A Bronx-based community forged from decades of conflict in Southeast Asia is dissolving.
Refugees first began arriving in the Bronx in the 1980’s, after a Refugee Act signed into law by President Carter. The act was designed to address the growing displaced communities from the Vietnam war. While many refugees were settled in Texas and California, a small minority settled in the northwest Bronx, in the neighborhoods of Kingsbridge Heights, Fordham Heights and Norwood.
That refugee community, comprised of Laotians, Vietnamese and Cambodians displaced by genocide and war, is largely moving out of the Bronx in search of a greater sense of community and cheaper rent.
From the period between 1980 and 1994, some 10,000 Cambodian refugees were resettled in the borough, according to Eric Tang, author of Unsettled: Cambodians in the Hyperghetto. Many moved into derelict buildings that were considered ‘unlivable’ by housing organizers at the time. That migration also included thousands South Vietnamese displaced after the Fall of Saigon as well as hundreds of Laotians made refugees by the communist takeover of Lao, both in 1975.
Advocates corroborated census data that indicated the communities were leaving.
“That’s been happening for a pretty long time,” said Howard Shih, a researcher who works with the Asian American Federation in New York City.
“My sense is that the big wave came in the 80’s, they had children, the children grew up and they moved on. They moved to other areas, they went to college. These things tend to happen.”
So where are they going? Much of the Vietnamese population has relocated to Queens and South Brooklyn.
But Shih says the economics of New York have pushed many refugee communities into the city’s suburban areas, like Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey.
Leo Ly, a census worker who is Vietnamese himself, said that all things equal, many Vietnamese expatriates would rather live in lower rent neighbourhoods, particularly if they work in low-skill labor industries, like nail salons or restaurants.
“Most of them aren’t educated, they don’t or haven’t gone to [college],” said Ly, who has been doing outreach in the community for 8 months. “They support families back home. If they have families they are sending them money.”
Meanwhile, census data suggest the Laotian community in the Bronx has entirely disappeared. None remain in the borough, and the community across the city remains quite small at just over 300 across all 5 boroughs.
Many Southeast Asian communities in New York have seen a significant uptick in population size. One example is the Filipino community in Queens, which has grown to over 50,000.
But the Vietnamese population across the city has remained significantly unchanged. Census figures from 2010 indicate just below 15,000 Vietnamese lived in New York at the time.