Distribution by State and Key Cities. In the period, Vietnamese immigrants lived in areas with large foreign-born populations. Thirty-nine percent resided in California, with 13 percent in Texas, and 4 percent apiece in Washington State and Florida. Together, these four counties were home to 31 percent of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. Figure 2. Note : Pooled ACS data were used to get statistically valid estimates at the state level for smaller-population geographies.
Not shown are the populations in Alaska and Hawaii; for details, visit the Migration Policy Institute MPI Migration Data Hub for an interactive map showing geographic distribution of immigrants by state and county, available online. Source : MPI tabulation of data from U. Census Bureau pooled ACS. One-third of all Vietnamese immigrants resided in these three metro areas.
Figure 3. Note : Pooled ACS data were used to get statistically valid estimates at the metropolitan statistical-area level for smaller-population geographies. Click here to view an interactive map showing the share of immigrants from Vietnam and other countries in U. Table 1. Top Concentrations of Vietnamese Immigrants by U. Metropolitan Area, — Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.
Vietnamese immigrants are more likely to be Limited English Proficient LEP compared to the overall foreign-born population. In , 65 percent of Vietnamese immigrants ages 5 and over reported limited English proficiency, compared with 46 percent of all immigrants. Just 8 percent of Vietnamese immigrants reported speaking only English at home, versus 16 percent of all immigrants. Age, Education, and Employment.
The age distribution of Vietnamese immigrants is similar to that of the total foreign-born population: 4 percent were under age 18, 76 percent were between 18 and 64, and 20 percent were ages 65 and older. Both groups were older than the U. The median age for Vietnamese immigrants was 51 years old, for all immigrants it was 46 years old, and for the U. Figure 4. Age Distribution of the U. Population by Origin, Census Bureau ACS. In , approximately 29 percent of Vietnamese immigrants ages 25 and older lacked a high school diploma or equivalent, compared to 26 percent of all foreign-born and 8 percent of U.
Vietnamese immigrant adults ages 16 and older participated in the civilian labor force at the same rate as all immigrants 67 percent versus 62 percent of the U. Vietnamese immigrants were most employed in service occupations 33 percent as well as in the management, business, science, and arts occupations 32 percent. They were less likely to work in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations 5 percent compared to U.
Figure 5. Employed Workers in the U. Civilian Labor Force ages 16 and older by Occupation and Origin, Vietnamese immigrants have comparatively high median household incomes. Furthermore, 11 percent of Vietnamese immigrants in lived in poverty, compared to 14 percent of all immigrants and 12 percent of the U. Immigration Pathways and Naturalization. Immigrants from Vietnam are significantly more likely than the overall foreign-born population to be naturalized U.
As of , 76 percent of Vietnamese immigrants were U. Age Distribution of the U. Population by Origin, Note: Numbers may not add up to as they are rounded to the nearest whole number. Census Bureau ACS. Click here to view an interactive chart showing the age and sex distribution of the top immigrant groups, including Vietnamese. Vietnamese ages 25 and over have much lower educational attainment compared to the native- and overall foreign-born populations.
In , 26 percent of Vietnamese immigrants had a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to about 32 percent of the U. About 30 percent of Vietnamese adults lacked a high school diploma, compared to 28 percent of all immigrant adults.
Vietnamese participate in the labor force at a similar rate as the foreign born overall. In , about 65 percent of Vietnamese ages 16 and over were in the civilian labor force, a rate nearly equivalent to that of all immigrants 66 percent and higher than of the native born 62 percent. Vietnamese are more likely to be employed in service occupations than the other two groups of workers see Figure 5.
Figure 5. Vietnamese overall have higher incomes compared to the total foreign- and native-born populations. Further, in , some 11 percent of Vietnamese families were living in poverty, a lower rate than for immigrant families overall 14 percent. Immigration Pathways and Naturalization. Vietnamese are much more likely to be naturalized U.
In , 77 percent of Vietnamese were naturalized citizens, compared to 49 percent of the overall foreign-born population. Compared to all immigrants, the Vietnamese are more likely to have entered before The largest share of Vietnamese, approximately 66 percent, arrived prior to , followed by 18 percent who entered between and , and 16 percent in or later see Figure 6.
Figure 6. Large-scale Vietnamese migration to the United States started as an influx of refugees following the end of the war. Early arrivals consisted largely of military personnel and urban professionals and their families who worked with the U. Most of these refugees came from rural areas and were often less educated. Many of the Vietnamese refugees who arrived between and were initially resettled in states with large immigrant populations, including California, Texas, and Washington State.
According to U. Since , there has been a general downward trend in the number of Vietnamese immigrants arriving as refugees and, subsequently, fewer green cards were granted to Vietnamese as refugees or asylees.
They have been replaced by immigrants who qualify for LPR status through family ties either as immediate relatives of U. Figure 7. Notes: The purple line represents Vietnamese immigrants granted lawful permanent resident LPR status both through family-sponsored preferences and as immediate relatives of U. The dotted portion of the line for refugee arrivals prior to indicates that these numbers are estimates obtained from Table 7.
In , about , Vietnamese refugees arrived in the United States as the result of a U. From to , the number of refugee arrivals dropped sharply for the most part because the United States denied admission to Vietnamese individuals except for family reunification. As a result of continuing political and ethnic conflicts within Southeast Asia, the number of refugees from Vietnam and its neighboring countries rose dramatically beginning in In response to this humanitarian crisis, Western countries, including the United States, began admitting greater numbers of refugees from the region, many of whom were living in refugee camps.
Government Printing Office, , , and ; Linda W. Most Vietnamese who obtain green cards now do so through family reunification channels. In fiscal year FY , 97 percent of the roughly 41, Vietnamese who became lawful permanent residents LPRs did so as either immediate relatives of U.
Figure 8. Notes: Family-sponsored : Includes adult children and siblings of U. Immediate relatives of U. Diversity Visa lottery : The Immigration Act of established the Diversity Visa lottery program to allow entry to immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The law states that 55, diversity visas in total are made available each fiscal year. Individuals born in Vietnam are not eligible for the lottery.
Although most Vietnamese immigrants in the United States are legally present, approximately , were unauthorized in the —14 period, according to Migration Policy Institute MPI estimates, comprising approximately 1 percent of the overall unauthorized population of about 11 million. However, as of May 31, , just 60 Vietnamese were active participants of the program, according to U.
Over the next two decades—from to —more than three million people fled Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Countless thousands died at sea, victims of pirates or overcrowded, makeshift boats. The lucky ones made it to refugee camps in Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines, and more than 2. South Vietnamese citizens try to scale the walls of the American Embassy in an attempt to flee Saigon and advancing North Vietnamese troops. The following day April 30, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese.
In the months following the fall of Saigon, U. But there were many hundreds of thousands more, including former members of the South Vietnamese army and their families, who faced torture and retribution from the ruling North Vietnamese. Many residents of Saigon, the former South Vietnamese capital, were forced to move to the countryside to labor on collective farms.
In neighboring Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge seized power and began a brutal campaign of imprisonment and mass executions of its enemies. As the political and economic situations deteriorated in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the steady trickle of refugees fleeing the region became a torrent.
None of the nations in Southeast Asia had signed on to the United Nations Refugee Convention, for example, and some were openly hostile to the tens of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians who were threatening to overwhelm their limited resources. By , when more than 50, refugees were arriving by boat every month, countries like Malaysia and Singapore began physically pushing boats full of refugees back into the sea.
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