endeavors in mankind history.

For those boat people who were fortunate enough to reach safety or were rescued at sea, they benefited from an incredible refugee resettlement effort that would probably never happen again in the future. By the year 2000, of the 796,310 boat people and 42,928 Vietnamese land refugees arriving at various temporary camps, more than 720,000 Asylees were resettled across the globe from Asia, Africa, Australia, to America, Europe and the Middle East. Six countries that took in most of the asylum-seekers are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In Australia, despite the leftist and conservative opposition to the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees, 104,048 boat people were eventually admitted. The Asylees were sheltered in immigration centres during their first days and then relocated to various states. The boat people adapted quickly to the new environment, and most of them were willing to take on jobs incompatible with their former training and status. Within a decade later, Vietnamese refugees firmly established themselves and became prominent in the Australian business and political arenas.

New Zealand’s policy concerned the boat people tragedy was influenced by heightened public opinion in favor of assisting Indochinese refugees. Church organizations and sponsorship groups played an important role in appealing for and resettling the Asylees. Notable contributions to the endeavor to help the boat people included the works of two brothers, Hugo and Bill Manson. These two television journalists sent request to New Zealand’s 230 local administrations to ask for 3,200 resettlement places or 1 for each 1,000 citizens. More than half of the administrations replied, and 80% of those responses were positive.  Ultimately 4,371 boat people were admitted and integrated successfully into the mainstream society.

In France where 18,468 boat people eventually resettled, the French generosity toward the boat people was incredible. The general public warmly welcomed the refugees into their communities.  The arriving Asylees were housed in one of the 3 shelters run by France Terre d’Asile.  Medical examinations and access interviews were conducted for relocation purposes. Those who had assisting relatives in France could depart to find employment and housing on their own. Others would be transferred to provincial centres where they learned French and the necessary skills to integrate into the new society.[1] It should be noted that, despite the prevailing racial problem with North African immigrants in France, the public was incredibly generous toward the boat people. Offers of support for Indochinese refugees from across the country poured in at an exponential rate. French families helped to house the boat people temporarily, while various provincial communities organized shelter and job search for them.

In Britain, home of 17,677 boat people, the government’s initial hard-line immigration policy was modified in favor of resettling Vietnamese refugees after Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington visited various refugee camps in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. The media also favoured the liberal admission of Indochinese refugees while the general public showed great sympathy and support for the boat people. An officer of the Council for Aid to Refugees, Jeanne Townsend, observed that the U.K. public accepted the boat people more harmoniously because ‘They have endeared themselves to the British people. They are not nearly as inscrutable as Asians are believed to be and they do not have the same religious and social taboos as Indians and many Africans. They like a drink, love parties and are an outgoing people. The English are dotty about anyone who rides a horse or sails a boat and they have admired the courage of the Vietnamese people.  It has been an emotional reaction. The Vietnamese are proving to be remarkable gardeners, buying plants and trees wherever they settle, and this endears them to the British people. I don’t say they are angels. They have their problems: their expectations are rather high.’

Sweden maintained one of the best resettlement systems for the boat people. On December 5, 1978, King Carl XVI Gustaf indicated his wish to assist Vietnamese Asylees even though he actually had no authority to make the decision for Parliament. As the refugee situation in Southeast Asia worsened, the Swedish government felt an obligation to contribute to the international effort to help the boat people although Stockholm had long maintained a warm relation with Hanoi. The 5,589 boat people ultimately admitted by Sweden were relocated sparely in the southern provinces after spending several weeks at a resettlement centre. While adults were given intensive language courses before entering the workforce, children were integrated directly into the regular education system. Besides resettling Vietnamese Asylees, Stockholm also made direct and repeated appeals to Hanoi to stop its organized trade in human misery.

In the United States, Washington decided that October 31, 1975 was the last day to transfer Indochinese refugees in ‘third countries’ into the U.S. resettlement system, and December 31, 1975 signalized the end of the refugee program’s first phase. On May 5, 1976, the Expanded Parole Program was instituted to admit initially 11,000 Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Asylees encamped in Southeast Asia. The program was continued until 1980 when the Refugee Act was passed to establish admission quota for refugees.[2] The new Act created the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Service to concentrate on helping newly-admitted Asylees.

After the first international conference on Indochinese refugees, President Carter directed the Seventh Fleet to 'alter their routes as feasible' to seek out and offer 'all possible assistance' to Vietnamese refugee boats at sea.[3] The U.S. House of Representatives voted on September 5, 1979 to bar any direct or indirect aid to Socialist Vietnam while approved an additional $207 million to support Asylees in Southeast Asia. During the initial months of the boat people resettlement program, there were concerns that the newly arrived refugees would adversely affect the local employment conditions. Fortunately, public opinion was on the boat people’s side in the early 1980s because (1) their tragic journey to freedom was televised into the living room of most homes with vivid footages and consequently influenced the heart and mind of many families, and (2) the high work ethics and educational achievements of resettled refugees impressed many local communities.  

In general, the resettled boat people proved to be hard-working individuals dedicated to rebuild their lives in the newly-adopted country; and therefore, it was not surprise to see the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) openly supported the resettlement of boat people and categorically dismissed the myth surrounding the Indochinese refugees’ vocational threat:

‘No organization is more concerned about the problem of unemployment than the AFL-CIO.  But that problem will hardly be affected by the number of Indochinese we are talking about - an estimated 25,000 a year - or even by the 50,000 political refugees the Administration proposes to admit annually. In any case, these refugees do not take jobs away from steelworkers, metal workers, retail clerks, public employees, plumbers, carpenters, farm workers or any others. To portray these political refugees - who like our immigrant ancestors take jobs no one else in our society seems to want - as a threat to our jobs, in the same class with unfair international trade, excessive interest rates and misguided government economic policy, is a travesty.’

Private U.S. citizens and nonprofit agencies played a major role in the boat people’s resettlement endeavor. Notable were the contributions of the local offices of the U.S. Catholic Conference, Lutheran Immigration and Resettlement Service, Church World Services, United Hebrew Immigration and Assistance Service, and the American Council of National Services. Through the umbrella organization called the American Council of Voluntary Agencies, these organizations provided initial assistance to the newly arrived refugees, whose immediate needs included housing, foods, social orientation, language training, etc.  The government provided a subsidy of $500 for each boat person serviced by these agencies.

Beside institutionalized efforts, Americans and Vietnamese expatriates were also active in the resettlement process. Private sponsorships were offered from across the country, especially from the relatively new Indochinese community; in fact, 46% of all Vietnamese refugees entering the U.S. during the early years were sponsored by their friends and relatives. By the end of 1999, 388,238 boat people as well as 22,568 land people were resettled in the United States; and they had successfully built a dynamic and visible presence within the American society.

In Canada, the response to the boat people tragedy was best described by Ottawa’s theme ‘A haven for the homeless.’ Both the public and private sectors including many church organizations and private citizens' groups were actively involved in the sponsorship of Indochinese Asylees.[4] When the Canadian government set the 1979 target at 8,000 refugees to be admitted and hoped 4,000 more would be sponsored by the private sector, the public went farther by challenging Ottawa to take in 2 additional refugees for every one privately sponsored above the 4,000-person limit. In response, the government raised the total target to 21,000 asylum-seekers and promised to match one-for-one for each refugee privately sponsored over the 4,000-person limit.  It was expected to take 18 months to attain the total target, but it took only 4 months to exceed that number. A year later, in light of the massive public sponsorships of boat people, Ottawa elevated the total target to 50,000 refugees. Eventually, nearly 100,000 Vietnamese boat people and land people were admitted into Canada under the Indochinese refugee resettlement program.

The Canadian example represents a rare instance in which both the government and the public cooperated wholeheartedly and interacted effectively in the spirit of humanitarianism to achieve the common goal of assisting Indochinese refugees. The unique Canadian resettlement endeavor was gratefully praised in October 1998 by Ottawa’s spectacular Canadian Museum of Civilization in its meticulously detailed exhibition entitled Vietnamese Canadians: Boat People No Longer. This special presentation organized in celebration of the 50^th year anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was dedicated to Vietnamese Canadians and their past experience. Along with countless photographs and televised footages, a replicated vessel was crafted to depict the Vietnamese tragic journey to freedom in Canada. At the exhibition’s opening officiated by Governor General Roméo LeBlanc, many Vietnamese refugees in attendance were tearfully moved by emotions because the displays invoked in them powerful memories of their boat people’s path.  

Resettled Boat People      Source: UNHCR    

 

 

 

 

 

Note: By the year 2000, approximately 1,400 boat people eligible for resettlement remained in Hong Kong and were eventually granted residency rights by the local authorities, about 1,600 others who failed the flawed refugee-screening procedures had been sheltered in the Philippines thanks to the local Catholic Church's intervention and Vietnamese expatriates’ generous financial support, and the rest or nearly 120,000 Vietnamese asylum-seekers were coerced to return to Socialist Vietnam after their refugee claims were dismissed by the defected screening process.