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New Vietnamese Exodus - Out of Silicon Valley
Pacific News Service ^ | November 05, 2002 | Andrew Lam

Posted on 11/05/2002 8:48:55 PM PST by Willie Green

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

Made resilient by a history of warfare and the need to move to survive, many Vietnamese in California's cash-strapped Silicon Valley are leaving and setting up shop in the state's capital. PNS editor Andrew Lam reports.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--"Husband a technician, wife in the assembly line, working the same shift, what could be better?" This adage, one of a few coined abroad by Vietnamese, refers to Silicon Valley, 90 miles southeast in the San Francisco Bay Area. For two decades the phrase was a formula for survival, one that, over time, led to prosperity for the second-largest Vietnamese community in the United States.

But that was before 9/11, an economic downturn, mass Silicon Valley layoffs and an exodus of many Vietnamese to the state capital.

Different communities have responded differently to the high-tech bust. For Vietnamese, many of whom have experienced war, tough times are met with togetherness and a readiness to pick up and move.

Standing in the middle of a Vietnamese-owned strip mall in the southern part of the city, Nam Nguyen, publisher of Dan Viet and Calitoday, wonders what the new survival adage might be. "Find cheap housing and start your own business?" he muses.

In a poor economy, where mainstream newspapers suffer from a lack of ads, Nguyen's two Vietnamese-language newspapers for Northern California are thriving.

"Ads revenues are up," he says. "I wouldn't have expected it." Dan Viet, Nguyen's 8-month-old Sacramento newspaper, appears twice a week carrying ads from jewelry stores, law firms, insurance and telephone companies, restaurants, and real estate businesses.

"Vietnamese in Silicon Valley are re-arranging their survival strategies," Nguyen says. "As more are losing their high-tech jobs, they are opening small businesses. And many are moving en masse to Sacramento to do it."

Houses are relatively cheap and plentiful here, and the cost of living is a fraction of what it is in San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley. There aren't many jobs in Sacramento, but this detail is not deterring the migration.

Some 100,000 Vietnamese live in Silicon Valley, but Census 2000 counted about 18,000 Vietnamese in and around Sacramento, an increase of 84 percent since 1990. Nguyen estimates 10,000 more had moved to the area since the census was taken.

"Vietnamese are survivors," Nguyen says. "We know where to go next. It's from the experience of living with so many wars. Got to move fast if you want to survive and do well."

Take Anh Dao, for instance. For the last two years, Dao's San Jose restaurant, which carries her name, was suffering. She left the restaurant for her brother to run and moved here to start a second Anh Dao.

"There's no heavy traffic like in San Jose," Dao says. "Rent is a lot cheaper. Business is good." Already she's planning a third restaurant in Stockton, some 40 miles south.

Thinh Tran and his family moved to Sacramento two years ago. Laid off after 10 years as a Silicon Valley technician, Tran bought a home for less than a third of the price of his house in San Jose.

"Having survived the war and re-education camp, surviving the economic downturn in America is not a big problem," Tran says.

Tran's two sons live at home and help their parents make ends meet. Family togetherness, according to Minh Ta, who teaches Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, is key to how Vietnamese Americans survive during rough economic times.

"One of the best strategies for immigrants is still sharing resources," Ta says. Brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts pool their financial resources.

"I myself would feel extremely guilty to see anyone of my family members suffer," says Ta, who is Vietnamese.

Chi To has lived here since the late 1980s. She says that the Vietnamese community in Sacramento was mostly quiet until a few years ago. "Those who moved here earlier were poorer and had little skills and capital," says To, who teaches business classes at a community center. Those who come now, she says, are business-savvy and aggressive. "Plus, they have collateral, which they can use to create new businesses for themselves."

Shops and services catering to Vietnamese are appearing everywhere. For Chi Le, owner of Lee's Sandwiches, which has stores elsewhere in California, Sacramento is the next "logical choice."

Chi To, the business course teacher, says she loves Lee's sandwiches, but warns, "There may not be enough consumers to support all these businesses." Plus, houses here are getting very expensive very fast.

Perhaps, then, some Vietnamese will find yet another livable valley to build a new Little Saigon. "Vietnamese are moving to Las Vegas as well," observes Nguyen with a smile. "Who knows, in a few years maybe I'll start a paper there, too."

Lam (lam@pacificnews.org) is a short story writer and journalist.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: recession; thebusheconomy

1 posted on 11/05/2002 8:48:55 PM PST by Willie Green
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To: Willie Green
"Having survived the war and re-education camp, surviving the economic downturn in America is not a big problem," Tran says

Something good that came out of the war, these people are free.
2 posted on 11/05/2002 8:54:05 PM PST by Arkinsaw
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To: Arkinsaw
Notice how the Left ignores the stories these people tell?? They demonize the Cubans, and there are some that demonize the anti-Commie Vietnamese as well.

I'm glad they got a chance to be free, it's too bad our countrymen sold them out in the first place.
3 posted on 11/05/2002 9:02:07 PM PST by Skywalk
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To: Skywalk
Hey 'sup,

I'm Vietnamese, and I was born after the war in Saigon. Now I'm here, in California (not much difference, some would say). I don't think it's necessarily that we were "sold out," although it was probably unfortunate that America left in 1975; but I don't forget that the North Vietnamese weren't exactly armed with U.S. fighters, tanks, and SAMs. I know that they were armed with Russian and Chinese weapons of war. They failed in Korea so they tried it again in Vietnam and found a little bit more success there. But the U.S. at least did try to help and that's more than anyone else did.
4 posted on 11/05/2002 9:10:09 PM PST by Ardence
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To: Ardence
Hello, my friend.

I agree that the US did TRY, and perhaps politically the situation was becoming untenable, but it was the Left in this country that cheered on the VC/NVA, who protested the Saigon regime(the commies in China were/are far worse and where were the protests against Nixon recognizing them?) and withdrew funding for Lon Nol in Cambodia and the RVN.

this led to massive internment in reeducation camps and the deaths of millions and the institution of tyrannical regimes. This is what I mean by being "sold out."

BTW, I've known Vietnamese since my childhood, even was VP of the VSA at U of M. So, I guess a feel a special kinship with nguoi Viet because of that.
5 posted on 11/05/2002 10:07:53 PM PST by Skywalk
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To: Skywalk
Well, since you put it that way. You've got a point. But as you've described the term "sold out," and the people who did it, unfortunately, it seems like the phenomenon is still occuring to this day in various parts of the world, and by a similar group of people, too.
6 posted on 11/05/2002 10:23:54 PM PST by Ardence
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To: Ardence
South Korea sent a massive army for a country its size( though it was notorious for killing civilians who may or may not have been VC).
7 posted on 11/05/2002 11:44:38 PM PST by weikel
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