New Vietnamese Exodus — Out of Silicon Valley
By Andrew Lam
Special to AsianWeek
“Husband a technician, wife in the assembly line, working the same shift, what could be better?” This adage, one of a few coined abroad by Vietnamese, refers to living in Silicon Valley. For two decades the phrase was a formula for survival, one that, over time, led to prosperity for the second-largest Vietnamese community in the United States.
But that was before Sept. 11, an economic downturn, mass Silicon Valley layoffs and an exodus of many Vietnamese to the state capital, Sacramento.
Different communities have responded differently to the high-tech bust. For Vietnamese, many of whom have experienced war, tough times are met with togetherness and a readiness to pick up and move.
Standing in the middle of a Vietnamese-owned strip mall in the southern part of Sacramento, Nam Nguyen, publisher of Dan Viet and Calitoday, wonders what the new survival adage might be. “Find cheap housing and start your own business?” he muses.
In a poor economy, where mainstream newspapers suffer from a lack of ads, Nguyen’s two Vietnamese-language newspapers for Northern California are thriving.
“Ad revenues are up,” he says. “I wouldn’t have expected it.” Dan Viet, Nguyen’s 8-month-old Sacramento newspaper, appears twice a week, carrying ads from jewelry stores, law firms, insurance and telephone companies, restaurants and real estate businesses.
“Vietnamese in Silicon Valley are re-arranging their survival strategies,” Nguyen says. “As more are losing their high-tech jobs, they are opening small businesses. And many are moving en masse to Sacramento to do it.”
Houses are relatively cheap and plentiful in the state capital, and the cost of living is a fraction of what it is in San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley. There aren’t many jobs in Sacramento, but this detail is not deterring the migration.
Some 100,000 Vietnamese live in Silicon Valley, but the 2000 Census counted about 18,000 Vietnamese in and around Sacramento, an increase of 84 percent since 1990. Nguyen estimates 10,000 more have moved to the area since the Census was taken.
“Vietnamese are survivors,” Nguyen says. “We know where to go next. It’s from the experience of living with so many wars. Got to move fast if you want to survive and do well.”
Take Anh Dao, for instance. For the last two years, Dao’s San Jose restaurant, which carries her name, was suffering. She left the restaurant for her brother to run and moved here to start a second Anh Dao.
“There’s no heavy traffic like in San Jose,” Dao says. “Rent is a lot cheaper. Business is good.” Already she’s planning a third restaurant in Stockton, some 40 miles south.
Thinh Tran and his family moved to Sacramento two years ago. Laid off after 10 years as a Silicon Valley technician, Tran bought a home for less than a third of the price of his house in San Jose.
“Having survived the war and re-education camp, surviving the economic downturn in America is not a big problem,” Tran says.
Tran’s two sons live at home and help their parents make ends meet. Family togetherness, according to Minh Ta, who teaches Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, is key to how Vietnamese Americans survive during rough economic times.
“One of the best strategies for immigrants is still sharing resources,” Ta says. Brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts pool their financial resources.
“I myself would feel extremely guilty to see any one of my family members suffer,” says Ta, who is Vietnamese.
Chi To has lived here since the late 1980s. She says that the Vietnamese community in Sacramento was mostly quiet until a few years ago. “Those who moved here earlier were poorer and had little skills and capital,” says To, who teaches business classes at a community center. Those who come now, she says, are business-savvy and aggressive. “Plus, they have collateral, which they can use to create new businesses for themselves.”
Shops and services catering to Vietnamese are appearing everywhere. For Chi Le, owner of Lee’s Sandwiches, which has stores elsewhere in California, Sacramento is the next “logical choice.”
Chi To, the business course teacher, says she loves Lee’s sandwiches, but warns, “There may not be enough consumers to support all these businesses.” What’s more, houses in Sacramento are getting very expensive very fast.
Perhaps, then, some Vietnamese will find yet another livable valley to build a new Little Saigon. “Vietnamese are moving to Las Vegas as well,” observes Nguyen with a smile. “Who knows, in a few years maybe I’ll start a paper there, too.”
Andrew Lam (lam@pacificnews.org) is a short story writer and journalist.
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