TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM IN THE VIETNAMESE DIASPORA: HISTORY, ORGANIZATIONS, AND STRATEGIES
Ongoing Research Project (2023-2025)
US-Vietnam Research Center, University of Oregon
Context:
The Vietnamese overseas community largely formed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Fear of political persecution and resistance to communist rule were some of the reasons that pushed about two million people to leave Vietnam between the mid-1970s to mid-1990s.
Although the priority of most refugees was focused on surviving and resettling in a new host country, there were a few others who established groups with the aim to change the political situation in Vietnam.
Over four decades later, a growing number of individuals and groups have organized to shape political conditions in Vietnam and foreign relations between Vietnam and countries like the United States. Some groups aim to expand the space of civil society in Vietnam. Others organize as political parties and seek to build a core cadre of dedicated members across the globe and inside Vietnam. Still others engage primarily in philanthropic activities.
While diverse in aims and organizational forms, many groups actively engage in advocacy for human rights and democracy in Vietnam at the domestic and international levels. Despite these groups being a significant part of political activism in the community, there has not been a comprehensive academic study of them.
Objectives:
This research project has three aims.
- First, we want to provide a historical overview of the major groups that have evolved together with the Vietnamese diaspora since 1975. This overview will contribute to the political history of this community that has not been told.
- Second, we aim to critically examine the organizational goals, forms, and strategies of these groups to observe their strengths and weaknesses in terms of diversity, innovation, and effectiveness.
- Finally, we hope the study will give all groups a chance to reflect on their activities through a sustained dialogue with the research team during the research process.
Given our aims, the project will have two products. One is an article-length report that reviews the history and analyzes the goals, organizational forms, and strategies of each group. A second report will be devoted to an analysis of the public relations and media strategies of each group.
Research Questions:
In examining transnational activism in the Vietnamese diaspora over the past four decades, what goals and missions have been sought, and what organizational forms and strategies have been employed to influence political conditions in the homeland? How have those forms and strategies been deployed to reach the goals and missions? How have the groups under study assessed the appropriateness of their goals and the effectiveness of their organizational forms and strategies, and how have they adapted to changing political environments?
As these groups depend much on community support for their activities, public relations are critical to their survival. The media is especially important for them to communicate with the diasporic community and with Vietnamese in Vietnam. To what extent does each group have a public relations and media strategy? How have they made use of different forms of media, and how has each form contributed to the groups’ effectiveness? What have been major challenges coming from their use of the media? How have such challenges been overcome?
Significance:
The Vietnamese-American community, including the groups under study, would benefit from this kind of study in the following ways:
- the history of these groups is the very political history of our community;
- studying these various groups, including an analysis of strategic action over time, would provide the community for the first time with an overall analysis of the most important political organizations in the community; and
- the groups under study can benefit when self-reflecting on how their goals and strategies compare with past practices and to those of other groups.
Research Team:
- Duyen Bui (PhD, political science, University of Hawaii): Lecturer, Hawaii-Pacific University
- Y Thien Nguyen (PhD, sociology, Northwestern University): Lecturer, University of Leeds
- Tuong Vu: Professor & Department Head, Department of Political Science, University of Oregon
