New LandNew Land

In 1975, Washington Governor Dan Evans watched the desperate evacuation of Saigon unfolding on the evening news with "stunned horror." When California refused to resettle refugees fleeing Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia he mobilized Washington to become one of the first to welcome desperate Southeast Asian refugees. Since that time tens of thousands of Southeast Asians have made Washington home. They have raised families, worked hard, started businesses and enriched their communities in countless ways, weaving their cultures into the fabric of the Evergreen State. Based on new oral histories, this book features compelling stories of courage, hope and resilience. First-generation refugees and their descendants recount their experiences making lives for themselves and their families in the half-century since those first arrivals in 1975.