Canada's Acceptance of Vietnamese "Boat People"

The end of the Vietnam War led to Canadians’ first encounters with large scale arrivals of Southeast Asian refugees. Following the Vietnam War, which took place from 1955 to 1975, Canada experienced an influx of primarily Vietnamese refugees until the mid-1990s. Many of these refugees were, and still are, referred to as “boat people” due to the conditions in which they migrated in order to escape a repressive communist regime. Canada’s role in finding these “boat people” new homes was one of the greatest in the world. This era in Canadian history has impacted my identity my entire life, as my father was a boat person himself. It is because of Canada’s massive effort to aid and accept these refugees that I am alive today.