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Push Factors in Refugee Migration:
According to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, The definition of a refugee is:
"someone who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."
In other words, a refugee is someone who must leave his or her native country because his or her life and freedom are under threat. The reasons that refugees flee their home countries -- also known as "push factors" -- are varied.
The inspiration for this station came from the Annenberg Photo Space: Refugee Educator Guide
Crewmen of the amphibious cargo ship USS Durham (LKA-114) take Vietnamese refugees aboard a small craft. The refugees will be transferred later by mechanized landing craft (LCM) to the freighter Transcolorado.
This primary source comes from the General Records of the Department of the Navy.
Full Citation: South China Sea; 4/3/1975; General Records of the Department of the Navy, Record Group 80. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/south-china-sea, March 19, 2017]
In 1975, following the end of the Vietnam War large numbers of refugees from Southeast Asia came to the United States seeking asylum. Camp Pendleton, an army base in Southern California, housed nearly 20,000 Vietnamese refugees in the summer of 1975. Today many counties in California have large, vibrant Vietnamese communities, many of which originated with resettled refugees from the Vietnam War.
Read this article written by Anh Do, with photography by Don Bartletti for the Los Angeles Times April 29, 2015
Vietnamese refugees began new lives in Camp Pendleton's 1975 "tent city"
As you read, think about:
Below are 2 photographs taken in 1975 documenting aspects of Camp Pendleton's "tent city".
Marine Sergeant J. W. Reed of H&S Company, 3rd AmTrac Battalion helps a young Vietnamese child
U.S. Marine Corp photo taken at Camp Pendleton in Southern California 1975 https://namvietnews.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/nnbwe5-b88386184z-120150424134418000gou9b4iu-10.jpg
With the help of the military and civilian aid groups, Vietnamese refugees at California's Camp Pendleton created a community after being resettled there in 1975. They received food, shelter and services to help prepare them for permanent residence in the United States.
U.S. Marine Corp photo taken at Camp Pendleton in Southern California 1975 Camp Pendleton Archives https://cdn1.pri.org/sites/default/files/story/images/camp.jpg
Bonus resource:
This address, given by President Ford to a Joint Session of Congress on April 10, 1975, comes from a series of reading copies of President Ford's 1,051 public messages. For convenience in delivery, most public messages were prepared in large type face on large index cards. They are very often heavily annotated in his hand, especially underlining for speaking emphasis. Pages 16–18 of this document are shown.
Pages 34 -42 speak specifically of the plight of the South Vietnamese refugees.
Full Citation: Foreign Policy Address [by President Gerald Ford to a] Joint Session of Congress; 4/10/1975; Collection GRF-0122: President's Speeches and Statements Reading Copies (Ford Administration). [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/foreign-policy-address-[by-president-gerald-ford-to-a]-joint-session-of-congress, March 19, 2017]
"Boat people" is a term typically used to refer to the Southeast Asian refugees who fled their countries a few years after the end of the Vietnam War. Boat People is also the title of a poem written by a Haitian Creole poet named Felix Morisseau-Leroy. He uses the term "boat people" to identify a different group of people.
Photo credit to The Haitian Observer, https://goo.gl/images/XZXpE5
An Excerpt from Boat People
by Felix Morisseau-Leroy
We fight a long time with poverty
On our island, the sea, everywhere
We never say we are not boat people
In Africa they chased us with dogs
Chained our feet, piled us on
Who then called us boat people?
Half the cargo perished
The rest sold at Bossal Market
It’s them who call us boat people
We stamp our feet down, the earth shakes
Up to Louisiana, down to Venezuela
Who would come and call us boat people?
A bad season in our country
The hungry dog eats thorns
They didn’t call us boat people yet
We looked for jobs and freedom
And they piled us on again: Cargo – Direct to Miami
The start to call us boat people
We run from the rain at Fort Dimanche
But land in the river at the Krome Detention Center
It’s them who call us boat people
Miami heat eats away our hearts
Chicago cold explodes our stomach
Boat people boat people boat people
Excerpt of Boat People by and ideas for this part of the lesson were provided by the Educator Resource Center of the Annenberg Space for Photography
January 1st is Haitian independence day. In celebration of this important day in Haiti’s history, today’s PEN podcast will feature Edwidge Danticat reading “Tourist” and “Boat People” in Haitian Creole by Haitian poet, novelist, and playwright Felix Morisseau-Leroy.