Nationality/citizenship status of Amerasian children in Vietnam after 1975
From: Sidel, Mark <mark-sidel@uiowa.edu>
Date: Nov 2, 2006 7:25 AM
Subject: [Vsg] Nationality/citizenship status of Amerasian children in Vietnam after 1975
Dear colleagues,
I am helping an academic colleague with a question about the status of Amerasian children in
Vietnam after 1975.
Under such Vietnamese law and policy that existed at the time (ie after formal
reunification), were they considered (1) Vietnamese citizens because the mother was
Vietnamese? (2) Vietnamese citizens because of birth in Vietnam? (3) Vietnamese citizens
because of current presence/residence in Vietnam? (4) Vietnamese citizens because they had
been considered citizens of the former South Vietnam and that status carried over into the
broader quoc tich Viet Nam (Hanoi)? (5) stateless persons subject to making a claim for
Vietnamese citizenship, (6) not Vietnamese citizens, ie because one of the two parents was
not Vietnamese, or (7) something else?
Note that the question does not relate to how they obtained visas and moved to the United
States - that is a different question and easier to answer through tracing U.S. law. The
question I'm helping with is their status in Vietnam.
I can trace this beginning with the Law on Nationalities in 1988 (Article 6), and that says
that nationality is based on the nationality of the identified Vietnamese parent: "Any child
born to parents, one of whom is a Vietnamese citizen and the other a stateless person or
person unknown, shall hold Vietnamese nationality regardless of whether that child was born
inside or outside the territory of Vietnam," and "Any child born to parents, one of whom is
a Vietnamese citizen and the other a foreign national, if born inside Vietnamese territory
... shall hold Vietnamese nationality unless both parents decide otherwise." There is a
roughly similar provision in the 1998 Law on Nationalities.
But what about the situation in 1975 and later, up to 1988? Do any list members have any
information or thoughts on this? This is, to put it mildly, a new area for me.
Many thanks!
Mark
From: Lan PHAMNGOC <lan_phamngoc@yahoo.com>
Date: Nov 2, 2006 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Nationality/citizenship status of Amerasian children in Vietnam after
1975
Hi Mark,
I don't know anything about the Law of Nationalities - maybe there isn't one before 1988 -
but I would like to share a personal experience that can give some clues.
I'm not an Amerasian, but a Franco-Vietnamese Eurasian, and as such, I was allowed to apply
for a visa for France in 1977 (I lived in Saigon at that time). When I got my visa in 1980,
the "Nationality" field in this paper was blank. My wife, who is not a Eurasian, but can go
with me as a spouse, got the mention "Vietnamese" in this same field in her visa. Before
this event, I considered myself as a Vietnamese, because I always was treated as a
Vietnamese, both by the South Viet Nam government before 1975, and by the government after
1975.
My impression is that there is no law about such matters until 1988.
Regards,
La^n PHAM NGOC