Overseas Vietnamese - Relations With Vietnam

Relations With Vietnam

Relations between overseas Vietnamese populations and the current government of Vietnam traditionally range between polarities of geniality and overt contempt. Generally, overseas Vietnamese residing in North America, Western Europe, and Australia (which represent the vast majority of overseas Vietnamese populations) are virulently opposed to the existing government of Vietnam. However, there is a smaller population of overseas Vietnamese residing in Europe (mainly in Central and East Europe) and Asia, most of whom have been sent for training in formerly communist countries. These populations generally maintain positive or more neutral, if not very friendly relations with the government. Many of these East European Vietnamese are from northern Vietnam, and usually have personal or familial affiliations with the communist regime Those who left prior to the political exodus of 1975 generally identify their sentiments as somewhere in between the two polarities.

The former South Vietnamese prime minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ returned to Vietnam in 2004 and was generally positive about his experience. However, Ky's reconciliation was met with anger by most Overseas Vietnamese, who called him a traitor and a communist collaborator for reconciling and working with the current communist regime. Notable expatriate artists have returned to Vietnam to perform (many are met with scorn and boycott by the expatriate community itself after they have done so). Notably, the composer Pham Duy had returned to Ho Chi Minh City (referred to as Saigon by overseas Vietnamese) to live the rest of his life there after living in Midway City, California since 1975. The government in Vietnam used less antagonistic rhetoric to describe those who left the country after 1975. According to the Vietnamese government, while in 1987 only 8,000 overseas Vietnamese returned to Vietnam for the purpose of visiting, that number jumped to 430,000 in 2004.

The Vietnamese government, for its own part, had actively tried to woo back overseas Vietnamese, who bring capital and expertise. Its view of the Việt Kiều changed from "cowardly traitors" to "essential elements of Vietnamese people" (or "integral parts of the Vietnamese Nation"). The government enacted laws to make it easier for overseas Vietnamese to do business in Vietnam, including those allowing them to own land. However, some overseas Vietnamese still complain about discrimination that they face while trying to do business there. The first company in Vietnam to be registered to an Overseas Vietnamese was Highlands Coffee, a successful chain of specialty coffee shops, in 1998.

In June 2007, Vietnamese president Nguyen Minh Triet visited the United States, one of his scheduled stops was within the vicinity Orange County, home of Little Saigon, the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. Details of his plans were not announced beforehand due to concerns of massive protests. Despite these efforts, a small anti-communist protest still occurred. Several thousand people protested in Washington, D.C. and Orange County during his visit.