After the war in Viet-Nam ended in 1975, refugees began resettling in different Western countries. In 1979, at the behest of the Icelandic government, the Icelandic Red Cross helped resettle 34 Vietnamese refugees in Reykjavik (Hardardottir et al., 2005). This paper reports on six of these Vietnamese refugees’ linguistic, cultural, social, and educational experiences and perceptions during 40 years of transitional processes in Iceland. The study is grounded in theories related to intercultural education and multiculturalism. Such theories emphasize inclusion issues, insisting on valuing diversity and equal opportunity regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status,  or other aspects of personal identity.

In the last four decades, several articles have been written about the many positive experiences of Vietnamese refugees who settled in Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland. These narratives also highlight the challenges these groups faced. Nordic countries as welfare states provide their new citizens with health care, social services, education, language instructions, and assistance in finding jobs and training (Adelman, 1993; Guðmundsdóttir, 2000). To ease the refugees’ psychological trauma caused by separation from their home countries and families, these countries offered family reunification programs to reunite their core nuclear families and some close relatives. The Vietnamese refugees in Iceland expressed their profound gratitude for having the opportunities to rebuild their lives in safe, secure, and peaceful societies (Hálfdánardóttir, 2017; Icelandic Red Cross, 2020). Research in Norway and Sweden has found that Vietnamese refugees were among the most successfully integrated non-western immigrants (Olstad, 2009;). These immigrants also overcame many obstacles, including language barriers and discrimination (Vilhjámsson, 1989). They had difficulty accessing information and resources since Vietnamese interpreters were lacking. Despite there being a little discussion about the prejudice and discrimination these refugees faced, there were reports of verbal abuse, envy among natives of their newfound wealth or success, and structural barriers to finding employment (Hauff & Vaglum, 1993; Vilhjámssson, 1989).

The process of cultural and psychological transformation that immigrants or refugees experience when moving to another country can be referred to as a process of acculturation (Sam & Berry, 2010). This process happens because of the meeting of different cultural groups and their cultures reciprocally influencing each other. Therefore, May (2005) and Nieto (2017) note that cultures are fluid, transformed over time by people through negotiations and sharing values, traditions, worldviews, and social and political relationships. It is important to keep in mind that cultural modifications are distinct between individuals and groups. Neither groups nor individuals encounter, interact and react the same way during their acculturation (Sam & Berry, 2010). Individual acculturation shifts are contingent on individual intersections of ethnicity, language, gender, sexual identity, socio-economic status, physical or mental disability, etc. These factors influence the perception and interpretation of the acculturation experience (Cope & Kalantzis, 2005) that shape identity. As individuals, we are culturally embedded, and cultural diversity is one of the important conditions of human freedom as a whole (Parekh, 2009).

The research is a qualitative study that uses narrative inquiry to construct the perspectives of the six Vietnamese refugees to gain insight into their lives. It is a method of research that captures their personal experience within a cultural context over time. The narrated stories are lived experiences that have complex layers of nuance and meaning that are captured and interpreted so that they can be learned from (Clandinin, 2013) The interviews were in semi-structured, face-to-face form with six Vietnamese refugees in who came to Iceland in 1979 as adults. One of the authors is of Vietnamese origin; thus, she could have direct access to invite them to participate in the research project and offered them the choice of conducting the interviews in Vietnamese, which was the participants’ heritage language. Hence, the participants had the freedom to tell their stories fluently. The research employed an interview guide to organize the content of the interviews and elicit the participants' actual experiences and perspectives (Lichtman, 2013). The participants were asked for suggestions for their preferred interview venues, and their choice was often at the School of Education of the University of Iceland. The researcher shared the same background with the participants as Vietnamese immigrants and arrived in Iceland at a similar time, giving her access as an insider. As a result, it seemed that the participants expressed themselves openly about their experiences and feelings. The rich and thick data collected was 913 minutes long (Lichtman, 2013). There are both advantages and disadvantages to being an insider. On the one hand, an insider-researcher is equipped with insights that able them to interpret the inner-meanings of the data that otherwise could be overlooked. On the other hand, there are dangers of an insider over-interpreting the data because they assumed having shared the similarity with the participants and therefore understanding it without further analysis or clarification, or being too subjective to be critical (Couture, Zaidi, & Maticka-Tyndale, 2012). Qualitative research was the method of unfolding the implicit language empowerment and disempowerment during their integration process and the tool for analyzing the data. The raw data was read line by line, labeling with codes each of the thoughts and ideas that the participants expressed. These codes were then grouped into categories and themes. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed in Vietnamese before being coded and thematized in English (Lichtman, 2013).

Results indicate that the main goal shared by all the Vietnamese refugees was that of acquiring freedom. The struggle for freedom was described as a process requiring sacrifices, courage, and sufferance, but participants reported being satisfied and content with their life. The refugees’ transitional processes started with their life-threatening boat trip, experiences of thirst, hunger, and uncertainty while drifting in the Pacific Ocean, instilling a strong sense of the value of life. After they arrived in Iceland, acculturation was complex, particularly because of significant differences between Vietnam and Iceland in climate, language, culture, and geographical distance. Soon after they arrived in Iceland, they eagerly started working and learning Icelandic. They worked in different manual jobs before landing jobs that fit their education and ability that became permanent. The majority of the refugees learned Icelandic on the jobs, except for the very few who succeeded in learning a vocation. A common acculturation strategy was to accept assimilation as a way of life, although participants described their Vietnamese identity as being “in their blood.” Nevertheless, they reported that their children under the age of 15 when they arrived, went to school, and adapted to their new life, but slowly lost their heritage language. Additionally, their offspring have little knowledge about their parents’ language and culture. The research maps the capital of their cultural values, knowledge, skills, languages, and the challenges the refugees face in their everyday life and on their path to integration including their educational successor failure. The findings contribute to the existing body of Icelandic research on how refugees and immigrants integrate into Icelandic society and their perceptions of how the society has responded to their presence.

Adelman, H. (1983). The Indochinese Refugees in Sweden. Refuge: Canada´s Journal on Refugees 2(4), 10-12. doi: https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.21448 Clandinin, D. J. (2013). Engaging in Narrative Inquiry. NY: Taylor & Francis Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2005). Multicultural education: Transforming the mainstream. In S. May (Ed.), Critical multiculturalism: Rethinking multicultural and anti-racist education (1st ed., pp. 245–276). London: Falmer Press. Couture, A. L., Zaidi, A. U., & Maticka-Tyndale, E. (2012). Reflexive accounts: An intersectional approach to exploring the fluidity of insider/outsider status and the researcher's impact on culturally sensitive post-positivist qualitative research. Qualitative Sociology Review, VIII(1), 86-105. Guðmundsdóttir, M. (2000). Í Þágu Mannúðar: Saga Rauða kross Íslands 1924-1999. Reykjavik: Mál og mynd. Hálfdánardóttir, G. (September 30, 2017). Íslenskan Er Hans Mál. mbl.is. Retrieved from https://www.mbl.is/frettir/burdargrein/2017/09/30/islenskan_er_hans_mal/ Harðardóttir, K. E., Jónsdóttir, H. H., &. Jónsson, F. H (2005). Reynsla og viðhorf flóttamanna á Íslandi. Unnið fyrir Flóttamannaráð Íslands. Reykjavík: Félagsvísindastofnun, Háskóli Íslands. Hauff, E., & Vaglum, P. (1993). Integration of Vientamese Refugees into the Norwegian Labor Market: The impact of war trauma. International Migration Review, 27(2), 388-405. Icelandic Red Cross. (2020, May 30). Fjölskylda sem kom sem flóttafólk frá Víetnam fyrir 30 árum styrkir Rauða krossinn á Íslandi. https://www.raudikrossinn.is/um-okkur/frettir/fjolskylda-sem-kom-sem-flottafolk-fra-vietnam-fyrir-30-arum-styrkir-rauda-krossinn-a-islandi Lichtman, M. (2013). Qualitative Research in Education: A user's guide. Los Angeles; London: SAGE Publications. May, S. (2005). Critical multiculturalism and cultural difference: Avoiding essentialism. In S. May (Ed.), Critical multiculturalism - rethinking multicultural and antiracist education (pp. 11–41). London: Falmer Press. Nieto, S. (Ed.) (2009). The Light in Their Eyes - Creating Multicultural Learning Communities (10th Anniversary ed.). New York Teachers College Press. Olstad, L. (September 16, 2009). Norwegian Journey, Vietnamese Dreams. Retrieved from https://norwegianscitechnews.com/2009/09/den-store-klassereisen/ Parekh, B. (2006). Rethinking multiculturalism: Cultural diversity and political theory. (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave Mcmillan. Sam, D. L., & Berry, J. W. (2010). Acculturation: When individuals and groups of different cultural backgrounds meet. Psychological science, 5(4), 472-481. doi:10.1177/1745691610373075 Vilhjálmsson, P. (31 August 1989). Víetnamarnir eiga 10 ára afmæli: Bátafókið hefur sannað sig [Vietnamese celebrates the 10th anniversary: Boat people have proven themselves]. Pressan. Retrieved from https://timarit.is/page/3531570?iabr=on#page/n7/mode/2up/search/v%C3%ADetnamarnir%20eiga%2010%20%C3%A1ra%20afm%C3%A6li:%20b%C3%A1taf%C3%B3lki%C3%B0