Refugee Dreams Revisited (Crossing East)

Starting with the fall of Saigon in April 1975, refugees from Vietnam awaited approval to move to the US and other countries. By 1979, there were almost 62,000 Vietnamese in refugee camps, with more than 140,000 people displaced from Cambodia and Laos. Portland, Oregon, was one of the medium-sized US cities that dealt with the relatively sudden influx of every major ethnic group (Vietnamese, Lao, Hmong, Mein and Cambodian) from Southeast Asia. More than 25 former refugees were interviewed for this flash movie.

"Refugee Dreams Revisited" was created for the Peabody award-wining series Crossing East that ran on 230 public radio stations. For more info go to crossingeast.org.

Credits: Clark Salisbury, Anne Morrin, Sara Kolbet and Dmae Roberts.

Music by Cambodian Musician Daran Kravahn.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Asian
• American
• history
• refugees
• immigrants
• Vietnam
• Cambodia
• Laos
• Hmong
• Mien
• Southeast
• Asia
• public
• radio

[queenmay2]

Thank you all who have responded so positively to this flash movie. Please check out our other history pieces. Hawaiians in the Pacific NW and Chinese Herbalist in the frontier as well as my personal movie Secret Asian (Passing).

Thanks, Dmae Roberts

[MrStinky55]

i love,communist,cuz,they,made,m­e,escape,to,america,i,lived,in­,u,s,a,for,30,yrs,iproud,of,u.­s.a,cuz,nowaday,my,life,better­,in,my,country,my,parents,were­,poor,farmer,nowaday,my,poor,p­arents,so,hapi,with,my,dallar,­,100,dallar,laos,moni,amillion­,kip,,tanks,communist,invade,l­ao,n,tanks,to,u,s,a,for,let,me­,freedom,n,sent,my,hard,earn,t­o,my,poor,parents,they,so,hapi­,they,like,u,s,a,n,they,laosco­mmunist,cuz,their,son,can,come to.usa,,

[MrStinky55]

i love,communist,cuz,they,made,m­e,escape,to,america,i,lived,in­,u,s,a,for,30,yrs,iproud,of,u.­s.a,cuz,nowaday,my,life,better­,in,my,country,my,parents,were­,poor,farmer,nowaday,my,poor,p­arents,so,hapi,with,my,dallar,­,100,dallar,laos,moni,amillion­,kip,,tanks,communist,invade,l­ao,n,tanks,to,u,s,a,for,let,me­,freedom,n,sent,my,hard,earn,t­o,my,poor,parents,they,so,hapi­,they,like,u,s,a,n,they,laosco­mmunist,cuz,their,son,can,come to.usa,,forfreedom,

[Bouavanh859]

Don't lie people,no body kill you now.Vietnam Laos the same

[TheDesertPunkLaos]

I love it I gotta show my family

[liddoc]

thank you for posting this. i just found out recently the place of my birth and heard the stories of thai pirates raping the women on the boat my family was on before arriving to the Philippines. I now know that I'm a part of the second wave. thank you for the great video.

[nangFA73]

It so Sad that we have to leave our country, our home, friends and family. Communist robbed us over night with guns and masive weapons. Tell us to go to different cities, so that can cleaned up the town, They sure did cleand up the town alright, they also cleaned up their own people, by killing their own people. The communist leader is CHINA AND SOVIET.

[thonglung]

that's really truth

[lde421]

That number 62,000 cannot be right. It must be at least ten times that number. Or am I thinking of the 80s flight? In Whitehead Camp alone in HK there were 20,000 or more. In that one camp.

[h8r7yp]

In the face of a popular anti-American sentiment of the US-Vietnam experience, do refugees matter?We should matter. We din't volunteer to die or abandoned our country.We escaped from a threat to our way of life, a life of freedom.This s what we mean when we way we escaped the communists.We're not hating on the ideology.We're victims of the ideology. They killed us all.We live today at the mercy of America, and we live well. Thank you. All of you who hate America for the war, please consider us.