The fall of Saigon 50 years ago prompted a mass exodus of Vietnamese over the next months and years.
Many were evacuated by the United States military and brought to America to resettle. And as more people fled in the years after the war, and governments stepped in to address the humanitarian crisis, even more found themselves starting new lives in the U.S.
Around the country, “Little Saigons” grew, here is a little bit about some of the larger communities to have blossomed.
DALLAS-FORT WORTH
Where will I find the Little Saigon community?
In the area of Garland, Arlington and Halton City is the largest concentration of the Vietnamese community in the region. The largest concentration of shopping centers, restaurants, temples, and churches is in Garland along Walnut Street between Audelia and Jupiter roads.
What’s the story behind the congregation of Vietnamese refugees in that area?
Many refugees in the 1970s heading to North Texas had previously worked with the American government, according to the Oral History Association in Tennessee.
After securing jobs or higher education, many people wanted to move to the suburbs around the larger Dallas area, said Jimmy Tran, of Garland, who started VN United, a soccer-focused nonprofit.
What makes this Little Saigon community special?
In 2019, Tran hosted the first Dallas-Fort Worth Area Asian American Soccer Tournament in cooperation with the city of Garland. The event is now in its sixth year and draws Vietnamese and other Asian soccer teams from as far away as Canada, he said.
Other highlights in Garland include the Cali-Saigon Mall and its Dallas Superstore, which offers international groceries, especially fresh produce, seafood and meats, the mainstays of Vietnamese cooking, said Huy Trieu, the mall’s general manager. “It’s a place that they like because it’s one-stop shopping. We’ve also got a food court where everyone likes to hang out, especially when we have promotions.”
Arlington is home to Martyrs Catholic Church, the largest Vietnamese Catholic Church in the country.
What are the demographic trends involving the area’s Vietnamese community in the last 50 years?
The area is home to more than 110,000 Vietnamese residents, making it the fourth-largest Vietnamese community in the U.S. The community grew significantly, according to the U.S. Census, following the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980. According to recent estimates, within the broader Asian American population in DFW, Vietnamese Americans represent approximately 15.3%, making them the second-largest Asian subgroup in the region.
Vietnamese is the third most spoken language in the Garland school district.
What’s its future looking like for the community as we get further away from the initial exodus of refugees who arrived in the U.S.?
In the last decade, Tran and Trieu said they have seen more and more people coming into the community, especially from California and Arizona, where housing is more expensive.
Some have also come to take advantage of a better job market as more technology companies have opened their headquarters in the area, Tran said.
With the influx of newly arriving residents, though, Tran said there are some clashes between the earliest refugees who came just after the fall of Saigon and those who have more recently settled and aren’t familiar with the hardship and aftermath of war. There is less interest in preserving the South Vietnamese culture, and instead, some want to move on from the past, he said. “But my dad’s generation says no.”
“They come here for economic reasons, where we came as refugees,” he added.
— Erika I. Ritchie
DENVER
Where will I find the Little Saigon community?
The Little Saigon Business District can be found along Federal Boulevard in Denver’s southwest area.
What’s the story behind the congregation of Vietnamese refugees in that area?
After the fall of Saigon, about 10,000 Vietnamese refugees were resettled in Denver to build new lives, according to History Colorado. Initially, there were no established Vietnamese enclaves, as the state’s program scattered refugees. But a community started to form in 1978, when Thanh Luong, now 74, opened a small Asian grocery store in southwestern Denver to serve the nearby Vietnamese residents. That area would later transform into the Little Saigon Business District.
What makes this Little Saigon community special?
Today, the Vietnamese community’s influence can be seen throughout the district, which includes restaurants, bakeries and an Asian gift shop.
The Far East Center is the gem of the Little Saigon Business District. Built in 1987 by Luong’s family, the shopping center is a landmark where celebrations take place for annual events such as the Saigon Azteca Night Market, Mid-Autumn Festival and Lunar New Year – an official state holiday.
What are the demographic trends involving the area’s Vietnamese community in the last 50 years?
The metro Denver community gradually expanded from about 10,000 refugees after April 1975 to around 14,000 people of Vietnamese descent by 2000, according to the local historical society.
Statewide, nearly 34,000 Vietnamese people live in Colorado, according to 2021 census data cited by the Colorado Lotus Project.
What’s its future looking like for the community as we get further away from the initial exodus of refugees who arrived in the U.S.?
As generations of Vietnamese families have been raised in Colorado, older immigrants have watched their descendants embrace new customs and forget traditions, including their language, according to a report by the Denver Public Library.
Some original refugees have accepted that they cannot return to their home country. Father Joseph Dang, 50, lives in Denver now after fleeing Vietnam in 1986. Although he has applied for a visa twice, the Vietnamese government rejected both attempts.
By escaping, “I paid the price,” Dang said, with tears in his eyes. “I’m not able to go back to Vietnam freely.”
— Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton
HOUSTON
Where will I find the Little Saigon community?
The Vietnamese community is spread out in clusters throughout Houston. The original Little Saigon popped up in the city’s Midtown neighborhood in the 1980s. However, rising rent costs and redevelopment forces in the 1990s and 2000s pushed many in the city’s Vietnamese community out of the area and into Southwest Houston along Bellaire Boulevard, where Chinatown is located.
What’s the story behind the congregation of Vietnamese refugees in that area?
Houston was not near any of the resettlement camps at military bases where many in the first wave of Vietnamese refugees went. But with the city’s warm weather, affordability, opportunities for fishing and shrimping, manufacturing jobs and organizations and families sponsoring Vietnamese refugees who needed to be resettled, Houston has grown to be home to the second-largest Vietnamese population in the nation at more than 140,000 people.
“It was natural to settle in Houston, in the Gulf region,” said Roy Vu, a former Houston resident whose parents were refugees. He is a teacher at Dallas College
What makes this Little Saigon community special?
Today, Southwest Houston has a thriving amalgamation of Asian businesses, including Vietnamese restaurants and stores at the Hong Kong City Mall, nonprofits, media organizations and other Vietnamese shopping centers. Nearby, a Vietnam War memorial was erected in the center of a strip mall.
The largest Vietnamese festival in the state, the Viet Cultural Fest, is held annually in September at NRG Park. A predominantly Vietnamese Catholic church in Southeast Houston holds a large annual crawfish festival, blending Cajun and Vietnamese cuisines that delight thousands.
What are the demographic trends involving the area’s Vietnamese community in the last 50 years?
After rapid growth in the first few decades following the fall of Saigon, the Vietnamese community has a stable and aging population. When refugees came to the area, they tended to be younger. Now, the median age is 40 years, older than other Asian American populations in the region.
What’s its future looking like for the community as we get further away from the initial exodus of refugees who arrived in the U.S.?
The economic situation for the community has improved over the decades, with more people having the means to buy a home and help support family members going to college. Though, the Vietnamese community’s median household incomes lag behind other Asian communities.
— Michael Slaten
NEW ORLEANS
Where will I find the Little Saigon community?
In Eastern New Orleans, around the community of Versailles, also referred to as the Village de L’Est.
What’s the story behind the congregation of Vietnamese refugees in that area?
In the mid-1970s, thousands of Vietnamese refugees settled in New Orleans through the city’s resettlement agencies, particularly through the Associated Catholic Charities. Today, more than 14,000 Vietnamese residents call New Orleans their home.
What makes this Little Saigon community special?
Versailles quickly became the center of the growing Vietnamese community, where people lived and started their own businesses. It is also where the city hosts an annual Tết Festival and other events celebrating the Vietnamese heritage.
In 2009, Anh “Joseph” Cao was elected to the US Congress from the New Orleans area, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the House of Representatives.
What are the demographic trends involving the area’s Vietnamese community in the last 50 years?
While the Vietnamese community has historically been mostly centered in eastern New Orleans, younger generations are moving outside of the neighborhood.
What’s its future looking like for the community as we get further away from the initial exodus of refugees who arrived in the U.S.?
The coronavirus pandemic brought to light the poverty and food insecurities faced by many Vietnamese residents, resulting in the creation of mutual aid organizations to address the social needs of the Vietnamese community.
— Destiny Torres
ORANGE COUNTY
Where will I find the Little Saigon community?
The heart of the Little Saigon community originates on Bolsa Avenue in Westminster, but the enclave has grown in the neighboring cities of Garden Grove, Fountain Valley and Santa Ana, all in central OC.
What’s the story behind the congregation of Vietnamese refugees in that area?
Vietnamese refugees began to gather in central Orange County in 1975 after arriving to America at the nearby El Toro Marine air base and being processed through the resettlement center at Camp Pendleton further south. By 1980, nearly 20,000 Vietnamese people lived in Orange County.
What makes this Little Saigon community special?
Today, more than 215,000 Vietnamese Americans live in Orange County, making it the largest hub of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam.
In 1988, Governor George Deukmejian officially declared Orange County’s Little Saigon a distinct commercial district. He did so from the newly built Asian Garden Mall, which remains a landmark shopping center and home to 300 Vietnamese-owned storefronts.
The community’s large Tết parade is broadcast around the country, an annual flower market draws shoppers from around the region ahead of the Lunar New Year, as does a summertime night market. There are art installations dedicated to the Vietnamese American experience throughout the Little Saigon.
What are the demographic trends involving the area’s Vietnamese community in the last 50 years?
Little Saigon has a larger share of the population in middle or older ages than the rest of Orange County, meaning it has higher needs for elder care and health care services. But, the birth rate in Little Saigon also is slightly higher compared to the rest of Orange County, signaling the need for continued investment in youth services and public education. Little Saigon households are more likely to be multigenerational, with grandparents often living with their grandchildren.
What’s its future looking like for the community as we get further away from the initial exodus of refugees who arrived in the U.S.?
Many businesses are changing hands between first-generation and second- and third-generation owners, offering new opportunities for economic growth and to market the region as a destination. New shopping centers such as Westminster’s Bolsa Row will offer goods and services targeting not only Vietnamese consumers, but the pan-Asian community as well as younger consumers looking for trendy dining and shopping experiences.
— Jonathan Horwitz
PHILADELPHIA
Where will I find the Little Saigon community?
Philadelphia’s Little Saigon originated in Passyunk Square in south Philadelphia, though in recent years many Vietnamese families have moved further out to the suburbs. There are also areas of northern Philadelphia and along Rising Sun Avenue that have a strong Vietnamese presence, said David Oh, the Asian American Business Alliance’s interim chairman.
What’s the story behind the congregation of Vietnamese refugees in that area?
More than 30,000 Vietnamese refugees fleeing with the help of Americans following the fall of Saigon were taken to Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania. The base served as one of the four resettlement centers in the United States. As families were sponsored, they migrated out into the greater region. Years later, as more Vietnamese people immigrated, they joined the growing Philadelphia community.
What makes this Little Saigon community special?
Events will be held for Black April, which marks the fall of Saigon, with a flag raising at City Hall and other gatherings at the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial, at Penn’s Landing, which includes tributes for both Vietnamese and U.S. military service members killed during the war.
But the regular gatherings are becoming more infrequent, Oh said.
“There was a point where the Vietnamese community was really present, that’s just not the case anymore. It’s changed,” he said. “I remember going to Vietnamese celebrations at our big Vietnamese restaurants five times a year, they would be jam packed. They don’t seem to have that these days.”
What are the demographic trends involving the area’s Vietnamese community in the last 50 years?
The Vietnamese American community has very much integrated to a point where the young people are more and more involved in their local communities, and don’t feel a need to mix in with the Vietnamese-speaking population like their parents did when they first arrived. The older generation, which grew wealthier, are leaving the city.
“They are a very successful immigrant community” that has “transitioned” from the initial stages of settling into the community, from opening businesses to becoming professionals, “enough so that they could buy a better house and move to better neighborhoods, integrating their kids – and they’ve dispersed,” Oh said.
What’s its future looking like for the community as we get further away from the initial exodus of refugees who arrived in the U.S.?
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, there were 20,000 Vietnamese Americans living in Philadelphia.
“I think a lot of the Vietnamese businesses got hit hard, because of the isolation and maybe because (shoppers) had other choices,” Oh said. “I think the Vietnamese community was very successful and able to move.”
But as people choose to move, “you do lose something,” Oh said. “From my perspective, I really enjoy the experience that the Vietnamese community brings to our city.”
— Laylan Connelly
SAN JOSE
Where will I find the Little Saigon community?
In the eastern region of San Jose. The community started downtown on East Santa Clara and 5th streets where City Hall stands today, but quickly moved east to Lion Plaza at the intersection of South King and Tully roads. Now, San Jose’s Little Saigon includes the one-mile stretch of Story Road from the Grand Century Mall to the Vietnam Town mega business complex.
What’s the story behind the congregation of Vietnamese refugees in that area?
A nascent Silicon Valley, populated by companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Atari, Intel and Apple, needed manufacturing labor when refugees were fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Vietnamese refugees from all over the state and country answered the call, flooding into San Jose to fill the jobs, building community and often springboarding into advanced careers in technology for years to come.
The downtown where City Hall stands today was also full of vacancies after a movement out to the suburbs and its malls. Refugees starting back at zero, scraped together earnings to take advantage of the spaces and built the beginnings of Little Saigon.
What makes this Little Saigon community special?
Many things make Little Saigon special – right now, a seasonal night market open from spring through the end of summer showcases the hundreds of Vietnamese-owned shops, restaurants and businesses at the Grand Century Mall and Vietnam Town along Story Road.
San Jose is also a place where Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong points out people built a particular flavor of San Jose Vietnamese American identity by living closely alongside groups originating from all over the world who speak 100 different languages and dialects. One of her favorite examples Los Arcos, a Mexican restaurant that keeps a vestigial phở menu integrated within its own, in memory of Phở Bang, the iconic Vietnamese noodle soup shop that was there before it and burned down in 2022.
What are the demographic trends involving the area’s Vietnamese community in the last 50 years?
The increasing political voice of the Vietnamese American community is such that laws have enshrined recognition of the three-striped flag of South Vietnam (also commemorated as the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag) as the only official flag representing the Vietnamese American diaspora within the jurisdiction and property of the city, as well as Santa Clara County.
New immigration continues from overseas, and transplants seeking community keep moving to San Jose from elsewhere in the state and country. Though, an overall crisis of unaffordability has prompted some people to find better values outside of the city, such as in Morgan Hill.
What’s its future looking like for the community as we get further away from the initial exodus of refugees who arrived in the U.S.?
The future for the Vietnamese diaspora in San Jose is marked by a passionate bridge generation working to unite and motivate its diverse community despite political, generational and experiential differences. Community members of all ages and backgrounds cite loss of memory of an aging refugee generation, loss of the Vietnamese language, and loss of connection to Vietnam and its affairs in the inevitable progression toward an evolving Vietnamese American identity as major challenges ahead.
At the same time, state law is pushing forth a new curriculum that will teach Vietnamese American history and refugee experiences in all public schools in California. And both long-standing cultural initiatives such as the Vietnamese-English dual immersion programs in some of San Jose’s schools and relatively new organizations such as the Vietnamese American Roundtable and the 100% county-funded Vietnamese American Service Center find ways to engage different members of the community with their history, their culture, their language and with one another.
— Jia H. Jung
NORTHERN VIRGINIA/DC AREA
Where will I find the Little Saigon community?
Nowadays, the Eden Center, a strip mall in Falls Church, bills itself as Washington, D.C.’s “premier destination for Vietnamese cuisines and specialties.” It underwent a major transformation in 1996, adding a 32,400-square-foot space called “Saigon West,” and it boasts a clock tower that replicates downtown Saigon. A yellow and red South Vietnam flag waves over the parking lot.
Today, the Eden Center holds Vietnamese bakeries and coffee shops, health stores, jewelers and restaurants.
What’s the story behind the congregation of Vietnamese refugees in that area?
The Washington, D.C., area — particularly the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington — was a destination for people who already had familial connections established before the fall of Saigon. But it was also a place close to the embassy, the State Department and the American Red Cross, where refugees could find out more about their family still in Vietnam.
What makes this Little Saigon community special?
This Little Saigon is made up of a community that lost its home base more than once.
At the time that refugees settled in Clarendon, expansion of the Washington Metro was underway, and construction in Clarendon had thrown the area into a bit of a disarray, said Elizabeth Morton, an expert in urban planning and historic preservation.
That meant rents were more affordable — albeit, leases were only given for short periods of time, a quarter of a year, or six months, one refugee recalled in “Echoes of Little Saigon,” a documentary about the area.
It wasn’t long before the neighborhood blossomed with Vietnamese-serving businesses.
The Vietnamese community’s shift from Clarendon — where Vietnamese shops and restaurants have been replaced by chain retail stores and expensive cocktail bars in more recent years — wasn’t a sudden exodus as soon as the metro was completed, said Morton, a lecturer at George Washington University.
But eventually the rents did skyrocket — and those short-term leases ended.
And that’s where the Eden Center, a strip mall in nearby Falls Church, came in.
What are the demographic trends involving this Vietnamese community in the last 50 years?
Like many communities, the Eden Center is in the midst of diversifying. There have been efforts to woo younger generations of Vietnamese Americans and expand to non-Vietnamese Asian and non-Asian clientele.
According to the latest U.S. Census statistics, 9.1% of the population in West Falls Church is of Vietnamese descent.
What’s its future looking like for the community as we get further away from the initial exodus of refugees who arrived in the U.S.?
More redevelopment pressure.
A few years ago, the Falls Church City Council started to explore redevelopment projects for the area — and while the plans ultimately included cultural and business protections for the Eden Center, there are still concerns about gentrification and its impacts, Arlington Magazine recently reported.
But that’s where Viet Place Collective comes in. A volunteer group formed when redevelopment talks first began, it works to preserve the Vietnamese community’s legacy in the D.C. area.
“It’s not just about the Eden Center,” said Binh Ly, an organizer with the Viet Place Collective. “For us, it’s advocating for our small businesses that are the ones on the ground, day to day, trying to make sure that we have those familiar tastes and sounds and stuff that make the community what it is.”
— Kaitlyn Schallhorn
