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Little Saigon is the Vietnamese ethnic enclave in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, which served the large refugee population that immigrated after the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. One of many Little Saigons in the U.S., this neighborhood near Washington, D.C., became a hub of Vietnamese commerce and social activity, and reached its peak during the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The opening of the WMATA Clarendon Metro station led to new development, generating higher rents, and businesses closed or relocated, notably to the nearby Eden Center. ==Influx of Vietnamese== Toward the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s, immigration from Vietnam to the United States increased considerably. Before 1975, only about 15,000 Vietnamese immigrants lived in the United States. By 1980, about 245,000 Vietnamese lived in the U.S., with about 91 percent of the population arriving in the previous five years.〔Barringer, Herbert, Robert W. Gardner, and Michael J. Levin. 1996. Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation., 46〕 Vietnamese immigrants fled their country in two distinct waves. The first large wave of immigration occurred in 1975 and included elites and highly educated residents who left with the fall of Saigon.〔O’Connell, Kim A. 2003. “Catching Two Fish With Two Hands: Preserving Vietnamese Heritage in Virginia’s Little Saigon”. Goucher College.〕〔Wood, Joseph. 1997. Vietnamese Place Making in Northern Virginia. Geographical Review. 87 (1): 58-72.〕 Many left in fear for their lives or were escaping imprisonment as they had either worked for the former South Vietnamese government or supported the regime. For Vietnamese who lived through the war and under Communist control, many mistrusted banks and feared the volatility of paper money; keeping money in the form of gold or jewelry was common.〔Workman James A. 1993 “Vietnamese Business Owners Make Indelible Mark.” Washington Business Journal. September 17–23〕 From the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, most refugees left Vietnam by boat. These refugees, commonly referred to as “boat people,” were generally less educated than the previous wave of immigrants who had ties to the U.S. government or were Vietnamese elites.〔 An estimated 800,000 people fled Vietnam by boat between 1975 and 1995 and, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, between 200,000 and 400,000 boat people died at sea.〔Vo, Nghia M. 2005. Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975-1992. McFarland & Company: North Carolina〕 The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area was a desirable choice for Vietnamese immigrants to settle for several reasons. Many of the first-wave Vietnamese immigrants had ties to the U.S. government or the embassy.〔 Northern Virginia emerged as a suitable location within the region for resettlement for several reasons. Embassy officials pointed refugees toward Northern Virginia, and Arlington offered the availability of sponsors such as the Catholic Church.〔 Once the first wave of immigrants settled in Arlington, existing family and social ties established the network for future immigrants to join this population. By the end of the Vietnamese War, 15%, or 3,000, of the nation’s Vietnamese population resided in the Washington, D.C., area,〔 and many more joined. The most densely settled Vietnamese areas in Northern Virginia were along Wilson Boulevard and Columbia Pike, extending west towards Falls Church and Annandale. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Little Saigon, Arlington, Virginia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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