The Vietnamese Concentration in Cabramatta: Site of Avoidance and Deprivation, Or Island of Adjustment and Participation?

228 The Vietnamese Concentration in Cabramatta: Site of Avoidance and Deprivation, or Island of Adjustment and Participation? KEVIN M. DUNN The Vietnamese over-representation around Cabramatta in western Sydney has been unfavourably looked upon by politicians, the public and academics. Both inclusionary and exclusionary forces of ethnic concentration have contributed to the concentration of Vietnamese in Cabramatta, in a reflexive and inter-related way that often makes a tax- onomy of agency and structure dificult. Evidence from informal interviews with key informants of the Vietnamese communities andfrom doc- umented international experiences are drawn upon to show us that ethnic concentration is not necessarily a negative phenomenon. The positive aspects of Vietnamese concentration in Cabramatta should be capi- talised upon and social theorists should not be so quick always to damn ethnic concentrations. With the demise of assimilationist settlement Chinese or Asian appearance. A report by policies in Australia, and the formulation of McAllister and Moore (1989, 8) positioned ‘multiculturalism’ (Office of Multicultural Vietnamese-Australians as the birth-place group Affairs, 1989), the right of all Australians to which experiences the least tolerance from the retain and express their culture was established. other groups in Australian society. This ethnic Yet the idea, or presence, of a spatial concentra- group, and, the suburb of Cabramatta provide a tion or expression of people of a certain cultures contemporary and topical focus for the study on is still frowned upon by many. The desire that the link between the social and spatial dimen- immigrants should residentially disperse and sions of ethnic relations in Australia. disappear into the urban milieu is a legacy of Fairfield LGA has higher percentages of the former assimilationist policy. The suburb of Vietnam-born than other Sydney LGAs (Fig. 1). Cabrarnatta, in the Fairfeld Local Government Further still, the Collector’s Districts (CDs) sur- Area (LGA) of Sydney’s western suburb, is rounding the suburb of Cabramatta have higher often unfavourably referred to as ‘Vietnamatta’, percentages of Vietnam-born than other due to the presence of many people of Indo- Fairfield CDs (Fig. 2). The cultural ambience and oriental icons in the suburb point to the Mr Dunn is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography, presence of Indo-Chinese-Australians around University of Newcastle. NSW. Cabramatta. This somewhat literary account by Australian Geographical Studies 9 October I993 31(2): 228-245 The Vietnamese Concentration in Cabramtta 229 Musgrave (1990, 16, 18) highlights the Indo- suburb of Cabramatta. Popular conceptions of Chinese ‘feel’ of the town: ‘Chinatowns’ and ‘ghettos’, as areas of vice and social menace (Anderson, 1987, 589-93), are Just 40 minutes down the Hume Highway reflected in the reporting on Cabramatta by from Sydney, sharp right and ... you step into some sections of the media. Any instances of a strange and wondrous oriental city, crime, or other disturbances such as Health Cabramatta ... We walked down alleyways Department raids upon restaurants (Allison, where the sights, smells, sounds made you 1990, 2), receive sensational treatment from the feel you were in Saigon, Bangkok, Hong popular press (Ethnic Affairs Commission of Kong ... anywhere but Australia. Your NSW, 1986, 3). The print media has described senses were sent reeling by the dazzling Cabramatta as the ‘Wild West’, and produced diversity of it all. Such sights! A Buddha headlines such as ‘Death in Cabramatta’ and with 1000 arms sharing a shop window with ‘Sydney’s Wild West: The War of the Gangs’ a telephone built into the arch of a scarlet (Brown and Sampton, 1988,81). stiletto. Research on ethnic concentrations has also Blainey (1988, 18) has expressed dissatisfac- tended to adopt a negative view. The ghetto or tion at the formation of a Vietnamese ‘ghetto’, enclave, is usually seen as a spatial result or which he labelled a ‘Little Saigon’, around the expression of the exclusion and marginalisation Fig. 1 Percentage Vietnam-born of the population, LGAs. Sydney Metropolitan Region, 1991 0 I 10 15 z4 Source: ABS 1991 Census CI-CC-I- 230 Australian Geographical Srudies Fig. 2 Percentage Vietnam- born of the population, CDs, Fairfield LGA. 199 1 of minority ethnic groups by the wider society an unpopular reaction. This was shown just (see Smith, 1989). Positive aspects of ethnic prior to the 1990 Federal election, when the per- concentration are often ignored. After consulta- ceived possibility of a Japanese ‘enclave’ being tion with Vietnamese-Australians in created, through the Multifunction Polis devel- Cabramatta, structural views of migrant settle- opment, was sufficient to force politicians to ment experience were felt to be somewhat dis- deny strenously that an ethnic enclave could empowering. It is argued here that a better way occur. From this point onward, unless the of analysing the concentration of the meaning and image of terms such as ‘enclave’, Vietnamese in Cabramatta, and of formulating ‘ghetto’ or ‘Chinatown’ are purposefully being policy for successful Vietnamese settlement, is sought, the less image-laden term ‘ethic concen- to utilise a less negative and more open view of tration’ will be used to refer to the spatial ethnic concentrations. The Commonwealth agglomeration of an ethnic or birthplace group. Government defined multicultural policy as having three broad dimensions: the right to While the Vietnamese are often referred to retain cultural identity and to express it, the as a single entity, there is important internal het- right to social justice and equal opportunity, and erogeneity according to class, ethnicity and reli- the need to fully utilise the economic potential gion. There are also specific gender, family sta- and abilities of all Australians (Office of tus and age variations in settlement experience Multicultural Affairs, 1989. vii). It may well that are only touched upon in this paper (see be the case for many Vietnamese-Australians, Alcorso, 1991 and Pittaway, 1991). The term that these three policy dimensions can be most ‘Vietnamese’ is used forthwith as a generic ref- easily achieved in suburbs of ethic concen- erence to all Vietnamese-Australians, be they tration such as Cabramatta. ethnic Chinese or ethnic Vietnamese. The term Terms like ‘ghetto’ and ‘Chinatown’ tradi- refugees will be used when specifically refer- tionally convey negative images. More recently ring to refugees, otherwise the discussion cov- in Australia, the term ‘enclave’ has experienced ers all forms of Vietnamese migrant. The Vietnamese Concentration in Cabramatta 231 Aims and Method well such data represented the general feeling of The literature on ethic concentration shows that all respondents, or occasionally, to demonstrate there are many factors which can result in, or differences of opinion. contribute to, spatial agglomerations of an eth- The next section provides a brief statistical nic or birthplace group. According to structura- introduction to Fairfield LGA and the suburb of tion theory (see Giddens, 1979, or Warf, 1990) Cabramatta. The forces of exclusion and inclu- agency and structure act reflexively. In utilis- sion that are experienced by Vietnamese in ing this theory, the present paper examines Australia is then discussed. Attention is then forces of choice and agency in concentration, as focused upon explanations for the Vietnamese well as forces of exclusion. The general aims concentration in Cabramatta, followed by a con- are to establish first, the location choices of the sideration of theoretical and policy implica- Vietnamese in Cabramatta, and second, external tions. constraints operating to affect those choices (or lack of choice). Choice and constraint in A Quantitative Contexualisation behaviour was best examined through direct The five shaded LGAs in Figure 1, which all consultation with Vietnamese communities. had Vietnam-born population percentages of The major component of the present research two or more, captured almost 79 per cent of all methodology has a more qualitative form than Vietnam-born persons in the 44 LGAs of that of Burnley’s (1989), Wilson’s (1987, 1990) Sydney in 1991. Over eleven per cent of the and other specifically geographical research on Fairfield LGA population were Vietnam-born. the Vietnamese in Australia (see also Gardner et More than forty per cent of the forty-seven and af., 1983 and Carlow, 1987). Between June and half thousand Vietnam-born of Sydney in 1991, September 1990, taped in-depth interviews resided in Fairfield (Table 1). Although Table 1 were carried out with twenty informants from and Figure 1 show that other LGAs are impor- the Vietnamese communities around tant centres, the statistical pre-eminence of Cabramatta. It was felt that this methodological Fairfield LGA is obvious. It is within the LGA tack would work to supplement and extend of Fairfield that the level of ethnic residential upon prior research, which was of a more quan- concentration becomes more stark, the forty- titative nature and operated from the problem- nine CDs around Cabramatta (Figs. 2 & 3), hav- atic level where behavioural assumptions have ing an average Vietnam-born poulation of 23.9 to made from ecological abstraction (Galvin, per cent in 1991 (ABS, 1993). 1980). The sample was gained using elements Table 1: Vietnam-Born Populations for Sydney and 5 of both key informant selection (Tremblay, Selected LGAS, 1991 1982,

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