Abstract

Massive resettlement of Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees in Canada started in the late 1970s, following military and political upheaval in Indochina. The Immigration policy Act of 1976 made it easier for the Indochinese refugees to enter the country. Almost four decades after the first arrivals of Indochinese refugees to Canada under unique circumstances, their settlement experiences are poorly understood. Here, I address this shortcoming through a comparative analysis of settlement experiences of the Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees in Canada, particularly probing their “sense of belonging” to the country. In order to evaluate the sense of belonging of the Indochinese refugees, I conducted interviews with 10 participants from each of the two communities. Findings from the interviews indicated highly significant correlations between language proficiency, ethnic segregation, general life satisfaction and the Sense of belonging index. The Vietnamese refugees had a higher sense of belonging to Canada than their Cambodian counterparts.

Highlights

  • A few Indochinese immigrants arrived in Canada in the 1950’s; political and military upheaval in Indochina during the 1970’s led to large inflows of Vietnamese, VietnameseChinese, Khmer, and Laotian refugees from the region to Canada (Chan & Indra 1987)

  • Based on demographic information (Table 7) of the two Indochinese refugee groups, their background variables are mostly comparable with the exception of three variables (With academic degree, Ethnic segregation and English or French proficiency) which are very dissimilar

  • The Vietnamese refugees were proficient in English or French at a level of 3.5 and reported mild (2.6) ethnic segregation, in contrast to the Cambodian refugees with English or French language proficiency and ethnic segregation at 2.8 and 3.2, respectively

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Summary

Introduction

A few Indochinese immigrants arrived in Canada in the 1950’s; political and military upheaval in Indochina during the 1970’s led to large inflows of Vietnamese, VietnameseChinese, Khmer, and Laotian refugees from the region to Canada (Chan & Indra 1987). In response to the refugee crisis, the Canadian government offered Indochinese students and visitors already in the country the option of applying for permanent residency. The Canadian government made a commitment to provide assistance to refugees who wanted to sponsor relatives still in Indochina or refugee camps. Canada continued processing and receiving Indochinese refugees from refugee camps during this period. The Indochinese refugee crisis continued to worsen during 1978, with more refugees moving to the already crowded camps (Beiser & Hou 2006, 140). Canada which had agreed to an intake of 50,000 Indochinese refugees (by the end of 1980) prior to the conference, revised its target to increase the number of accepted refugees by 10,000 during the meeting (Adelman 2008)

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