TNAG-1184-FCO40-1486-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 47

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Most of the Indochinese refugees in Finland are Buddhists. Some are

Confucians. To date, religious matters have caused no problems.

Some of the refugees have joined the Evangelic-Lutheran Church,

perhaps as a means of assimilating the habits of Finnish society.

The world view of many Vietnamese refugees, who have only seen war, distress and camp life, is only now assuming greater cla rity. Their ignorance is attributable to war and the associated one-sided propaganda. Their fear of Communis has downright primitive features.

The refugees settled in Finland are seen muinly as political refugees

although economic reasons also exist for their refugee status.

Most of the adults admitted to Finland have already takon, or are about to take,

normal jobs. Some are attending job training courses. Those already

employed pay normal taxes; some are even proud of thus being able to

participate in the building of Finnish society.

Fight Vietnamese refugees are working at the Tikkurilan Väritehdas (paints facte in Vantaa. Both employers and their employees affirm they are pleased.

Van liue Thanh, 26, is one of them. He lives in a single-room flat

provided by the company in Korso and has a Finnish girl friend.

Other family members are scattered throughout the world in San Diego, California.

grandmother

Last autuum, with the advent of winter, Thanh got an idea that life might after all be better with grandma in California. He bid farewell to his friends and travelled to sunny California. But after two months, he came back to Tikkurila and the paints factory this time to stay.

"Tinland is a good place to live in, better than America or Sweden", Thanh says. He plans to apply for Finnish citizenship as soon as it is possible. Then he is going to raise a family.

Many others are thinking along the same lines. Tran Van Hien, 31, living in Kerava, is the head of a family of four, feverishly studying Finnish in order to be admitted to a job training programme and thus get a better job.

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