Nguyen Thi Thuy

My name is Thuy and I was born in 1968 in Saigon and have lived there since. I applied to come to the US through the Amerasian Homecoming Act from 1988 to 1992. In 1992, I was invited to an interview but I was told that I didn’t have enough evidence and documents about my American father to qualify. My application was ultimately denied. I read a newspaper and found out about Mr. Nhat Tung’s program and how he wanted to help Amerasians. I contacted Mr. Nhat Tung and he referred me to a lawyer in District 7 who administered my DNA test. 

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The results of my DNA test revealed that I was Amerasian and that I had distant American family members that biological connections to my birth father. None of the connections from my DNA test, however, were close enough for me to trace who my biological father was. It could be that my father has not taken a DNA test so he is not in the system. I have not been able to find my father so I don’t know if he’s alive or not. 

 

Amerasians in Vietnam have had a very hard life. Since I was young (cries), I experienced a great deal of discrimination so it was very hard to go to school. I was not admitted into vocational schools so I never received training that would have allowed me to build skills to have a career. People believe that if they give me a job or train me, since I’m Amerasian, I will eventually go to America, so they are unwilling to invest their time and they won’t accept me. So once you’ve reached the age when you need to get a job, you can’t even get a job. When I tried to get into vocational school, I either couldn’t get in or I didn’t have any money to pay for the training or tuition even if I got in. This is why so many Amerasians can’t develop skills that they need to build a career. We can only get jobs where we are helpers like being a server in a restaurant. These are very poor paying jobs so there is a lot of hardship in our lives. 

 

Ever since I was young, I experienced so much discrimination so I’ve always wanted to go to America in order to have a better life there. I believe I will be treated equally in America. My Amerasians friends who have traveled to America tell me that they have a good job, a good life, and a good income in America. I want to immigrate to the US to have a better life and a better job like my friends who are in America. I believe I’ll be more peaceful if I’m in the US. Now that I’m older, Amerasians still can’t get employed because we have no skills and many people still don’t like us, so it’s still very hard to get a job. I really want to go to America so that I can have more opportunities and a better career. 

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I have a husband and three kids. We continuously experience a lack of full acceptance in society so it continues to depress me. It seems as if people believe that there is something wrong with me. The failure of my application to the Amerasian Homecoming Act created conflict and tension between myself and my husband. It broke our marriage. 

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Jimmy Miller is so kind. He is a good person. He is working so hard to help Amerasians who are stuck in Vietnam as a result of the denial or failure of their prior application to the Amerasian Homecoming Act. Because of him, I have an active application to the Amerasian Homecoming program. Jimmy told me that my DNA test should result in a family tree. We are hopeful and I’m waiting to see how my family tree grows. I hope that branches will lead me to my father. Jimmy keeps track of it for me. I have attempted to reach out to my distant relatives but they have not replied to me. 

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I hope the US Congress will help us. Please don’t abandon us. Please don’t forget us. Please don’t let us down. We are stuck in Vietnam and we want to repatriate to our American homeland. 

I want to come to the U.S. because my heritage is in America. I am the child of an American citizen. I want the privilege that American children have. My father came and fought on behalf of the US in Vietnam. He was probably very sad and very far from his family and his father. My mother was the joy that he had in Vietnam. She was his comfort. I am the pearl, the beauty that came from their union, but I no one recognizes this. This brings me much suffering. It is the suffering of many Amerasians in Vietnam. 

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When I was little, I lived with my mother but my mother married another person and had another child. They were so poor. As a child, (cries) I had to go live with another family to nanny their children so that I could earn money to feed myself and send money back to my mother to take care of my younger siblings. It was a very hard life. 

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I’m very grateful to Jimmy Miller and I hold him and those who administered the DNA test to me in extremely high regard. He is very happy when Amerasians are able to connect with their fathers.  If I was able to reunite with my father, Jimmy would be as happy as if he had found his father. He shares my joy and my sorrow as we wait for the family tree to grow. 

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I’m sharing my story so I can get help from the US Government for our cause and I want to  inform Americans about our struggle. I hope that the government and the American people urge American veterans to take DNA tests so that those of us who are trying to find our family can connect with our American roots. I hope that Congress can be more flexible about the evidence because the level of evidence that the Congress requires is so high that it's impossible for me  and other Amerasians to get the evidence that is necessary to be able to qualify for the program. I urge (cries) Americans to please help us return to the home of our heritage so that we can have a better life and better opportunities for ourselves and our family.  

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It’s very important to Americans to be able to share our stories and to share what is in our hearts and what are our longings. When we live in the home of our mother, we are discriminated against and not recognized so that sharing our stories is very important to Amerasians. I want everyone to understand about the lives of Amerasians and to sympathize with our case so that we can have the opportunity to live in our American homeland. 

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I want to thank Jimmy and Amerasians without Borders for working so hard to figure out ways to help Amerasians who are stuck in Vietnam to connect with our fathers and immigrate to the United States.

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I want to share what’s in my heart with my father… (cries) 

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Dear Dad, 

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If you only knew my hardship.

Please take a DNA test so that

I can find out who you are and

so that I can come to America. 

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Thank you.

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For everyone else - please help the Amerasians stuck in Vietnam, please open your hearts and help us come over. Please don’t make your requirements so high. If your requirements are so hard, to require us to find a matching DNA with our fathers, we will never be successful. Please lower your requirements to accept our DNA which shows clearly our American heritage. Your extremely high requirements are creating such hardship for us. 

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Please don’t abandon and forget us. Please don’t leave us behind.