Boat People

OVERVIEW:

In the two decades following the fall of Saigon in 1975, more than three million citizens fled Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, fearing for their safety—often escaping to nearby countries by ocean in search of asylum. They became known as the “boat people,” and they became part of one of the largest and longest humanitarian conflicts in history. This curriculum aims to examine the post-Vietnam War refugee crisis, the effect that crisis left on neighboring countries, the US, and later generations of those immigrants, and its impacts on modern day society.

GOALS:

• To explore the complexity of the actions that governments took to mitigate the refugee crisis and the extent to which intergovernmental organizations could facilitate relief

• To recognize the impact of how hostility to the Vietnamese refugees influenced their displacement and how the effects of that mass migration shaped the lives of people around the world

• To understand how the international response to the “boat people” affects modern-day society and politics

Units:

• UNIT 1: Developments that Shaped the Motivation for the “Boat People” to Escape

• UNIT 2: humanitarian crisis

• UNIT 3: Impacts