Oregon daily emerald., June 01, 1994, Page 6, Image 6

Amerasians of Vietnam War face discrimination
—^ HO CHI MINI! CITY.
Vietnam (AP) - They wore
'Mm JBm tho lonely outcasts, chil
J7* ,rj (Iron considered no bettor
than dirt, the spoils of bat
tle Horn of American fathers and Viet
namese mothers, these Amerasians have
now grown into young men and women,
survivors older than the war that bred
them
Many were exploited, sold from one
Vietnamese family to another, trapped by
bureau* ratii rod tape, victims of the polit
ir.nl and is onomic wars iietween Vietnam
and the United States that followed the
end of the fighting in 1975 And they
were victims of indiffenmi e
The majority wore in their teens or
older when they finally realized their
dream of going’to the t hilled Stales to get
an education or perhaps meet their bio
logical fathers
Most have not done wall in America,
never able to quite escape the discrimi
nation that dogs them wherever they go.
"I do think they have trouble fitting
111(9 ejthof Vietnamese so< lety or Amen
< iintorttiTr*” says Tim Mi < hilly of Inter
Ai lion, a Washington-based umbrella
group for almost all refugee resettlement
agent les in the United States "They see
themselves as straddling that line, and
I'm sure that elements of rat ism come in
from both sides "
''When I lived in my country, people
said I'm not Vietnamese," said Ann Marie
Pham. 10, who arrived in America three
years ago "So when 1 came to America,
the Ameru an people don't think Pm
Amerasian So I have a question 'Who
am IT' I'm really upset alxiut that
No one is sure how many Amerasians
the war spawned Ac c circling to the latest
figures from the U S State Department,
alxiut 20.000 Amerasians have gone to the
United States sim e the war ended Of that
number, about throe fourths of thorn mode
it out of Vietnam in tho past five sears,
after passage of tins Amerasian Home
coming Ac t. and during Vietnam's emer
gence from isolation anti its improved
relations with the United Stales
No one is sure either how many remain
in Vietnam Estimates range from 1,000 to
5,000.
"It's a pity they were left there in the
first place to languish." says Dewey Pen
dergoss, an offic ial in the U S State
Department's Bureau for Refugee Pro
grams "We c an t do anything about that
now. hut we re trying to make tilings as
right ns w e i^iin "
I'lii' Slate IVparlmenl Inc. begun i new
program to have the Amerasian* apply
direr tly lo U S, offic ials either in Mo Chi
Minh City or in Bangkok. Thailand, for
passage to the United States instead of
going through the Vietnamese authorities
About too of the remaining Amorasiarn
and their families live at the Arnernsian
Transit (enter in Ho (in Minh < . which
plans to close iri uliout a year Others are
thought to lie scattered across Vietnam
Some of the American fathers .u copied
their children, even soars after the war
ended and they finallv caught up to each
other Some knew they had children in
Vietnam, hut abandoned them for the
Arneriran families thev returned to hat k
home When some of the Amerasian chil
dren finallv did make it to America on
their own, they were reje< ted again
Some of the fathers were married and
wanted to keep the secret from their wives
Others never knew for sure they had a
child Ins ails.' they left liefore the child was
horn or the mother nev er told them
One of those unable to find her father
was N'ga Tuvet Pham, whose American
name is Ann Marie I’ham
I have his picture, hut I never saw
him." she s,i\s "1 couldn't find him
her uuse a lot of people have the same last
name I don't know what to do. I think
some of th** fathers don't know thev have
children I'd love to see him I don't want
anything from him I jusi want to see him.
"I never saw my mother I remember
people telling mo my mom threw me in
the garbage can Another lady brought me
home I had a terrible life when I was lit
tle I lived with a family on a form. I
wat« bed the cows I had to work the
w hole day
"The Vietnamese people didn't like
me They said. Your father's bad. Your
father's American. Go back to America."'
So she did. at age Jft, accompanied by
a Vietnamese woman who used her to get
to America herself by claiming she was
her mother. Instead of living with the
woman, Ann Marie chose to live with
another Vietnamese family and later with
a Vietnam veteran and his family in
Springfield. Mass
The stories told at the Amerasian Tran
sit Center are much the same: Their
mothers abandoned them or are dead.
Father unknown. Raised by a grandmoth
er or other relatives nr friends
Sortie are impostors seeking a better life
in America It is often hard to sort out the
truth The Amerasians have learned to lie
to survive
Oregon Daily Emerald
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