Vietnamese Norwegian

Infobox Ethnic group
group = Vietnamese in Norway|poptime = ca. 18 800 (2007) [cite web
publisher=Statistisk Sentralbyrå
date=May 11, 2006
url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/02/01/10/innvbef/tab-2007-05-24-05.html
title=Innvandrerbefolkningen og personer med annen innvandringsbakgrunn, etter landbakgrunn og kjønn. 1. januar 2007
accessdate=2007-05-24]
popplace = Oslo, Bergen, Kristiansand, Trondheim
langs = Vietnamese, Norwegian
rels = Mainly Mahayana Buddhism with Ancestor Worship , Roman Catholicism
related = Vietnamese people, Overseas Vietnamese

Vietnamese Norwegians are Norwegians of Vietnamese descent who trace their ancestry to Vietnam and are residents and/or citizens of Norway. Norway has received Vietnamese refugees since 1975.

When this article describes Vietnamese living in Norway, it primarily means persons with two parents born in Vietnam. Thus, statistics used in this article does not include Vietnamese-descended persons with only one parent, or no parents born in Vietnam.

History

The first Vietnamese immigrant waves to Norway came after the Fall of Saigon, in 1975. They escaped Vietnam by boat, and were also known as the boat people. Some were picked up by Norwegian cargo ships and came to Norway after spending some months in refugee camps in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Most of these boat people came in the period from 1978 to 1985. Later immigrants have come from family-reunification and for economic reasons.

Demographics

As of 1 January 2007, the Norwegian Statistisk Sentralbyrå reported that there were 18 783 Vietnamese Norwegians in Norway. Vietnamese Norwegians was at the time the fourth largest non-western immigrant group after Pakistani, Iraqi and Somali immigrants.

ettlement

Around 5000 Vietnamese-Norwegians live in Oslo, where they are the 8th largest immigrant group. There are also significant groups of Vietnamese living in Bergen, Kristiansand and Trondheim. They are the largest immigrant group in Kristiansand, and the next largest in Bergen and Trondheim.

Cultural Profile

Education

Vietnamese culture places heavy emphasis on education. A survey from 2006 reported that 88 percent of Vietnamese finished college, the same percent as ethnic Norwegians [cite news
url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/oslo/article1359138.ece
title=Flittigere enn gutta
author=Anbjørg Bakken
publisher=Aftenposten
date=June 20, 2006
accessdate=2007-03-23] . A 2006 survey also showed that Vietnamese had the highest grades in college among the ten largest non-western immigrant groups in Norway, averaging similar grades as Norwegians [cite web
author=Liv Anne Støren
url=http://www.imdi.no/upload/st%F8ren.pdf
title=Nasjonalitetsforskjeller i karakterer i videregående opplæring
accessdate=2007-03-24|format=PDF] [cite news
url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article1517448.ece
title=Gjør det best blant innvandrere
publisher=Aftenposten
author=Ann Christiansen
date=November 02, 2006
accessdate=2007-04-03] .

A 2006 survey showed that Vietnamese was the ethnic group that had the fourth highest percentage whom finished a bachelor degree (after Indians, Chinese and Norwegians) and the ethnic group with the third highest percentage whom finished a masters degree [cite news
url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article1237931.ece
title=Best utdannet i øst
publisher=Aftenposten
author=Dag Yngve Dahle
date=March 2, 2006
accessdate=2007-03-23] . The Vietnamese especially have many representatives in higher education, as there is a 10 percent bigger chance for a Vietnamese-Norwegian having finished higher education than a Norwegian [cite web
url=http://www.samfunnsforskning.no/files/file28910_tfs_2006_01.pdf
title=Utdanning hos annengenerasjon etniske minoriteter i Norge.
author=Silje Noack Fekjær
publisher=Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning
year=2006
accessdate=2007-05-24
format=PDF] .

Politics

Vietnamese in Norway are not active in the country's politics. As of December 2006, there was only one Vietnamese in a municipal council in Norway [cite news
url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/oslo/article1532090.ece
title=17 000 vietnamesere, én politiker
author=Wasim K. Riaz
publisher=Aftenposten
date=November 14, 2006
accessdate=2007-03-23] . At the municipal- and countyelection (kommune- og fylkestingsvalg) in 2003, only 30 percent of the Vietnamese-Norwegians voted [cite web
url=http://www.ssb.no/vis/emner/00/01/20/vundk/main.html
title=Lav valgdeltakelse blant innvandrerne
month=March | year=2004
accessdate=2007-05-24
publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå] .

Attachments to home country

As a result of most Vietnamese coming to Norway as political or war refugees fleeing the Communist Vietnam, they are in general critical of the Vietnamese government. Fleeing the country was viewed as treasonable by the Vietnamese government during the 1970s and 1980s. However, the trend has turned and Vietnam now view the overseas Vietnamese as assets to the country's rapidly growing economy.

The Vietnamese are one the immigrant groups in Norway that most often send money to families in their home country. Over 60 percent of those who came to the country as adults reported as regularly sending money home to their families. The number regularly sending money to Vietnam among Vietnamese born in Norway or arrived in the country as children, were over 40 percent. The Vietnamese coming to Norway as adults send more and more money, the longer they have stayed in their new country [cite web
url=http://www.ssb.no/vis/samfunnsspeilet/utg/200406/08/art-2004-12-09-01.html
title=Innvandrere prioriterer å sende penger til familien
publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå
author=Jørgen Carling
date=December 9, 2004
accessdate=2007-03-22] .

Challenges

Though widely perceived as one of the best integrated non-western immigrant groups, there still remain some challenges for the Vietnamese community in Norway. A 2002 survey reported that 3.2% of Vietnamese Norwegians had been punished for breaking the law. The number for ethnic Norwegians were 1.35%cite news
url=http://www.dagbladet.no/magasinet/2005/04/28/430113.html
author=Astrid Meland
title=Mer kriminelle enn nordmenn
publisher=Dagbladet
date=April 28, 2005
accessdate=2007-03-23] . A social anthropologist studying the Vietnamese community said there was an "either... or" phenomenon among the Vietnamese, with those not succeeding in school falling into delinquency. The same trend has also been observed among the Vietnamese Americans. A stronger connection between the parents and the kids that fall out has been wanted. The relative low proficiency among Vietnamese in Norwegian, and a small vocabulary, has also been analysed as important challenges remaining.

Psychological problems

Many Vietnamese, especially among the older generation, have experienced traumas during and after the Vietnam War. A survey conducted on 148 randomly chosen Vietnamese refugees, up to three years after arriving in Norway, showed that many of them had experienced war up close [cite web
url=http://www.nkvts.no/bibliotek/Publikasjoner/PSSF/Linjer/1999-2/vietnamesiske.pdf
title=Vietnamesiske flyktninger i Norge - noen refleksjoner i etterkant av et forskningsprosjekt.
publisher=Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress
author=Evard Hauff
year=1999
accessdate=2007-05-24
format=PDF] . 62 percent had witnessed bombing, fires and shooting, and 48 percent had witnessed someone been injured or killed. One out of four had been in life-threatening situations and/or injured during the war. One out of ten had been in reeducation camps. Former inmates describe them as close to concentration camps, where they did not know how long they had to stay, and were victims of extreme methods of punishing.

The traumas affected the refugees psychological health even 7 years after the war. After 3 years in Norway, there was still no sign of change in the psychological strain on the refugees. One out of four had a psychological suffering. Depression was the most common diagnosis, with 18 percent being clinical depressed. Psychological illness in Norway was linked with traumas experienced during the time in Vietnam, in addition to lack of an entrusted partner during the escape from the country, and severance from close family. One out of three reported post-traumatic worries, and one out of ten were diagnosed with post-traumatic disorder.

References

ee also

*Vietnamese people
*Norwegian people