For Amerasians, a Welcome Mat Is Not Enough

With the passage of the Amerasian Homecoming Act a year ago, Rep. Robert J. Mrazek (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tom Ridge (R-Pa.), the bill's co-sponsors, stated that these half-American, half-Vietnamese youth "will have the opportunity to become (American) citizens and realize the dream that millions of others have pursued . . . ." Arrival in America should not be equated with the realization of that dream.

Amerasians carry their own "dreams" about life in America. They arrive here with already intense emotional ties to this "land of their fathers," carrying inner images that are often highly idealized and unrealistic. All too many of the Amerasians we are working with are poorly equipped--socially, educationally and psychologically--to make the kind of adjustment and eventual adaptation to life in America that most of us would judge to be adequate. Without additional support to help them achieve a reasonable degree of economic and emotional self-sufficiency, we fear that many may fall into a cycle of poverty, gang membership and welfare dependency.

Is the success of the Amerasian Homecoming Act to be narrowly defined, measured only by the "numbers moved" in a particular time frame? The legislation remains myopic, being almost exclusively focused on expediting emigration. It contains little balance of attention and virtually no fiscal allocation to address the hard human issues of actual resettlement. Other criteria of success might include measures of adjustment, for instance, the degree of economic self-sufficiency. Important indicators would be rates of stable employment, amount of time on public assistance and referral rates for medical and mental-health services.

Over the last five years our work with Vietnamese Amerasians suggests that diversity is what most characterizes this population. The obvious and striking differences in terms of height, physique and skin color are matched by the variety of personal histories they carry within them. Some have shown real strength and resiliency, excelling socially, academically and economically. As a whole, however, we have been concerned that on an environmental basis alone (e.g., loss of a parent, material poverty, being of mixed race, minimal formal education), most are at high risk for serious problems in long-term adaptation. The Amerasians who arrived before the passage of the Amerasian Homecoming Act have required more intensive special services than any other Southeast Asian refugee group, both at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center and during the post-arrival period.