“Boat People”

Southeast Asia

In the 20-year period that followed the fall of Saigon in April 1975, an estimated 500,000 Vietnamese fled the country in search of asylum. The first to flee, about 135,000, were primarily officials with ties to the United States, who feared reprisals under the new regime and were airlifted out of Vietnam beginning in 1975. The deteriorating economic and political conditions in Vietnam in the late 1970s triggered a second—and much larger—wave of out-migration, composed for the most part of unskilled workers (merchants, small farmers, and fishermen). These refugees, many of whom were ethnic Chinese, were often forced to embark on perilous journeys by boat, bound for Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. By way of these countries, Vietnamese boat people eventually came to the United States. However, unlike their predecessors, they encountered a great deal of hostility from local communities and continue to struggle today against enduring negative stereotypes.

Cuba and Haiti

The first Cubans to leave the island after Castro came to power in 1959 were wealthy industrialists, financiers, and officials of the defeated Batista government. During the period between the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, when the United States faced off against the Soviet Union over the [Page 187]presence of missiles in Cuba, and the Camarioca exodus of 1965, Cuba experienced a short-lived flight of emigrants known as balseros (rafters), headed to the United States. After 1965, other Cubans were able to leave aboard the Freedom Flights. However, Castro's reversal of this agreement in 1973 forced Cubans to look for alternative ways out.

Following a three-way standoff in April 1980, between the Cuban government, the Peruvian government, and the 10,000 Cubans who had occupied the Peruvian embassy in Havana, Castro opened an escape hatch, the port of Mariel, for all who wanted to leave, allowing Cuban exiles in Miami to come on boats to retrieve their relatives. Over the course of the next 6 months, an estimated 125,000 Cubans made the journey from Mariel to Florida aboard boats chartered by their relatives. These newcomers became known as “Marielitos”.

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