ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the immigrant population as a whole: its age, sex, family, educational, and occupational characteristics. Vietnamese, both urban and rural, rich and poor, Catholic and non-Catholic, lived in households composed of many nuclear families. If Vietnamese had come to the United States with married children over 18, these children were considered separate households. The size of Vietnamese families probably has little to do with religious beliefs or practices, despite the fact that over 40 percent of all refugees are Catholic. Schools in both colonial and postindependent South Vietnam were concentrated in urban areas—in cities like Saigon, Cho-Lon, Dalat, Da-Nang, and Hue—and in provincial capitals like Can-Tho and Quang-Tri city. Although Vietnamese households that immigrated seem large by American standards, they are small by Vietnamese standards. Households over five persons, however, accounted for roughly 62 percent of all immigrants.