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TED Talk - Being a Refugee is Not a Choice

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TED Talk - Being a Refugee is Not a Choice

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Being a refugee is not a choice: Carina Hoang at TEDxPerth

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Refugees are often marginalised, their humanity ignored as their stories go untold. In this remarkable and emotional talk, however, author and former refugee Carina Hoang discusses her experience as a "boat person". It's a powerful account that is impossible to ignore.

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Citation: C N Trueman "Vietnamese Boat People"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 27 Mar 2015. 26 Apr 2018.

The 'Boat People of Vietnam' seemed to encapsulate all the suffering Vietnam had suffered from 1965 to 1975. Despite the end of the Vietnam War, tragedy for the people of Vietnam continued into 1978-79. The term 'Boat People' not only applies to the refugees who fled Vietnam but also to the people of Cambodia and Laos who did the same but tend to come under the same umbrella term. The term 'Vietnamese Boat People' tends to be associated with only those in the former South who fled the new Communist government. However, people in what was North Vietnam who had an ethnic Chinese background fled to Hong Kong at the same time fearing some form of retribution from the government in Hanoi.

In late 1978, Indo-China degenerated into wholesale confrontation and war between Vietnam and Kampuchea (Cambodia) and China. In December 1978, Vietnam attacked Kampuchea while in February 1979, Vietnam attacked Chinese forces in the north. These two conflicts produced a huge number of refugees

Many in what was South Vietnam feared the rule of their communist masters from what had been North Vietnam. Despite the creation of a united Republic of Vietnam in 1975, many in the South feared retribution once it was found out that they had fought against the North during the actual war. The rule exerted in Ho Chi Minh City (formally Saigon) was repressive as this was seen as a bastion of 'Americanisation'. Traditional freedoms were few. It has been estimated that 65,000 Vietnamese were executed after the end of the war with 1 million being sent to prison/re-education camps where an estimated 165,000 died.

Many took the drastic decision to leave the country - an illegal act under the communis government. As an air flight out of Vietnam was out of the question, many took to makeshift boats in an effort to flee to start a new life elsewhere. Alternately, fishing boats were utilised. While perfectly safe for near-shore fishing, they were not built for the open waters. This was coupled with the fact that they were usually chronically overcrowded, thus making any journey into the open seas potentially highly dangerous.

No one can be sure how many people took the decision to flee, nor are there any definitive casualty figures. However, the number who attempted to flee has been put as high as 1.5 million. Estimates for deaths vary from 50,000 to 200,000 (Australian Immigration Ministry). The primary cause of death was drowning though many refugees were attacked by pirates and murdered or sold into slavery and prostitution. Some countries in the region, such as Malaya, turned the boat people away even if they did manage to land. Boats carrying the refugees were deliberately sunk offshore by those in them to stop the authorities towing them back out to sea. Many of these refugees ended up settling in the United States and Europe. The United States accepted 823,000 refugees; Britain accepted 19,000; France accepted 96,000; Australia and Canada accepted 137,000 each.

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Vietnamese Boat People - History Learning Site

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The 'Boat People of Vietnam' seemed to encapsulate all the suffering Vietnam had suffered from 1965 to 1975. Despite the end of the Vietnam War, tragedy for the people of Vietnam continued into 1978-79. The term 'Boat People' not only applies to the refugees who fled Vietnam but also to the people of Cambodia and ...

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche - The Danger of a Single Story

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche - The Danger of a Single Story

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How does Ha's story broaden your perspective? What do you hear about refugees in the news, and how does it compare/contrast with what you read in Inside Out & Back Again?

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story | TED

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Thanhha Lai reads from Inside Out & Back Again at the 2011 National Book Award Finalists Reading

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Thanhha Lai's 2011 National Book Award in Young People's Literature acceptance speech

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November 16, 2011, 2011 National Book Awards Ceremony, Cipriani, Wall Street, NYC. Featuring introductions by John Lithgow and Marc Aronson. www.nationalbook.org/nba2011.html

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Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again - National Book Award YPL Winner, The National Book Foundation

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For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by-and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home.

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Thanhha Lai (born 1965) is a Vietnam-born American writer of the children's literature. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and a Newbery Honor for her debut novel, Inside Out & Back Again , published by HarperCollins.

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The official website of Vietnamese-American author Thanhhà Lại. Winner of the National Book Award and a Newbery Honor for her debut, Inside Out and Back Again.

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Watch After the Fall of Saigon Clip - Vietnam in HD | HISTORY

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Watch the After the Fall of Saigon video clip of HISTORY's series Vietnam in HD'. Find this and many more videos only on HISTORY.

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The Fall of Saigon (BBC)

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In the late 1950s, a communist guerrilla force the Vietcong emerged in the south.

Supported and supplied from Hanoi via a network of tracks known as the Ho Chi Minh trail, its ranks were boosted by southerners frustrated with the corrupt and repressive government of their self-appointed president, Ngo Dinh Diem.

The US had been providing aid and military equipment and training to south Vietnam since 1954.

As the Vietcong grew this was increased, with US helicopters, armed personnel carriers and thousands of military advisers on the ground.

But by 1963, Diem's government was so discredited that the US did nothing to stop a coup by dissident generals.

A series of short-lived and unstable governments followed, proving no more effective against the insurgency.

The catalyst for deeper US involvement came in August 1964, when north Vietnamese torpedo boats shot at a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin.

US President Lyndon Johnson used a second, and highly disputed, second clash to justify air strikes on naval bases in the north.

By the end of 1964, there were 23,000 US military advisers in Vietnam up from 800 in the 1950s - and the Vietcong was attacking US personnel and bases directly.

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In the late 1950s, a communist guerrilla force the Vietcong emerged in the south. Supported and supplied from Hanoi via a network of tracks known as the Ho Chi Minh trail, its ranks were boosted by southerners frustrated with the corrupt and repressive government of their self-appointed president, Ngo Dinh Diem.