Asian American History and the Making of the U.S. Immigration System

Readings

“The Best We Can Do”²³ (2018) by Thi Bui is a powerful, beautifully illustrated graphic memoir contextualizes the Vietnam War through the intimate, fractured lens of civilian survival, displacement, and trauma.  Bui was born in Saigon three months before South Vietnam fell in 1975, and she fled the country with her family as young “refugees.”  This memoir will drive my students’ understanding of immigration and refugee dilemma that is held common to all newcomers.  We will trace how Bui’s migration story can be parallel to our own experiences, along with creating empathy and understanding for others. The following are 5 strong quotes from the memoir related to immigration we can discuss as a class. These quotes are among the strongest pieces of textural evidence for themes from the memoir. 

1. “My parents escaped Viet Nam on a boat so their children could grow up in freedom.” (p. 30) This quote captures the central meaning for the family’s immigration: sacrificing everything to give the next generation safety, opportunity and freedom.
2. “We were now BOAT PEOPLE – five among hundreds of thousands of refugees flooding into neighboring countries, seeking asylum.” (p. 267) Bui emphasizes that her family was part of a much bigger refugee crisis, highlighting the uncertainty and danger faced by people fleeing Vietnam.
3. “The refugee camp was also a place where many people reinvented themselves.” (p. 269) This quote shows how immigration often required refugees to reshape their identities – changing names, ages, or family relationships – in hopes of building a new life.
4. “Our cousins were older and had been in America for three years already … ‘Don’t be such a REFUGEE!” (p. 285) This moment illustrates the pressure immigrants feel to fit into American culture and the embarrassment that can come with being seen as different.
5. “This – not any particular piece of Vietnamese culture – is my inheritance: the inexplicable need and extraordinary ability to RUN when the shit hits the fan. My Refugee Reflex.” (p. 305) Bui reflects on how the experience of forced migration continues to shape her identity long after resettlement, showing that the emotional impact of escape can last for generations.  

“Suburban Refugees – Class and Resistance in Little Saigon” (2025) an ethnography by Jennifer Huynh will expand our understanding that refugees make use of family reunification categories to bring family members who then come to the U.S. as immigrants, not refugees.  In her introduction, Huynh states “Half of the American population —predominantly families with children—live in the suburbs. Upon arriving, newcomers are more likely to settle in suburbia than cities, and over the past thirty years, suburban immigrants have become more likely than US-born suburbanites to experience material poverty.”²⁴  Huynh continues “After over twenty years of US military intervention in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, the United States accepted nine hundred thousand Vietnamese refugees between 1975 and 2000 through a variety of policy programs.”²⁵ Huynh argues that suburbs are not harmonious havens but act as spaces of intense class struggle and displacement for marginalized communities.  The book documents how working-class Southeast Asian refugees and immigrants resist exploitation as a community.