Southeast Asian Refugees
In 1975 Ray was alarmed by the plight of thousands of refugees from the Vietnam War, many of whom were allies of the U.S., who had been expelled or were fleeing from Vietnam and living in temporary refugee camps. Ray initiated programs to allow Vietnamese refugees to live in the United States and eventually obtain citizenship.
Read more about this topic: Robert D. Ray
Famous quotes containing the words asian and/or refugees:
“Exploitation and oppression is not a matter of race. It is the system, the apparatus of world-wide brigandage called imperialism, which made the Powers behave the way they did. I have no illusions on this score, nor do I believe that any Asian nation or African nation, in the same state of dominance, and with the same system of colonial profit-amassing and plunder, would have behaved otherwise.”
—Han Suyin (b. 1917)
“The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)