Refugees’ le regard for life in “ru” and “em” by kim thuý = cách Đối xử cuộc sống của người tị nạn trong “ru” và “em” của kim thuý

Refugees’ le regard for life in “ru” and “em” by kim thuý = cách Đối xử cuộc sống của người tị nạn trong “ru” và “em” của kim thuý Refugees’ le regard for life in “ru” and “em” by kim thuý = cách Đối xử cuộc sống của người tị nạn trong “ru” và “em” của kim thuý

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES

GRADUATION PAPER

REFUGEES’ LE REGARD FOR LIFE

IN “RU” AND “EM” BY KIM THUÝ

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Thanh Huyền, MA

Phùng Hà Thanh, Ph.D Student: Trần Thái Hà

Course: QH2018

HÀ NỘI – 2022

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGÔN NGỮ - VĂN HÓA CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CÁCH ĐỐI XỬ CUỘC SỐNG CỦA NGƯỜI TỊ NẠN

TRONG “RU” VÀ “EM” CỦA KIM THUÝ

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Hoàng Thị Thanh Huyền

TS Phùng Hà Thanh Sinh viên: Trần Thái Hà

Khóa: QH2018

HÀ NỘI – 2022

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Trần Thái Hà, QH2018.E18, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Date: June , 2022

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank my supervisor Ms Hoàng Thị Thanh Huyền for being such a devoted guidance since day one Your insight and sharing have changed my worldview profoundly and shaped me in many ways Without you, none

of this would have been possible

I am indebted to Dr Phùng Hà Thanh for your patience and support during the very concluding moment of this long and challenging process Your constructive feedback and careful instruction helped me to realize my severe shortcomings and open my eyes to the possibilities For all that you have done, you are a godsend to me

My sincere appreciation goes to Dr Nguyễn Thanh Hà and Mr Lê Thành Trung for your assistance and encouragement along the way It is an honor to know and learn from someone like you

I am immensely grateful for my extended family who made sure that everything went as smoothly as possible for me throughout the entire process even though you had absolutely no idea what I was doing Your unconditional love and unwavering support are what kept me going

To my inner circle (Hoàng Anh, Tuyết Anh, Khanh), I cannot thank you enough for your unimaginable encouragement and faith in me when I couldn't even believe in myself Special thanks to my kindred spirit, Hoàng Thảo, for always listening to my ridiculous rants and complaints without once being fed up with me You guys are my rocks

Lastly, I want to thank myself for making it this far and for putting myself first At one point in the future, when looking back I hope that you will be proud of me

ABSTRACT

According to the newest Census Profile by Canadian Statistics carried out in 2016, there were about 240,00 people of Vietnamese descent living in Canada Together they have established a significant immigration group in Canada and become an important subject for refugee studies Existing social literature often depict Vietnamese refugees as vulnerable, desperate victims of communist persecution and grateful beneficiaries of Canada’s generosity This mainstream discourse stripes Vietnamese refugees from their agency and reduces the complex refugees’ experiences into a neat and linear success story Kim Thuý’s novels stand out from other literature works of Vietnamese Canadian not because of their title as authentic Vietnamese Canadian literature but due to their ability to grasp difficult themes, represent the specification as well as plurality in Vietnamese diasporas’ experience while constructing the image of refugees as compassionate, agentic and resilient human beings Through analysis of Kim Thuý’s two novels “Ru” and “Em”,

I argue that the refugees acquire a profound le regard for life by using artistic strategy, bricolage to improvise their experiences, memories in order to overcome struggles in lives and make sense of their being in the world Moreover, refugees’ le regard for life is illuminated by refugees’ relation with other people Finally, refugees resist states’ practice

of commemoration that let them fall into oblivion and mourn those who were marginalized and forgotten Refugees’ le regard for life gives them not only agency but also dignity of respected human beings who have their own desires, hopes, compassion and perspectives rather than just being the subjects of nation-state’s narratives

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 The cover of “Em” illustrated by Louis Boudreault 38

CHAPTER 2: THE PARADOXICAL IMAGE OF CANADA AS A REFUGEE STATE

4.1 Imagining others 34

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

With its history of accepting and resettling refugees, Canada has always proclaimed itself as a nation which hails humanitarianism, multiculturalism, equity and inclusivity for all Canada is able to separate itself from its southern neighbor and other nations by the narrative of “humanitarian exceptionalism” which emphasizes Canada’s unmatched generosity and relentless efforts of humanitarian intervention Canada’s “humanitarian exceptionalism” was fortified when President Donald Trump’s administration enacted the Travel Ban forbidding the entry of seven Middle East and Africa countries which were deemed Muslim-predominated (Phu & Nguyen, 2019) Amidst the controversy of Trump’s Travel Ban, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau posted on Twitter: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith Diversity is our strength

self-#WelcomeToCanada.” (Trudeau, 2017) The hashtag #WelcomeToCanada, later on, became trending on Twitter On the background of US’s xenophobic and derogatory Order, Canadian shone brighter than ever as a leading nation of refugee resettlement celebrating its core value of humanitarianism, multiculturalism and equity

Canada’s centuries-long of granting asylum and resettling refugees provides a fertile ground for the field of refugee studies to prosper and develop The refugees have been a subject of study in various areas namely sociology, law, health, and public policy Black (2001) indicates that refugee studies are linked with the development of policy and dominated by policy-oriented research, empirical examples rather than personal experience These studies can appear in the form of reports, policies, and application forms, which border on the validation and confirmation of refugees’

experiences, and the evaluation of refugees’ economic integration (Phu & Nguyen, 2019) Together, they contribute to refugee studies and constitute a part of the

“bureaucratic regime” defined by anthropologist, David A.B Murray With the aforementioned research as the primary resources, the “bureaucratic regime” is able

to construct the official refugee archive and consequently the mainstream discourse

of refugees The common elements of these research are the depiction of refugees as vulnerable and helpless victims and the grateful recipient of the host country’s generosity The refugees are; therefore, rendered passive and stripped from subjectivity and autonomy

In response to this situation, in their research, Phu and Nguyen (2019) pointed out the need for a more personal way to study refugees critically “The personal”, as explained, is “the process of linking self (as a historical subject) to various social, political, and cultural forces to see how people and their experiences are situated in time and space” (Phu & Nguyen, 2019, p 3) With “the personal” as archive and methodology, researchers can utilize the unnoticed and enshrouded materials of the refugee experience or “the refugee counter-archive” (Phu & Nguyen, 2019) Refugee counter-archive is not the binary opposition but rather a contestation to the readily existing and prevailing coverage of the refugee official archive The materials for this counter-archive range from autobiographies, memoirs, photographs, artworks, to community newspapers Told by the refugees themselves, these counter-narratives are attached with intense emotion, personal connections, and intimacy, thus, they are more authentic and human-centered Through these personal narratives, refugees appear to be in control of their own desires, dreams, and hopes rather than just victims

or sufferers They are the major agents of their own meaning-making, who are capable

of understanding and construing their position within time and space (Phu & Nguyen, 2019) On that account, the personal lens can greatly contribute to Critical Refugee Studies, a field that repositions refugees as the possible paradigm to elucidate and analyze the greater political forces and as the agency of their own meaning-making

The “personal” does not aim to entirely refuse or invalid the bureaucratic narratives but rather challenge the mainstream discourse of liberal multiculturalism and humanitarian exceptionalism and call for a more critical and broader framework to study refugees

The history of Vietnamese Canadian can be traced back to the Fall of Saigon

in 1975 Within the span of just one year, from 1975 to 1976, approximately 5,600 Vietnamese refugees arrived in Canada Following the “boat-people crisis” which occurred after the take-over of the Communist government, Canada admitted about 59,000 Vietnamese (along with Cambodian, and Laotian) refugees during 1979 and

1982 (Dorais, 2005) The prevailing discourse and representation of Vietnamese refugees’ experiences, more often than not, are created by non-Vietnamese individuals and the Canadian state Under the policy-based narratives, Vietnamese are described as helpless, grateful refugees, who detest communism and praise western democracies (Ngo, 2016) During the war in Vietnam, as America’s chief arms dealer, Canada manufactured and provided not only traditional ordnance but also chemical armaments, notably Agent Orange, killing millions and poisoning the development of generations of Vietnamese civilians (Nguyen, 2019) However, unlike the United States who has always been associated with the atrocities and enduring legacy of the war in Vietnam despite its many efforts of humanitarian interventions, Canada is able

to preserve its image of innocence Along with the high rate of admission and resettlement of Indochinese refugees, the two mentioned legislations help divert public attention away from Canada’s complicity in the war in Vietnam Canada, therefore, appears as a benevolent land opening its arms to refugees

After nearly half a century, the picture of “napalm girl” is still considered unequivocal evidence of the terror of the war in Vietnam, making the main character

in the picture, Phan Thị Kim Phúc, “emblematic refugee” (Nguyen, 2019) Kim Phúc later sought refuge in Canada and became an eloquent speaker on forgiveness and

reconciliation The hyperfocus on the “before” and “after” image of Phan Thị Kim Phúc underscore the transformation that was brought about by Canada’s generosity Instead of acknowledging the napalm used on innocent citizens, this attention free-frames the image of Vietnamese refugees as wretched, desperate victims and grateful recipients of Canada’s generosity These iconic photos and dominant narratives not only stripe off the autonomy and dignity of Vietnamese refugees but also overshadow the personal narratives of Vietnamese refugees themselves

Nevertheless, Vietnamese refugees still raise their voices to tell their own stories and experiences through different means Memoirs, fiction, and novels are among the most popular means for refugees to tell their own stories and experience The war in Vietnam has always been an endless inspiration for both Vietnamese and American literature The late 20th century and 21st century witness the wave of literary works of the 1.5 and 2.0 generations of Vietnamese Americans regarding their own refugee experience and identity (Janette, 2018) Vietnamese American literature with its “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” (Ocean Vuong), “The Sympathizer” (Viet Thanh Nguyen), “Inside Out & Back Again” (Thanhha Lai) took the literature world by storm These novels and fictions are well-received by not only American audiences but also international readers and critics Compared to its Vietnamese American counterparts, Vietnamese Canadian literature develops at a much slower pace The topic of Vietnamese refugees in Canada has actually appeared for the first time in Nguyen Ngoc Ngan’s biography “The Will of Heaven”, cowritten with E E Richey, in 1983 Despite being the first Vietnamese Canadian memoir, the work has since fallen into oblivion After Nguyen Ngoc Ngan’s “The Will of Heaven”, there were Phan Thị Kim Phúc’s “The Girl in the Picture: The Kim Phúc Story” (1999), Thuong Vuong-Riddick’s “Two Shores” (1995), but they did not receive much attention from the public

It was not until the emergence of Kim Thuý’s “Ru” that the topic of Vietnamese refugees in Canada was called into attention Originally born in Saigon,

at the age of 11, Kim Thuý, and her family fled from Vietnam by boat in 1978 The family spent four months in a Malaysia’s refugee camp before being admitted into Canada They arrived in Granby, Canada in 1979 and eventually settled down in Montreal Thuý holds a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and translation (1990) from the Université de Montréal, in which she later earned a law degree (1993) Before devoting all of her time to creative writing, she used to work as an interpreter, lawyer, and restaurateur Shaped and inspired by her personal experiences, Kim Thuý continues to unpack and write the stories about the Vietnamese diaspora, all of those, according to her, demand to be recorded and to be told

According to James (2016), the new wave of fiction related to Vietnamese refugees was marked by the publication of Kim Thuý’s “Ru”, which later was dubbed the name “the first Vietnamese Canadian novel” Set against the backdrop of the so-called “boat people crisis” in 1976 after the Fall of Saigon, “Ru” recounts the journey and experience of a Vietnamese refugee family to Canada Leaving Vietnam and their wealthy past behind, the family find themselves in a cramped and dirty refugee camp

in Malaysia in which they have to lead a life that is strikingly different from that of Vietnam In the new homeland, the narrator’s family strives hard to take root, embraces the new environment, and eventually becomes part of the American Dream Through the narrative voice of the main character, Nguyễn An Tịnh, readers are switched back and forth between her time in Vietnam, in Malaysia’s refugee camp, and in Quebec, Canada Since its publication in 2009, “Ru” has received several literary awards such as Governor General's Award for Fiction, Mondello Prize for Multiculturalism and won international critical acclaim

Her most recent work, “Em” brings readers back to the period of French colonialism in Vietnam to the massacre at My Lai, Operation Babylift and eventually the phenomenal expansion of the nail salon industry owned by Vietnamese diasporas around the world The novel features interconnected stories revolving around the life

of an abandoned orphan who was taken into the care of a homeless boy Through the interlocking stories, Thuý transforms the historical story that we thought we have already known into a tribute for love, beauty and human spirit that transcends the overlapping atrocity and horrors during the darkest time Different from other novels

of hers, “Em” is written from the third-person omniscient point of view, which means

in this novel, Kim Thuý travels between places, different periods, and shifts back and forth between characters Therefore, the historical events and characters’ interactions are perceived and interpreted through Kim Thuý’s point of view Every so often in this novel, Thuý leaves the characters and breaks the fourth wall to give out facts and her opinions but in a very subtle way According to Nguyen (2019), when the refugees are granted asylum and settle into the host countries, they are no longer refugees in a legal-restrictive way However, what Nguyen (2019) conceptualizes as “refugeetude” still affects their perception of lives and greater forces I assume that “Em” is a historical fiction perceived by the view of Kim Thuý as a refugee In addition, Kim Thuý asserts that in order to restore the humanity of refugees, it is important to dwell into their history

Other than “Ru” and “Em”, Kim Thuý has published two other novels which are “Mãn” (2013) and “Vi” (2016) focusing on the lives of Vietnamese diasporas However, these two novels will not be included in this study “Mãn” is told from the point of view of the main character, Mãn, who married a Vietnamese Canadian man and moved to Canada; thus, the story does not refer much to the experiences of refugees “Vi” revolves around the main character, Vi, who came to Canada by boat with her family Despite giving out bits and pieces of the refugee’s experiences and a

setting that is quite similar to “Ru”, the greater half of the novel dwells on Vi’s transnational lifestyle, her navigation through the possibilities and her romantic relationship with a French ornithologist working in Vietnam

1.2 Feminist refugee epistemology and le regard for life

At first glance, “Ru” can be perceived as just another simple success story of Vietnamese refugees in the receiving country and “Em” as just another historical fiction about the war in Vietnam Employing the “personal lens”, Kim Thuý’s works exceed beyond the realm of reinvented novel of historical events to reveal refugees’ profound “le regard for life,” which illuminates the complexity and multiplicity of Vietnamese refugees

I will demonstrate that Thuý’s perspective is in line with “Feminist Refugee Epistemology” (FRE) developed by Yến Lê Espiritu and Lan Duong The concept of

“Feminist Refugee Studies” is positioned in the field of transnational feminist studies and ccritical refugee studies While transnational feminist studies situate patriarchies with racism, colonialism, and imperialism; the field of critical refugee studies consider “the refugee” as a paradigm and critic to elucidate the problems and legacy

of militarized empires (Espiritu & Duong, 2018) Departing from the norm that considers time and space as natural and fixed, FRE’s perspective of these two factors are more discursively produced To put it another way, time, FRE, opens up a fluid, dynamic and multidimensional temporality in which the past, present and future coexist and space is open and borderless

FRE focuses on “the site of intimate domestic and familial interaction” and mundane objects like letters, photographs, newspaper to look “for the hidden political forces” (Espiritu & Duong, 2018) In the light of FRE, the pursuit of everyday become

acts of defiance, contestation and aspiration Consequently, refugees acquire a multilayered subjectivity by enacting their own desires, hopes, and feelings rather than just being the subject of the nation-state's narratives and Western media By centering the mundane, yet personal and private aspects of quotidian activities, FRE highlights the complexity and multifaceted nature of refugees’ lives in which they sort

to create their own life making and carry out their dreams, hope and desires while being militarized (Espiritu & Duong, 2018)

“Le regard for life” is a combination of the French phrase “la vie dans le regard” and the English phrase “the regard for life” By using this phrase, I want to capture Kim Thúy’s feminist refugee epistemology as well as the spirit of her novels

1.3 Thesis statement

In this paper, I argue that Kim Thuý’s novels reveal refugees’ profound le regard for life, which gives dignity to refugees and illuminates how they situate themselves and construct their own meaning-making against the dominant discourse about refugees in Canada In Kim Thuý’s works, refugees’ le regard for life is made visible in three important aspects Firstly, refugees improvise their experiences strategically, as if life is art installation, in order to survive and overcome everyday struggles By employing the practice of bricolage, Kim Thuý demonstrates how refugees maneuver between fact and fiction, different layers of truth, stories and memories to narrate their complex and specific experiences in contrast to the simple and stereotypical success stories about refugees generated by the state Furthermore, amidst the atrocity and havoc of war, burdened and shackled to their own pain, yet, refugees are still compassionate enough to see the lives of others, still selfless enough

to love each other and to sacrifice to make sure that the children can have a chance to live In addition, by narrating the untold stories, refugees reclaim their agency by

refusing to let the missing and marginalized fall into oblivion and calls into question the problem of how one should be remembered

1.4 Research methodology

This is a textual analysis I develop an argument from reading the novels and their related texts including interviews with Kim Thúy, scholarly books and articles

on the themes of memory, truth, temporality and remembrance

1.5 Significance of the study

In recent years, Vietnamese diasporic literature has been gaining popularity and positive public acclaim both in the countries of destination and Vietnam In contrast to the steady growth of its Vietnamese American counterpart, Vietnamese Canadian literature, especially those related to the topic of refugees, only emerged recently By examining two novels, “Ru” and “Em”, this study emphasizes how Vietnamese refugees acquire a profound regard for life which gives them the dignity and autonomy in contrast to the “bureaucratic regime” discourse of refugees; thus, contributing to the field of Critical Refugee Studies

1.6 Structure of the study

This study consists of five chapters The first chapter offers the background that gives rise to the research problem along with the main argument of the thesis Chapter 2 discusses the relationship between Canada’s nation-building and refugees,

as well as the dominant discourses about Vietnamese refugees in Canada Chapter 3

analyzes how refugees improvise their personal experiences and memories using artistic strategy to make sense of their positions Chapter 4 dwells on the refugees’ perspective in relation to other people Chapter 5 presents refugees’ practice of mourning as a means to remember the forgotten Chapter 6 concludes the research and puts forward the limitations and implications for future study

CHAPTER 2: THE PARADOXICAL IMAGE OF CANADA AS A REFUGEE STATE AND DOMINANT DISCOURSES ABOUT VIETNAMESE

REFUGEES

This chapter discusses how Canada constructed its national image as a world leader in refugee resettlement, promotes its unique characteristics of “humanitarian exceptionalism” and multiculturalism while taking into account the scholarly critique

of the factors that contribute to Canada’s nation-building In addition, this chapter recounts several occasions when Canada’s response to refugees went against its self-acclaimed image and its quiet involvement in the war in Vietnam Scholars of the field

of Critical Refugees Studies have pointed out that in order to maintain its positive image and advance political agenda, Canada needs refugees and needs to promote the discourse of refugees as helpless and desperate to illuminate Canada’s benevolence and generosity This chapter also gives a brief history of Vietnamese refugees in Canada and explores the contribution of existing literature to the prevailing depiction

of Vietnamese refugees as desperate-turn-successful and grateful refugees, which further consolidates the concept of “model minority” and Canada’s magnanimity

2.1 Canada as an assemblage of paradoxes

2.1.1 Champion of humanitarian intervention

Canada successfully constructed its image of the world leader of humanitarian intervention with its long history of accepting refugees The history of Canada’s response to refugees could be traced back to the American Revolution in the 19th century Before the Confederation, Canada was the destination of up to 30,000 fugitive slaves escaping the American South to Canada through the Underground Railroad During the late 1890s and early 1900s, Canada continued to serve as the terminus of two groups of refugees from Russia which were the Mennonites and

Doukhobors After World War II, under pressure from the economic boom and the United Nations, Canada’s government began to shift towards non-racist immigration policy It is during the period of the Cold War that Canada constructed its reputation

as the world leader of refugees’ resettlement (Guo & Wong, 2019) Within the short span of just a few months, Canada admitted over 37,000 Hungarian refugees due to the defeat of the Hungarian uprising against the Soviet Union (Canadian Council for Refugees, 2009) Canada was also the destination of American draft dodgers who refused to fight in the war in Vietnam In response to the “boat people” crisis, about 60,000 Indochinese refugees were admitted into Canada in the course of just one year from 1979 to 1980 (Canadian Council for Refugees, 2009) In 1986, the UNHCR presented the Nansen Medal, the highest distinction for a person, group, or organization for exceptional service to the cause of refugees, to the ‘People of Canada’ This marked the first and so far, only time this honor has been bestowed upon a population Canada’s resettlement of around 73,000 Syrian refugees escaping the turmoil of the Syrian Civil War are among the moments that attract worldwide attention, admiration and press coverage (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 2020)

These are the few moments that have become the important canon of Canada’s nation-building which promote Canada’s narrative of “humanitarian exceptionalism” emphasizes Canada’s hospitality, benevolence and generosity towards immigrants and refugees; thus, unique, compared to other developed nations in which anti-immigrants and refugees prevailed Regarding the fields of immigration and refugees, Canadian exceptionalism is characterized by its geographic remoteness, selective immigration and multiculturalism policies (Triadafilopoulos & Taylor 2021; Fleras 2018) Canada’s geographic attribute makes entering its territories difficult, assists border control and monitors immigration based on the national interest and economic necessity (Triadafilopoulos & Taylor 2021; Cooper 2017; Reitz 2012) Another characteristic contributing to Canadian exceptionalism is the success of Canada’s

immigration policies, which has been defined by Reitz (2012) as selective In 1967, the point system assessing immigrants on education and Canada’s official language and work experience was introduced This selection system economically helps Canada to attract highly skilled immigrants and contributes to the narrative that the Canadian economy could benefit from immigrants’ labor (Reitz, 2012)

Multiculturalism policy is another key point of Canadian exceptionalism Since its official introduction in 1971, multiculturalism has been an indispensable part of Canada’s identity and set it apart from other great nations like Britain and the United States Triadafilopoulos and Taylor (2021) stresses that the value of multiculturalism lies in its symbolic resonance The policy recognized the diversity of Canada’s cultural backgrounds, their values and contributions to Canadian society Upon the introduction of multiculturalism policy and the bilingual framework, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced that: “Although there are two official languages, there is

no official culture” The policy, thus, created the so-called “Cultural Mosaic” allowing Canada to distinguish itself from the US’s ideology of the “Melting Pot” in which different cultures are fused and blended together (Reitz & Jedwab, 2014) Multiculturalism allows Canada to have a distinguished national identity that acknowledges the contribution of immigrants, which both native-born citizens and immigrants can identify with and feel pride in (Banting and Kymlicka, 2010) Another result of this policy is the Canadian Multiculturalism Act in 1985 Since its emergence, multiculturalism has sparked much debate and criticism Légaré (1995) points out the paradox within multiculturalism between different defined cultures and Canadian singular entity, which narrows the way people from a certain ethnic group can define themselves Bannerji (2000) claims that multiculturalism is an instrument for racialization and maintenance of white supremacy While Banting & Kymlicka (2010) assert that multiculturalism can cause social segregation; Ryan (2010) warns against the threat of illiberal customs and superfluous application of cultural relativism because the accommodation of cultural practices is boundless

2.1.2 On the contrary of “humanitarian exceptionalism”

Canada’s self-proclamation of a leading nation in refugee resettlement is contradicted with those moments when Canada is not really receptive towards refugees Before the introduction of the Immigration Act in 1976, Canada had a long history of denying immigrants and the reputation of being a white man’s country due

to its racist immigration policies In 1923, The Chinese Immigration Act or the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed which prohibited entry of Chinese immigrants for

24 years During the 1930s with the rise of Nazi in Germany, many German Jews sought refuge in Canada but Canadian government’s attitude was less than welcoming The efforts of Jewish community and other groups to convince the government were made to no avail In 1939, after being denied admittance in Cuba, the MS St Louis, carrying nearly a thousand of Jewish refugees escaping Nazi persecution, came to Canada harbor just to be turned away again Eventually, the ship had to returned to Europe-occupied Nazi in which many passengers were executed in the Holocaust According to Canadian Council for Refugees (2009), during the span

of Nazi reign in Germany, only 5.000 Jewish refugees were admitted into Canada, the lowest number among developed countries

In the early 21st century, Canada’s policies tended to retrench the number of refugees due to the rising concern over national security Consequently, in 2009 and

2010, passengers from the Ocean Lady and Sun Sea were subjected to detention, interrogation and even exclusion from the refugee determination process Canadian government’s resolution and unreceptive attitude gave the wrong impression of refugees as criminals and terrorists In response to the Syrian Civil War, newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration promised to resettle 25.000 Syrian refugees By the end of 2020, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada reported

that about 73,000 Syrian refugees have been resettled since the first flight The number

of refugees admitted by Canada, however, did not come close to that of Turkey, Lebanon or Germany

According to Triadafilopoulos (2021), Canada does a relatively impressive job when it comes to resettlement processes and stable commitment; nonetheless, it is observed that when taking into account the size of resettlement programs, Canada’s statistics is much more modest Considering the fact that only 100,000 refugees are resettled among one million refugees in need of resettlement each year, Canada’s claim of exceptionality and champion of humanitarian intervention is relatively weak Canada’s immigration system contributed to global humanitarian aid has not seen any significant development, virtually contradictory to its claim as the leading country in refugee resettlement (Triadafilopoulos, 2021) Despite several occasions when Canada refused and mishandled refugees along with the unsatisfactory intake of refugees, the narrative of “humanitarian exceptionalism” still persists and overshadows not only the account of nation’s xenophobic and racist policies but also the complexity and roles of refugees in nation-building (Phu and Nguyen, 2019) Phu

& Nguyen (2019) also asserts that Canada needs refugees to advance political agendas, promote national identity and win international acclaim

2.1.3 Canada’s complicity in the war in Vietnam

After the war in Vietnam in 1975, Canada is often remembered for its remarkable contribution to the humanitarian cause, not its complicity and assistance

to the United States in the war Due to the lack of literature and Canadian authority’s reluctance in sharing information, little is known about its involvement in the war Researchers often refer to Canada's engagement as the “quiet complicity” or the

“secret war” Canada did not participate in the war and its law prohibits Canadians to

join any foreign armies but still there were between 30,000 and 40,000 Canadians enlisted to fight alongside with the US As there is no way to determine the exact figure, the number could possibly be higher A decade after the war was over, in his

extensive research “Quiet Complicity: Canadian Involvement in the Vietnam War”

(1986), Victor Levant dispels the myth of Canada’s bystander and innocence by pointing out Canada’s assistance of the United States’ counterinsurgency efforts This book is by far the most thorough and forthright document that uncovers Canada’s complicity in the war in Vietnam in various aspects

Levant (1986) briefly points out the three characteristics of Canada's two international truce missions, respectively partisan voting, distortion of fact and accessories to the United States’ counterinsurgency Canada’s twenty-year involvement in the war in Vietnam began when it became a member of the International Control Commission (ICC) responsible for supervising the execution of the Geneva Agreements This mission, thus, put Canada in the position of a peacekeeper and neutral state From 1954 to 1972, evidence reveals Ottawa’s actions went against its commitment to the Geneva Agreements as it secretly collected information for the U.S Central Intelligence Agency, overlooked Saigon’s violation

of the Geneva Agreements while outright criticizing Hanoi, and supported other endeavors of the U.S authority Canada’s participation in the International Commission for Control and Supervision (ISSC) in 1973 preserved the same characteristics of its aforementioned commissions Canada’s economy also benefited greatly as the United States became deeply involved in the war It is estimated that between 1965 and 1973 a $2.47-billion-worth of weapons (ammunition, Agent Orange, napalm, …) along with raw materials was sold to the Pentagon by Canada’s private firms (Levant, 1986) Although Canada's weapon sales were made by private companies, the Canadian government aided the United States in testing Agent Orange before its official usage in the war

From 1950 to 1975, through the Colombo Plan, $29-million-worth of aid in the forms of medical assistance, food, and scholarship from Canada was sent to South Vietnam As part of the aid program, Canada also built health facilities, assigned Canadian medical staff to tuberculosis clinics in Quang Ngai Despite appearing in non-military forms and under the veil of humanitarianism, Canada’s aid was rooted from partisan calculation and only extended to one side of the war Additionally, Canada’s aid program served as the cloak for U.S responsibility for the civilian casualties in South Vietnam Public announcements from Canada medical teams insisted on traffic accidents as the main cause of hospitalization

2.1.4 Critical Refugee Studies in Canada

Existing social literature works often depict refugees as not only the helpless, voiceless subject awaiting to be rescued but also a problem resulting from within the refugees themselves, a crisis to be solved, not the outcome of wars, conflicts or social turmoil (Espiritu, 2014) These accounts provide a problem-oriented approach towards refugees putting a hyper focus on displacement and sociology of integration process while omitting the causes and actors which create refugees’ displacement in the beginning Using these narratives, the states eventually draw away public attention and absolve themselves from their acts of violence, wars or political upheavals (Espiritu, 2014) Given how the field of Refugee Studies is dominated by policy-oriented and empirical research, the field of Critical Refugee Studies arises as a defiance to the state’s narratives that oversimplify the role of refugees in nation-building and state’s legislative decision-making process Nguyen & Phu (2021) argues that refugees have a significant impact on a state’s nation-building, in other words, the state needs refugees to maintain their national identity and promote their cultural and political intentions Critical Refugee Studies; therefore, repositions refugees as the historical actors who elucidate the legacy and process of greater

political forces, critique state’s official narratives and produce their own making

meaning-While Critical Refugee Studies has seen certain developments in the US’s context, this field only gained attention recently in the Canada scholarship Contrary

to the US’s militarism and imperialism, Canada is able to maintain its reputation as a champion in humanitarian intervention despite its involvement in the war in Vietnam Additionally, with its long history of resettling refugees, Canada offers a unique and potential site for Critical Refugee Studies to develop Canada’s celebration of multiculturalism, humanitarian exceptionalism and peaceability enshrouds its history

of racial exclusion, settler colonialism and imperialism (Phu & Nguyen, 2021) Lies

at the center of this specific context is Canada’s exceptionality, which helps Canada

to preserve its image and complicity that produced refugees’ displacement in the first place and eventually polish the country’s image In the case of Canada, refugees are put in the complex imbrication of settler colonialism and imperialism (Phu & Nguyen, 2021)

Before the implementation of the Immigration Act in 1976, Canada had a reputation of being a “white man's country” due to its blatant ethnocentrism, race-based policies and a long history of suppression of the Indigenous Phu & Nguyen (2021) notes that when studying refugees in Canada, it is important to recognize the above-mentioned fact and take into account that Canada’s ability to settle refugees and maintain its power depends on its suppression of Indigenous people In other words, the power of Canada’s settler state operates on the domination over and deprivation of Indigenous people from their territories, resources and autonomy Consequently, immigrants, and refugees might unconsciously partake in the process

of colonization of Indigenous communities despite the injustice, maltreatment and persecution they may suffer from

Notable characteristics of a settler state like Canada are the implementation of (hetero)paternalism stance and neoliberal logics A state that upholds the ideology of (hetero)paternalism expects its citizens to follow and value the model of Western, Christian, heterosexual nuclear family and at the same time refusing and excluding other types of citizenry (Banerjee et al., 2021; Lee, 2021) The prosperity of (hetero)paternalism is also established on the images of refugees as helpless, desperate suffers and the (paternalistic) state as the benevolent benefactor (Chuong, 2015; Lacroix, 2004; Hardy & Phillips, 1999, as cited in Banerjee et al., 2021) Through the paternalistic lens, refugees’ experiences and subjectivity are reduced into a neat and tidy narrative carefully constructed by the host In addition, Canada’s dependence on neoliberalism is manifested into the categorizations among migrants After being provided certain support from the humanitarian migration policy, refugees are expected to take care of themselves while the state frees itself from the responsibilities (Adamson & Tsourapas, 2019; Banerjee et al., 2021) Moreover, with the tool of categorization, the Canadian government can turn down those who are defined by the state as economic migrants; thus, reducing the expense of the refugee resettlement process (Masoumi, 2019)

2.2 Vietnamese refugees in Canada

2.2.1 Background of Vietnamese refugees in Canada

Following the fall of Saigon and the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) in 1975, the world witnessed a mass exodus of Vietnamese through sea routes, which persisted until the end of the 20th century Stemming from this event, the term “boat people”

or “Thuyền nhân” became “a new cultural lexicon” and gain the attention of the global community (Nguyen, 2016, p 66) The North’s capture of Saigon marked the beginning of the “subsidy phase” or the so-called “closed-door” period, which lasted from 1975 to 1986 To remove all the remnants of the RVN, during this period, the communist government-operated re-education camps and implemented the New

Economic Zones leading to the mass population redistribution of over two million Vietnamese people from both the South and the North To avoid this situation, many people began to leave Vietnam for other developing countries in search of new lives and economic opportunities This group consisted of people from diverse backgrounds including the working-class, the petite bourgeoisie, and members of the middle class, and the upper class Furthermore, as the tension between Vietnam and China was boiling in 1979, “a disproportionately high” number of Chinese Vietnamese decided to leave Vietnam to escape from political persecution (Carruthers, 2008) At the end of 1979, the number of people fleeing Vietnam had reached 400,000 (Carruthers, 2008)

Vietnamese refugees were often smuggled by illegal operations and squeezed into overloaded boats (Nguyen, 2016) Setting out on a perilous journey in the open sea, “boat people” suffered from starvation, disease, severe weather, and pirate attacks The UNHCR reported that between 200,000 and 400,000 people lost their lives at sea while seeking refuge during this period Those who survived arrived in neighboring countries like Hongkong, Thailand, Malaysia, or Indonesia and stayed in refugee camps Nonetheless, the living conditions in these camps were unhygienic and precarious When these asylums were filled over capacity with Vietnamese arrivals, countries started to deny permission from new refugee boats and sent them back to the open sea awaiting rescue To address this humanitarian crisis, in 1979 the Geneva conference was held by the United Nations, in which the regional countries agreed to provide temporary asylum for Vietnamese refugees before they can be resettled in third countries, namely the US, Canada, and France Hanoi and the UNHCR reached an agreement to allow legal emigration from Vietnam through the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) From 1979 to 1982, Canada admitted 59,000 Vietnamese refugees, according to Dorais (2005) Knowles (1997) points out that it was the highest number of “boat people” admitted per capita by any country during that period, making up for 25 percent of the new arrivals in Canada between 1978 and

1981 The high rate of resettlement was the result of various private sponsorship programs of religious organizations and individuals and the Canadian government’s attempt to reunify families (Dam, 2009).

The arrival of Vietnamese refugees occurred at the unique period of Canada’s immigration history with the introduction of two important legislations, which are the Immigration Act in 1976 and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act in 1988 The Immigration Act in 1976, which officially recognized refugees as a distinct class of immigrants, also featured the objectives, procedures, and principles of Canadian immigration policy and enabled private sponsorship of refugees Enacted in 1988, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act emphasized multiculturalism as a defining characteristic of Canadian heritage as well as promoted equal treatment, protection, and inclusivity of all individuals and communities under the laws It was against this backdrop that Vietnamese refugees entered Canada “physically” and “culturally” (Nguyen, 2019)

2.2.2 The “good” and “legitimate” refugees

The narratives about Vietnamese refugees depicted by the global North have always focused on the rightful reasons for emigration, their suffering in home countries and economic success in the new country Contributing to these narratives, Beiser (2016) refers to Vietnamese refugees as “survivors of oppression, plunged into poverty, purified by their sufferings, and boundlessly grateful for safe haven” while Mongomery (1991) calls Vietnamese refugees “pathetic wretches struggling to escape from a nation which sought to enslave its own population” (as cited in Ngo, 2016) In addition, the social literature depicts Vietnamese refugees as those who overcome difficulties to become financially independent and gain respected status in society Ngo (2016) points out that the hard conditions of Vietnamese refugees in home

countries are frequently put under comparison with their success in Canada to emphasize the upward movement and transition Hou (2020) describes Vietnamese refugees as “highly vulnerable”, lacking “human capital characteristics”, yet did not become a burden but was able to “successfully integrate into a welcoming host society”

The “rags to riches” trope reflect the concept of “anticommunist model minorities” proposed by Espiritu (2014) which has long been associated with Vietnamese refugees in the global North Similar to the case of Vietnamese Americans, Vietnamese Canadian also participated in the narrative of the “good refugee” emphasizing the “core cultural values” of Vietnamese - docility, industriousness and submission as the underlying justification for the success of their ethnic assimilation (Ngo, 2016; Espiritu, 2014) Espiritu (2014) also stresses that despite the outright censure of Vietnamese refugees against the communist authority, the “anticommunist” sentiment is also another narrative that is partially employed From this stance, the stories of Vietnamese refugees can be recognized and aligned with the social and political agenda of the United States In the context of Canada, Vietnamese refugees are also perceived as the anticommunist subjects (Ngo, 2016)

In order for the claimant’s stories to be persuasive and legitimate enough to convince the Refugee Board, it is essential that the refugees tell or construct the stories that can satisfy the host state and neatly fit with the states’ political landscape, which in this particular case is the anticommunism stance In her novel “What We All Long For”, upon recounting the main character’s immigration experience, Dionne Brand has written:

Only when they arrived in Toronto would they fully construct their departure

as resistance to communism That is the story the authorities needed in order

to fill out the appropriate forms They needed terror, and indeed Tuan and Cam had had that; they needed loss, and Tuan and Cam had had that too And