Asians’ Changing Needs

The most recent census figures show an increasing Asian presence in Orange County, which won’t surprise anyone driving along Garden Grove Boulevard or Bolsa Avenue. But the changing face of the county is changing the way politics gets done and services are provided.

The number of Asian Americans in the county increased 63% from 1990 to 2000; they now account for 14% of the county. There are substantial pockets of Korean Americans in cities such as Fullerton and Irvine, many of whom moved to Orange County after the Los Angeles riots of 1992. But the biggest community of Asians in the county is Vietnamese Americans, many of whom are concentrated in Little Saigon and Garden Grove.

Thankfully, a Chapman University survey showed that most residents don’t object to interaction with people who look different than they do. Some leaders of ethnic organizations do report geographical pockets of white residents unwilling to have anything to do with Latinos or Asians, but that number seems to be dwindling. The quicker it disappears, the better.

Officials in cities in northern Orange County, which are most likely to have sizable Asian communities, say they must pay more attention to the different needs of newcomers. Many do not speak English, so English classes are provided at community centers, and lists of translators are kept on hand. A number of the older immigrants are poor and require help in finding subsidized housing. Depression is all too common among those forced to flee their homelands.

Even for those born here to parents who fled Vietnam after the Communist victory of 1975, the feelings for their ancestors’ homeland can be strong. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s hard-line anti-Communists ruled in Little Saigon. Those who suggested a rapprochement with the Vietnamese government were excoriated and sometimes physically attacked.

There seemed to be a mellowing in later years, but a Westminster shopkeeper’s display of a portrait of Ho Chi Minh and the flag of Communist Vietnam two years ago led to nearly two months of angry protests.

It’s easy to see why feelings remain so strong, despite the passage of a quarter-century since the end of the Vietnam War.

Those who travel back to Vietnam find reminders of the decades of bitter fighting between Communists and non-Communists in the concrete-reinforced bunkers at Tan Son Nhut airport in Ho Chi Minh City and the “Hanoi Hilton” jail, where U.S. military men were imprisoned.

Van Tran, elected to the Garden Grove City Council in November and now the second Vietnamese council member in the county, says the bitter feeling toward the Hanoi regime transcends politics. Many here were either imprisoned by the Communists or saw their family members jailed for years after the war. Even when freed they were persecuted and kept out of schools and jobs.

It will take time for those feelings to subside. It will also take efforts by the government of Vietnam, which continues to trumpet the virtues of Marxism long after most other countries have discarded them. Crackdowns on minority communities in Vietnam and periodic attacks on Buddhists remind overseas Vietnamese why they fled their native land.

Asian Americans in Orange County say they expect their community to play a bigger role in the political process. The early immigrants struggled to build new lives and adjust to unfamiliar surroundings. Their children are more familiar with politics, with the language, and with ways to make their voices heard, whether by voting or by becoming candidates.

d. The example of Latinos in Orange County is instructive. Latinos now make up nearly 30% of the county’s population and in recent years have stepped forward to win elective office and exert more influence. The county will benefit from different perspectives as Asians become more involved.