Vietnamese Community
the voluntary work of individuals and groups in the community who have a key role to play in settling the Vietnamese, and the agencies have devoted considerable effort this year in trying to strengthen, stimulate and provide back-up for them. The role and purpose of support groups has changed with the completion of the reception phase of the Vietnamese programme: they are less concerned with the business of finding and preparing housing and introducing the Vietnamese to their new community. Their role now is to help the Vietnamese develop their own capacities and, for so long as they remain at a disadvantage, to provide a bridge for them in their dealings with the various public and private agencies whose help they need. The response to a recent questionnaire issued to all groups, however, confirmed that they need considerable back-up if they are to continue to support the Vietnamese and that they cannot provide a comprehensive or nationwide service. Nor save where as some now do, they are able to employ a Vietnamese worker they help the statutory services tackle problems which call for specialised knowledge of the Vietnamese way of life.
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can
36. The refugees are of course their own resource and in the long term the best. We must look therefore to the development of community groups to provide the focus and initial security which will be essential before they are able to come to terms with life in this country. As has been explained in our previous report, however, save in the larger urban settlements, the Vietnamese population is not large enough to provide that support and even where it is, it may not be a single community but several (Chinese/Vietnamese, North Vietnam/South Vietnam). It has to be recognised also that people are still moving and tend to look at this stage to the immediate needs of their family rather than their wider community. The field workers employed by the agencies do not necessarily see themselves as leaders though in some areas they do provide the catalyst for action by others. There are groups emerging, for example, in parts of London, in the Midlands, Northampton and Derby. One has to be cautious, however, about how representative or effective such groups may be. The agencies are clear that we cannot force the pace of this development and that it will be several years yet before we can expect the Vietnamese community to achieve any stability.
Conclusion
37. In accord with our remit we have attempted throughout the period to get the Vietnamese well settled within our community with access to the services which will help them towards economic and social integration. In difficult circumstances we have, we believe, attained a measure of success. We have not achieved more, and the Vietnamese have not achieved more for themselves, principally because of the acute language problems of the adults and their staggeringly high level of unemployment. The MSC training courses which might help, either need to be modified to meet the special needs of the Vietnamese, or are not available on the scale needed. The amount of extra provision local authorities can make to help, with education, housing problems, social needs, interpreting, community development etc. is severely restricted because of lack of resources and the fact that section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966 does not apply. Finally the Vietnamese community does not yet have the strength to help itself.
38. Our problems are shared by other countries in Europe and elsewhere which have received large numbers of Vietnamese refugees. But we are the exception in having received refugees principally from the North, where there has been little contact with Western ways of life. Nor were we as selective
8.