VIETNAMESE IMMIGRATION to Canada began after the Second World War. Then, between 1950 and 1975, a small number of students enrolled at the University of Toronto while others, drawing upon a French colonial past and secondary language skills, entered a number of francophone universities in Quebec, Ottawa, and Moncton, New Brunswick.

Many of these students soon found themselves making the psychological shift from migrant to immigrant: they no longer worked towards a return home but accepted a commitment to life in Canada. The early settlers answered the human resource demands and staffing requirements of Canadian post secondary institutions, business, and industry as professors, scientists, engineers, and administrators, and so set the stage for growth of the immigrant community.

In 1975, South Vietnam gave way to the rigours of North Vietnamese hegemony and a repressive Communist regime. At least 150,000 Vietnamese fled the country and resettled in a small number of receiving countries including the United States, France, and Canada which admitted 3,108 refugees.

Between 1978 and 1981, several hundred thousand Vietnamese of all origins escaped from their homeland by boat in a desperate search for freedom and safety. In response, thousands of individual Canadians took immediate steps to create a chain of support for the “boat people.” Banding together in small groups, they applied under refugee sponsorship provisions of the new Immigration Act to bring refugees to Canada.

By the end of 1980, the Government of Canada had joined with church groups and private refugee sponsorship programs to admit over 60,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and ethnic Chinese – most likely the highest per capita resettlement effort of any receiving country. Vietnamese immigration to Canada continues today and consists of refugees sponsored by relatives and family members, private groups, and government.

The 1996 Canadian census records that 136,810 people declared themselves to be of Vietnamese ethnic origin (single and multiple responses). Newcomers gravitated to Canada’s major city centres including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Winnipeg. There are also lesser concentrations of Vietnamese in Quebec City, Regina, Halifax, Sherbrooke, Lethbridge, London and Windsor.

Vietnamese Canadians can be found in all sectors of the economy including agriculture. Most of the early immigrants and refugees who came before 1979 found a variety of professional, managerial, or other skilled jobs. The new arrivals created economic opportunity for themselves and other Canadians by establishing a variety of immigrant enterprises. Vietnamese restaurants specializing in Cha-gio (Imperial egg rolls) and Pho (beef noodle soup), grocery stores, dressmaking ventures, and food processing companies have helped to increase the volume and variety of foodstuffs and cuisine in Canadian cities and towns. Additionally, there are Vietnamese Canadian hairdressers, herbalists, and acupuncture specialists. Also, Vietnamese owned franchises of popular milk and convenience stores dot the urban retail landscape.

The Vietnamese in Canada undertook the daunting task of creating a comprehensive group support system and voluntary social and cultural institutions. University student and mutual aid societies, professional, religious, political and human rights organizations nurtured a national culture and community-in-exile. After 1978, new types of organizations were formed for women, senior citizens, children, traditional and popular music groups, athletic clubs, and literary societies. Vietnamese journals, magazines, newspapers, radio and television programs came into existence and flourished.

The celebration of Têt, the lunar New Year, in late January or early February, centres around the ritual worship of ancestors and war dead. Têt celebrations include firecrackers– to ward off evil spirits – the distribution of little gifts of money to children, and performances of dance, song, poetry, humourous or satirical skits. The ritual, cultural, and political components of this celebration serve to make Canadians of all ethnic backgrounds more aware of the vibrant presence of the Vietnamese Canadian community.

A number of religious institutions also shape Vietnamese group life in Canada. Buddhism and Christianity are the two major religions of the community. Buddhists, in fact, practise tam giáo (the Three Teachings), a blend of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Vietnamese-Canadian Buddhist temples are the centres for much of the community’s ceremonial and cultural life. More than just providing weekly prayer gatherings, wedding celebrations, and funeral rites, the temples also organize religious retreats, Sunday school and heritage-language classes for children, and a wide range of social gatherings.

Catholic and Protestant Christian members of the community, in turn, are ably served by Vietnamese or Vietnamese-speaking clergy and nuns.

The Vietnamese-Canadian community accepted challenge and hardship as the consequence of the acts off light and migration but assumed that prosperity and safety for its children could also be a consequence of those acts. The community has succeeded in proving that its arrival in Canada has made good sense for all Canadians.