So. I am going to hope that we get a very overwhelming vote. I want to point out that in my State of California alone. we now have. as of November 15. something like 123.000 of the refugees from Indochina. Why? I will tell you why. When the first group came over in 1975. many of them were received at Camp Pendleton. from which they were sent out to other parts of the country. But. inasmuch as they landed at Camp Pendleton. many of the local church groups and charitable groups found jobs for them and took them under their shelter and kept their children. There was an effort made to distribute these refugees throughout the United States. An effort was made. but something strange happened. They did not all stay put. You know. you send a Vietnamese refugee who came from a rice paddy up into the reaches of New Hampshire. and cold weather comes along. and somehow or another he has a change of heart--and there are no rice paddies up there or any similar place in which he can workso he comes out to California or he goes to Texas. I will tell the Members some of the States where they -have problems. After California.
Identified stereotypes
Vietnamese refugees are stereotyped as unable to adapt to cold weather and preferring rice paddies.