own community organisations to give help and support to both longer
term residents and new arrivals. The Vietnamese seem to have an
enterpreneurial spirit which has led a number to establish
themselves successfully in business.
[Comments on the particular position of Vietnamese refugees coming from camps in Hong Kong is included in briefing for questions 6].
5. What difficulties does the Government face in ensuring that they do settle into the British way of life and what does the Government do to help
them?
The Government has made considerable efforts to enable Vietnamese to resettle in this country. In addition to the statutory services- health care, education, housing, welfare payments - all of which are available to Vietnamese refugees in this country on the same basis as to the indigenous population, the Government has, since 1979, paid for special programme of assistance to help resettle Vietnamese refugees in this country. The programme has been and is run by various voluntary organisations specialising in assistance to refugees. The current programme costs £221,000 this year and is run by Refugee Action. The aim is to encourage and sustain self- help through Vietnamese community organisations, to help statutory service providers make their services fully accessible to the Vietnamese and, by working with employment specialists outside the
programme, to generate further employment opportunities.
There are in addition a number of other special schemes aimed at the inner cities but which also benefit Vietnamese refugees amongst others. They have provided the costs of buildings and the staff for some Vietnamese community associations, given advice and financial support for establishing businesses, and funded a variety of specialist employment development posts for work with Vietnamese refugees. The Government's new Employment Training (ET) programme which started last month (September) closely tailors training for employment, including English language tuition where appropriate, to the individual and has the potential to assist further the employment prospects of Vietnamese refugees.