PEOPLE

The Boas Aople
from all that made their past lives unbearable. Now the future nat- :
rows to a choice between R few small lodgings and a few probably ,
not very inviting jobs, For many an immigrant what matters is less :
the respective merits of the jobs that are offered than the need m
ensure that they are well placed to catch the ideal oppomnity when
it presents itself. 'They are afraid of the future,'says a France Tern '
d'Asile organiztr. 'One of the signs is that they all wmnt to stay in .
Park. Thc idea of being sent to the provinces frightens them. They .
will tell you they have friends in Paris even if it isn't true.' Perhapu ,
in the back of some minds the provinces are associ~ted with rteduation
camps, enforced agricultutal labour, the brutal evacuation of
Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge. But Paris in preferred chiefly ,
because there it is possible to lead an indefinitely provisional life, ,
where new identitits do not become fixed for lack of choice.
Waiting in line for the caftttria in the transit centres at Creteil,
a southern suburb of Paris, is a 24-year-old chemistry student. His
family paid for him to make the journey alone by boat, 'I want to
continue my studies,' he says, 'I had the addresses of friends here ,
in Paris who would help me. But the piratts took everything. Now
I am vying to find my friends. Perhaps in a few days I shall succeed.'
A true story, or another ploy to stay on in thc capital?
The prevailing feeling among the refugees is that they will not
see their homeland again, They are eager to adapt themselvm to
French ways, but their ethnic ties remain strong. Their cxpcritnce
may have brought them resignation, patience and tolerance, but it
has not levelled differences of origin and class. There is no mife
between the different national groups in the mnsit centres, but hey
pass one another without a sign of recognition, A French official at
Cretei! says: 'If you an? understand a Cambdian and ask a Vianamese
to mnslate for you, he won't even answer; he'll just turn his
back!
So far, France has assimilated 61 000 South-East Asians with
rcmarkably few outward signs of tension. It is not a large enough
minority to stir the racist resentment th~t surrounds the 1 400 000
north African immigrants. The plight of the boat people brought
offers of help flooding in from all parts of the country. But many
a generous impulse was found to be impractical when it was sounded
out. French families could offer a roof for a time, but not languagt
classes and help in finding a job. Somc rural communes that have
been working hard for months to prepare a home and a livelihd
for rr bat family may k disappointed when the project gets properly
under way. The refugees art frightened of isolation and, however
kind their French hosts arc, they want to be in a community of their
own people,
Every variation of fortune is to be found among France's Indo-
Chinese population. Somc arc happily integrated shopkeepers,
restaurant-owners and workers, with children doing well at lyotcs
and universities. Others drift miserably in a world too busy or uncaring
to make room for them.
A 33-year-old Cambodian woman, Bun Vandy, whose husband
was killed by the Khmer Rouge, told the m~gazine Paris-Match:
'Paris is admirable. But in main ways it is a city of loneliness and
ghosts, It is not very easy to make contact with people, There is a
distunce between the whites and dto yellows. It is not very easy for
you to understand us, You know us so little! Bun Vandy tseaped
~'ithout her family and is now involved in the tong process of geaing
them over to join her, She has moved through a long series of jobs
and lives with her Il-year-old son in one tiny room where he has
to sleep on a windowsill.
She has met both great generosity and sharp hostility and
describes htr expcticnm of exile up to now as alternately frightening
and farcical. 'Put an average Frenchwoman in a Charlie Chaplin
film and add Auschwitz and you would have some idea of our situationishe
says. She still yearns for her country. 'If South-East Asia
was at peace, if there were no hatred, if there were something to eat,
not a single penon would hve wanted to leave. And it is you who
would come to us and you would not leave.' Of France, she says:
Whcn you Pome down to it thcre are very few red racists. Then arc just
people whce habits hnve ken disturbtd. Wc are I dimrbancc. lht'~
the
word. Bemuse we show you in 4 terrible way how fragile the world we live
in is. . . Ym didn't really know this, in your skin, in your life, in every sccond
of your life. You knew it, hut in r theoretical way. The massam of the Jews
was your first warning. We Ire your second warning. I think it i5 the list. . .
Canada
'A haven for the homrlcss' is how government literature describer