Overview of Second Wave Refugees “Boat People”

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Overview of Second Wave Refugees “Boat People”

A boat crowded with Vietnamese men, women and children in heavy seas; ahead of it and travelling in the same direction is another boat with a small number of people standing on the deck.

Author: Tori Phù
Grades: 11-12

Suggested Amount of Time: 40-60 Minutes
Area of Study:  Vietnamese Departures and Transit

Compelling Question

  • How did Vietnamese build communities as they attempted to survive and traverse the hardships of life in transit?

Lesson Questions
  • What difficulties did the Vietnamese boat people endure on their journey towards America? 
  • What were the conditions like on the boat for the second wave of Vietnamese refugees? 
Lesson Objective

Students will be able to reflect on and summarize the experiences of the boat journey for the second wave of Vietnamese refugees by participating in a graffiti activity and producing an exit ticket. 

Lesson Background

Students should be able to identify common hardships endured on the boat by Vietnamese refugees such as interactions with pirates, diseases, starvation, and losses of members on the boat. Students should be able to conclude that the boat journey was treacherous and life-threatening to Vietnamese people seeking refuge in America.

The second wave of refugees from Vietnam was during the time period of the mid 1970s to mid 1990s. For the purposes of this lesson, we will focus primarily on the years 1979–1984. The first wave of refugees were officially organized by the United States government. However, when the US became populated by refugees, they stopped organizing the migration of Vietnamese refugees into their country. From there, Vietnamese refugees had to find other means to leave Vietnam. Because there were no air transports, many people resorted to traveling by sea. Often they found themselves in global political standoffs between countries who did not accept them. Many ended up in temporary camps, attacked by pirates, lost at sea or victims of human trafficking. It is estimated that over 400,000 people lost their lives in this wave alone.

This lesson contains content that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether the resources are suitable for their class and provide a content warning to their students at the beginning of the lesson.

Image Citation: First Days Story Project. (n.d.). American Experience | PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/lastdays/firstdaysstoryproject/slideshow/boat-peoples-journey/

Ethnic Studies Theme

This lesson connects to the ethnic studies theme of power and oppression from the Asian American Studies Curriculum Framework (Asian American Research Initiative, 2022). Students will consider war, migration and imperialism as contexts shaping citizenship and racialization. Students discuss how US imperialism, wars, and military interventions in Southeast Asia induced migration to the United States and how resettlement impacted communities.

For additional guidance around ethnic studies implementation, refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (2021)  https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp.

Historical Thinking Skills 

This lesson will facilitate student proficiency in cause and consequence one of Seixas’ historical thinking skills (Seixas & Morton, 2013). To help students understand and assess the varying importance of causes. Students consider how historical actors cannot always predict the effect of conditions, opposing actions, and unforeseen reactions. These have the effect of generating unintended consequences.

Supplies
  • Large posters
  • Markers
  • Facing History Setup for Graffiti Boards 
  • PBS Last Days Photo Exhibit 
  • “To come over the [...] Vietnamese Boat People” Photo
  • “Boat People Vietnamese, en cage” Photo
Readings
  • Excerpts from “Boat People ‘Ate Their Relatives’” Interview Transcript
  • Quotation by Thích Nhất Hạnh
  1. Lesson Introduction (five minutes)
    1. Ask students to think about boats and to share their experiences and/or knowledge of boats. For example, what boats have they been on or seen in real life? What was the size of those boats? 
      1. Then, have them consider how traveling on boats may feel for long distances. What might one experience if they traveled on a boat for a long time?
    2. Provide an introduction to the lesson objectives and lesson background.
  2. Shared Learning: Graffiti Activity (30 minutes)
    1. Teacher should have classroom setup for graffiti board activity (see facing history source for additional setup support: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/graffiti-boards-0)
      1. Teacher to divide students into groups of six to eight. The number of groups should reflect the number of posters that the teacher has setup. For maximum effectiveness, teachers should place three to five students in each group. You will need a large space in your room where several students can write on the surface at the same time. Some teachers cover a section of the wall or combine desks or tables with butcher or chart paper.
        1. Teachers should remember to provide a content warning. This lesson may create intense emotions and can be very graphic. Teacher to use discretion on usage of each source.
        2. Sources for the teacher to choose from are:
          1. Quang, T. 2009, May 11. Boat People 'Ate Their Relatives’ [Interview translated by Thúy Brewer]. Radio Free Asia. https://www.rfa.org/english/women/food-05112009123100.html
            • Interview Transcript Excerpt 1:
              • RFA: You were on board that boat, weren’t you?
              • KC: Yes.
              • RFA: Did you eat human flesh because of the desperate situation?
              • KC: Yes, yes.
              • RFA: How did you feel at that time?
              • KC: The truth is, it was horrible. When people were starving, perhaps their thinking was clouded and their judgment was impaired.
            • Interview Transcript Excerpt 2: 
              • KC: In general, people ate their relatives’ flesh. It was not that we ate everyone’s flesh, because some could not be used. Mostly, the family of the dead person had the right to eat his or her flesh. It wasn’t like a free-for-all. It’s not that after a person died, [we] just grabbed their flesh and ate.
          2. PBS Source (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/lastdays/firstdaysstoryproject/slideshow/boat-peoples-journey/) 
            • Arrival of small fishing boat with 162 Vietnamese refugees aboard in 1978. The boat sank a few meters from the shore. Most of the refugees were rescued and reached the coast safely. Courtesy: UNHCR/8194/K. Caugler 
          3. Quote: "When the crowded refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked, all would be lost. But if even one person remained calm and centered, it was enough. They showed the way for everyone to survive." — Thich Nhat Hanh, The Power of Patience by M. J. Ryan, source from:  https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotations/view/19334/spiritual-quotation 
          4. Dao, V.B. (n.d.). To come over the [...] Vietnamese Boat People, by Đào Vũ Bằng. Calisphere. https://ucdavis.box.com/s/wxygz7yjw6ppnx8ee5s2k7hy99legzhc 
          5. Nguyen, D.G. (n.d.). Boat People Vietnamese, en cage, by Nguyễn Đại Giang. Calisphere. https://ucdavis.box.com/s/8y2rct800kvdi6tp8q9xt3137gmf5rcf 
        3. Any text displayed on posters should be in a large font and of short length to be read and synthesized for timed stations. 
      2. For this activity, markers work better than pens or pencils because they allow students’ comments to be read from a distance. It is best if you supply one for each student. 
        1. To keep students in the group accountable, teachers should advise students to choose a marker color to represent their contribution. This way, teachers can visibly see which students are adding onto the graffiti activity discussion.
      3. Before the activity begins, contract with the students in terms of what an appropriate response is and how to express one's discomfort with something in an appropriate way. Students should be told that they are to remain silent during this activity. 
      4. Make sure students know that several of them can write at once. Students can write their own response to the prompt as well as respond to the questions and ideas that other students have written. 
      5. They should draw lines connecting their comments to those of other students. Optional: Some teachers require all students to post at least one question or comment to the Graffiti Board.
      6. Students are invited to write comments and questions on the Graffiti Board. It is typical for most students to be standing near the Graffiti Board during this activity so that they can more easily read and comment on what has been written. Writing on the board may start out slow and then increase as the board comes to have more comments that elicit student response. Typically, teachers give students five to ten minutes for silent writing on the Graffiti Board, but the activity can go longer if students are still writing.
    2. Student groups should be divided to start at different posters. Ensure that students know which way to rotate. 
      1. Teachers can choose the quantity of rounds each group spends analyzing the source, and can choose the minutes spent for each. Suggestion of three to five minutes per round to analyze the source or image and successfully add their response to the prompt onto the poster.
    3. Potential prompts that teacher can choose from for students to respond to:
      1. Students are to write their response directly on the poster, near the printed source. Only one question should be prompted per round. 
        1. Write one word that comes to mind when you see the source.
        2. Write one question or wondering about what you see or read. 
        3. Summarize what you see in the source.
        4. What do you think is happening in the source?
        5. Describe your reaction to the photo or source.
        6. What does this reveal about the refugee experience?
        7. What emotion(s) does this image or text invoke?
        8. Add onto another peer’s comment (directly on the poster).
    4. After interacting with the source at that particular station, the teacher prompts students to proceed to the next station. Teacher will then choose another question from the list above for students to respond to on the poster.
    5. Now that students have engaged in multiple rounds of sources, and considered different prompts, students should be prepared to answer lesson questions.
  3. Class Discussion (five minutes)
    1. Teacher to prompt students to share common findings within their groups and posters to the class. As students are sharing out loud, the teacher can add common ideas and themes onto the board as a word or idea bank. 
    2. Optional guiding questions to supplement historical thinking skills: Who did or did not have power in these narratives? What judgements are stated or implied in these narratives? What were the conditions that led to the narratives provided? Why was this allowed to happen?
  4. Exit Ticket/ Reflection (10 minutes)
    1. Teacher to revisit lesson questions with students. 
      1. What difficulties did the Vietnamese boat people endure on their journey towards America? What were the conditions like on the boat for the second wave of Vietnamese refugees? 
    2. Students can refer to word banks on board to complete their written response. The teacher can provide sentence stems for students to complete the exit ticket (see scaffolding). Optionally, the reflection can be done as an oral discussion.

Students will complete a reflection on the following prompts to demonstrate their understanding of the lesson questions: What difficulties did the Vietnamese boat people endure on their journey towards America? What were the conditions like on the boat for the second wave of Vietnamese refugees? Optionally, the reflection can be done as an oral discussion.

  • Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:
    • Invite personal response, evaluation and self-reflection to content and activities 
  • Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:
    • Display information in a flexible format so that the following perceptual features can be varied: 
      • The size of text, images, graphs, tables, or other visual content 
      • The contrast between background and text or image 
      • The color used for information or emphasis   
      • The volume or rate of speech or sound 
      • The speed or timing of video, animation, sound, simulations, etc. 
      • The layout of visual or other elements 
      • The font used for print materials   
  • Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:
    • Sentence frames to answer the prompt: What difficulties did the boat people endure on their journey towards America? 
      • Response Starter: Some difficulties that the boat people endured on their journey towards America include…
        • Overcrowded boats, Lack of food and water, Exposure to harsh weather conditions, Risk of disease Threat of pirate attacks, rape, Separation from family members, Uncertainty about the future, Limited access to medical care, Long periods in detention camp, Difficulties in obtaining refugee status.
    • Sentence frames to answer the prompt: What were the conditions like on the boat for the second wave of refugees? 
      • Response Starter: Conditions on the boat for Vietnamese refugees were… 
        • Harrowing, Perilous, Treacherous, Grim, Desperate, Hazardous, Severe, Brutal, Dire, Extreme

For additional ideas to support your students, check out the UDL Guidelines at CAST, 2018 http://udlguidelines.cast.org.

  • Emerging: Consider the following method to support with emerging students:
    • Writing: Require vocabulary notebooks with non-linguistic representations or L1 translations 
      • During integrated ELD, teachers may sometimes offer strategic primary language support for EL students who are newcomers or at the earliest level of Emerging proficiency.
  • Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:
    • Writing: Teach signal words (comparison, chronology, cause effect, listing) for academic writing 
  • Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:
    • Writing: Require academic writing and the use of target academic vocabulary
      • Apply domain­-specific vocabulary and general academic vocabulary in open sentence frames to perform functions, like describing or explaining, that target specific grammatical structures.

 

For additional guidance around scaffolding for multilingual learners, please consult the following resources:

  1. Podcasts - Students can explore other refugee experiences by selecting a podcast to listen to from Vietnamese Boat People Podcast (https://www.vietnameseboatpeople.org/podcast)
    • Activity: Have each students choose one of the 50 podcasts on the site to listen to, take notes, and when they reconvene in class, organize into groups, where they will present the findings of their podcasts, how the individual stories connect to the history learned in class, what personal feelings or connections they had when listening to the podcast, and any new insights they learned. Students can also craft a fictionalized social media account or snapshot for the individual they researched. 

 

  1. Song Playlist - Students can create a playlist of four to five songs that they think best encapsulates the experiences and events of the second wave Vietnamese refugee boat people. After students have identified the songs, they must construct a four to five sentence explanation of why this song connects to the lived experiences. In the explanation, students should draw parallels and touch upon emotions evoked with the song of choice. Songs should not be explicit in content, and teachers should use discretion in approving songs. The playlist can be created digitally and students can tap into their creativity for presenting their playlist. 

American Initiative. 2022. Asian American Studies K-12 Framework.  https://asianamericanresearchinitiative.org/asian-american-studies-curriculum-framework/ 

Boat People “Ate Their Relatives.” (n.d.). Radio Free Asia. https://www.rfa.org/english/women/food-05112009123100.html

Britt, K. 2020, May 11. English learner toolkit of strategies. California County Superintendents.  https://cacountysupts.org/english-learner-toolkit-of-strategies/

California Department of Education. 2021. Ethnic studies model curriculum. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp 

California Department of Education & English Learner Support Division. 2012. California English Language Development standards (Electronic Edition) kindergarten through grade 12 (F. Ong & J. McLean, Eds.). California Department of Education. https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/documents/eldstndspublication14.pdf

California Educators Together. (n.d.). ELA / ELD framework. https://www.caeducatorstogether.org/resources/6537/ela-eld-framework

CAST. 2018. The UDL guidelines. http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Caugler, K. 1978. Arrival of small fishing boat with 162 Vietnamese refugees aboard [Photo]. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. First Days’ Story Project: The Boat People’s Journey. PBS.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/lastdays/firstdaysstoryproject/slideshow/boat-peoples-journey/

Đào, V.B. (n.d.). To come over the [...] Vietnamese Boat People, by Đào Vũ Bằng. Calisphere. from  https://calisphere.org/item/c4995b38-07a4-4af2-887d-f0d6f84fd482/

Facing History & Ourselves. 2008, February 24. Graffiti Boards. Facing History & Ourselves.  https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/graffiti-boards-0    

First Days Story Project. (n.d.). American Experience | PBS.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/lastdays/firstdaysstoryproject/slideshow/boat-peoples-journey/

Nguyễn, D.G. (n.d.). Boat People Vietnamese, en cage, by Nguyễn Đại Giang. Calisphere.  https://calisphere.org/item/0d8ec311-ee8e-4f0d-b36d-659e56c99e81/ 

Nguyễn Mang, T. (Founder & Chief Storyteller). 2018-2023. Vietnamese Boat People [Audio podcast]. Vietnamese Boat People. https://www.vietnameseboatpeople.org/podcast 

San Diego County Office of Education. (n.d.). Providing appropriate scaffolding.  https://www.sdcoe.net/educators/multilingual-education-and-global-achievement/oracy-toolkit/providing-appropriate-scaffolding#scaffolding

Sexias, P. & Morton, T. 2013. The big six: Historical thinking concepts. Nelson Education.

Spiritual Quotation by Thích Nhất Hạnh | Spirituality & Practice. (n.d.). Www.spiritualityandpractice.com. Retrieved October 13, 2023, from https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotations/view/19334/spiritual-quotation 

Tulare County Office of Education. (n.d.). Strategies for ELD. https://commoncore.tcoe.org/Content/Public/doc/Alpha-CollectionofELDStrategies.pdf 

 

Supplementary Sources

Center, P. R. 2022, July 22. Helen: Escaping Vietnam on a boat. Vimeo.  https://vimeo.com/732540738 

Oil tanker rescues “Boat people”, view 2. 1979. Calisphere.  https://calisphere.org/item/c157ec84e1bb60d5c4149bb19d905ab3/ 

Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project (VAOHP). 2012, March 2. Oral history of Huy Tran [13:00-15:20]. UCI Southeast Asian Archive. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/81235/d8b548/?order=0. 

Vietnamese Boat People | Podcast. (n.d.). VietnameseBoatPeople. https://www.vietnameseboatpeople.org/podcast 

Wallace, P.C. 1989, May 22. Nightmare at Sea: Sole Survivor Tells of Pirate Attack. Los Angeles Times.  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-22-mn-430-story.html 

Model Curriculum

Vietnamese American Experiences

Standard(s)

HSS 11.11 RI.11-12.7 W.11-12.9 SL.11-12.1

Grade(s)

Grade 11 Grade 12