IMMIGRANT ARRIVALS from VIETNAM 280,728 to the UNITED STATES Source: Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
172,820
4,340 1961-1970
1971-1980
1981-1990
in line three times a day for our meal rations. Being 8 years old, I was having a great time running around the camp all day and playing with the other children.” At this camp, the refugees were given medical treatment and filled out paperwork detailing which country they would like to reside in. “During this process, my mother listed the United States as her preference. Of course, everyone in the camp wanted to go to the United States but they were offering quicker departures to places like France, Germany, and Italy.” He continues, “Some extended family members who accompanied us on the boat opted for some
of these other countries that had shorter waiting times. They remained in these countries for decades so consequently I have relatives all over Europe.” After waiting and waiting, a local church sponsored the family to make their way to the United States. From the refugee camp on the remote island, Tom, his mother, and his brothers and sisters found themselves in the small rural town of Brookfield, Ohio. The family soon moved into a small single family home and began to establish a life in their new country of residence. Tom and his siblings began school in the fall and the family remained in the town until his older sister graduated high school. He states, “When my mother asked around the community as to where my sister would go to college, people in the town told her that a high school was the highest level of education in the town and that most children grew up to be farmers. My mom was not going to allow my sister to grow up to tend to a life of farming after all of the sacrifices that she made for her children.”
ABOVE LEFT: Tom (bottom left) with his siblings and Grandmother in Vietnam / Photo courtesy of the Truong Family ABOVE: Tom (bottom right) with his siblings / Photo courtesy of the Truong Family
Continued FALL 2014
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