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On the Other Side of the Hyphen: Vietnamese-Irish Identity

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On the Other Side of the Hyphen: Vietnamese-Irish Identity L .0.1+^)3 NUI MAYNOOTH Oliscoit na n£ m n r Mi Huao On the Other Side of the Hyphen: Vietnamese-Irish Identity Mark Maguire Supervised by A. Jamie Saris, PhD, and Professor Lawrence J. Taylor Submitted to the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, National University of Ireland, Maynooth Autumn 2004 Abstract In August 1979 the first of a small number of refugees from Vietnam arrived in Dublin. They came to Ireland via camps in Hong Kong and Malaysia with harrowing tales of escape and of long periods of travel across the South China Sea. These were the so-called ‘Boat People’, whose plight was captured in newspaper headlines from the late 1970s onwards. Those who came to Ireland—some 212 persons in the first instance—were invited to do so by the Irish Government. Religious and non-governmental organisations carried out much of the resettlement work, however. The majority of the refugees were dispersed to a variety of locations throughout Ireland, from Tralee and Portlaoise to Cork City. In the early 1980s most re-migrated to Dublin. This is the story of the Vietnamese-Irish, of takeaway businesses, achievement in education, family, diaspora and identity. Much of this story is told in the words and through the eyes of the people themselves. What emerges is an ethnographic portrait of a minority confronting its own identity in a fast- changing Irish society. This thesis is an exploration of Vietnamese-Irish identity. In order to explore identity for this small, yet heterogeneous and widely dispersed minority, my emphasis has been on a number of ‘sites’, such as education, work and homes. Theoretically, I explore spatial dimensions of identity in detail, as well as arguing against current approaches to migration and minority life in Ireland. 2 Acknowledgments This work could not have been completed without the cooperation and help of a great many Vietnamese-Irish people who volunteered their time and shared their memories, sentiments and experiences. I would like to express my gratitude to A. Jamie Saris, PhD, my doctoral supervisor from the Department of Anthropology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth and the Deputy Director of the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA), and to Lawrence Taylor, Professor of Anthropology in Maynooth. This work was completed through a doctoral research fellowship from the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis and I would like to express my gratitude to the Institute and to Dr. Rob Kitchin, Director of NIRSA. A special word of thanks is also due to Frieda McGovern, Fr. P.J. Byrne, Sr. Phil Sinnott, the staff of the Irish Episcopal Commission for Refugees and Emigrants, and a great many former volunteers and resettlement workers who, I’m sure, would prefer to remain anonymous. Sandra Boyd, Dr. David Slattery, Dr. Paul Hollywood and Chiara Garattini read versions of this work and each made helpful comments and offered sound advice. Dr. Rowan Fealy provided expert advice and help in the presentation of maps and statistical information. Finally, I would like to thank Orpha Ramsey and Reamonn Fealy for their support. 3 Contents INTRODUCTION: TET IN IRELAND................................................................................7 Culture and Migration..................................................................................................13 Thinking about Strangers in Ireland........................................................................ 16 Thinking Cultural Thoughts........................................................................................33 CHAPTER 1: GUESTS OF THE NATION-STATE.................................................38 From Ireland to Vietnam.............................................................................................41 Reception.......................................................................................................................53 Resettlement..................................................................................................................58 Compassion Fatigue......................................................................................................62 Becoming a Minority....................................................................................................64 Before the Tiger.............................................................................................................72 Framing the Challenges................................................................................................80 CHAPTER 2: IMAGINING THE PAST AND REMEMBERING THE FUTURE .82 Contemporary Patterns................................................................................................83 Refining the Profile.......................................................................................................91 Spatial Location.............................................................................................................94 Memories.....................................................................................................................106 CHAPTER 3: WHEN THE PAST IS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY: VIETNAM, MEMORY AND DIASPORA................................................................................... 108 History..........................................................................................................................113 Remembering, Again..................................................................................................123 The Vietnamese-Irish, Transnationalism and the Notion of Diaspora.................. 127 The Vietnamese-Irish as a Diaspora?........................................................................137 VideoLives...................................................................................................................147 CHAPTER 4: AT HOME WITH THE DEAD: A WINDOW INTO VIETNAMESE- IRISH LIVES.............................................................................................................. 152 4 Wandering Souls.........................................................................................................161 Extending the Frame..................................................................................................172 Shaping Identity at Home...........................................................................................177 CHAPTER 5: ENSHRINING................................................................................... 185 Enshrining Vietnamese-Irishness..............................................................................191 Reasserting the Spatial Turn.....................................................................................198 The Ethnography of Vietnamese-Irish Space...........................................................203 CHAPTER 6: THE SECOND GENERATION.......................................................211 The Generation in the Middle.............................................................. 219 The Younger Generation............................................................................... 224 Identity at Work..........................................................................................................225 Identity in Education..................................................................................................227 Prospects and Conditions...........................................................................................231 Back to Family.............................................................................................................233 PLACING THE VIETNAMESE-IRISH: CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THEORY AND CULTURE........................................................................................................ 237 Acculturating Strangers.............................................................................................240 Thinking about the Strangers....................................................................................247 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................253 ILLUSTRATIVE CHRONOLOGY OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY, AND VIETNAMESE-IRISH HISTORY............................................................................ 266 5 Figures Figure 1: ‘Vietnamese-Irish New Year’s Celebration’..................................................11 Figure 2: ‘The Vanishing Irish’ ..................................................... 19 Figure 3: ‘The Refugee Crisis’........................................................................................46 Figure 4: ‘Vietnamese Refugees Arrive in Dublin, 1979’..............................................52 Figure 5: ‘Vietnamese-Irish Takeaway Van, 1982’........................................................70 Figure 6: ‘Vietnamese-Irish Homes, 1980s’...................................................................74 Figure 7: ‘Vietnamese Community by Age and Sex, 31 December 1998’.....................87 Figure 8: ‘Basic Demographics’.....................................................................................87 Figure 9: ‘Vietnamese-Irish Emigration by Destination, 1979-2000’ ............................89 Figure 10: ‘Vietnamese-Irish Emigrants Per Annum, 1979-2000’................................90 Figure 11: ‘Vietnamese by Residential Addresses, 1998’.............................................92 Figure 12: ‘Self-descriptions of Main Day-to-day Activities’.......................................93
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