Asian Americans Confront U.S. Law and Policy: A Case Study of the Vietnamese Impact on Defining the "Refugee"

Item set

• Asian Americans Confront U.S. Law and Policy: A Case Study of the Vietnamese Impact on Defining the "Refugee"
  This teaching module looks at the role Vietnamese migrants played in creating the current status of refugees, featuring a webinar with Linda Ho Peché, project director for the Vietnamese in the Diaspora Digital Archive.
• Displaced Persons Act (1948)
  The first U.S. policy regarding refugees, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 only allowed for European people displaced by World War II to enter the United States as refugees. Despite the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights providing broad definitions for refugees, the United States continued to use narrow geographically or politically specific definitions for refugees until 1980.
• Immigration and Nationality Act (1965)
  The Immigration and Nationality Act amended the 1924 Immigration Act, functionally repealing the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. This act started the categorization of refugees, but continued the U.S. pattern of defining refugees by geography or politics, and not adopting United Nations terminology.
• Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act (1975)
  This act allowed 130,000 refugees from South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to enter the United States and allotted relocation aid and financial assistance.
• United Nations Universal Declaration of Rights (1948)
  This document, drafted by a committee of the United Nations chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, details the "basic rights and fundamental freedoms" due all peoples regardless of "race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
• Vietnamese Fishermen's Association v. The Knights of the Klu Klux Klan (1982)
  A sign of progress in the fight for civil rights for Asian immigrants, the Vietnamese Fishermen's Association filed a class action lawsuit against the KKK and won. The KKK was burning the fishermen's boats and were found guilty of violating the Vietnamese fishermen's civil rights.
• Webinar - Asian Americans Confront U.S. Law and Policy: A Case Study of the Vietnamese Impact on Defining the "Refugee" (2024)
  In this webinar, Drs. Linda Ho Peché and Donna D. Anderson discuss the role Vietnamese migrants played in creating the current status of refugees with our And Justice For All class.