Vietnamese Americans are one of the largest Asian American groups in the United States, with roughly two million people of Vietnamese descent. The community's growth begins in 1975, which makes it comparatively young — and means many families are only now reaching a third and fourth generation.
Early resettlement was deliberately dispersed across the country through sponsoring agencies and churches, which is why the first years were often isolating. Families then moved to be near one another, producing dense communities: Little Saigon in Orange County, California — the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam — along with San Jose, Houston, the Gulf Coast, Northern Virginia, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and New Orleans East.
Vietnamese-American small business is a defining feature: restaurants, groceries, nail salons, jewelry stores, bakeries, insurance offices, and Vietnamese-language media. The nail salon industry in particular traces part of its origin to a well-documented effort in the mid-1970s to train Vietnamese refugee women in manicuring in California.
Alongside the businesses came institutions built to hold culture: Buddhist temples and Catholic parishes, Vietnamese-language weekend schools, lion dance and youth groups, Tết festivals, student associations, and community newspapers and radio.