Sentiments Across the Pacific: The Relationship Between Vietnamese Catholics in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Homeland

The end of the Vietnam War engendered a new relationship between Vietnamese refugees and their homeland. Based on fieldwork in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, Phan Thiết, and New Orleans, Louisiana, this article shows how transnational relationships have benefitted overseas Vietnamese, their Catholic home parish, families, and themselves. By analyzing deterritorialization and diaspora perspectives, this article further argues that since its ‘Renovation’ of 1986, the Vietnamese government has encountered challenges in its attempt to embrace a large population in the diaspora. Ultimately, the policy has led to side effects that have enlarged the gap between overseas Vietnamese and the government of Vietnam. However, Catholic sentiment and familial responsibilities became more significant than anti-communism for the Catholic Vietnamese in New Orleans in explaining their transnational and trans-Pacific relationships.