Transcripts

DAN TRAN: We have to stay here. No other choice. We have to accept this country as my country now.

KATE MOSSE: Dan Tran and his wife run the Kwan Viet, a tiny restaurant on the second floor of a commercial building in Saint Paul. The restaurant began as a place for Vietnamese to come and visit, drink tea, and listen to music from home. For about a year now, it's been open to the public. Dan and his family arrived in the first wave of refugee immigration from Vietnam in 1975. He says it's easier for new arrivals now.

DAN TRAN: At the beginning, everything is very hard. Everything is different. And we have to find out ourselves how to survive here in this country. We do have some organization but still, they cannot do everything. And it is pretty hard at the beginning than the people who came now. Because the people who came now, there are a lot of Vietnamese who had experience here and who can help them how to live, how to go to school, and how to get a job.

Now, Dan says, they do a modest business. Things could be better, but his children are mostly grown, have good jobs. His youngest son is in his first year at the University. Kwan Viet is one of about 25 small, mainly family owned and operated Southeast Asian restaurants in the Twin Cities that weren't here 10 years ago.

In that time, other refugee owned businesses have popped up around the city. Restaurants and grocery stores being the most common, but also import shops, beauty parlors, and car repair shops. Almost anything an enterprising person with a skill can think of. Jane Kretzmann, state coordinator for the Minnesota Office of Refugee Services, says the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the refugee community.

JANE KRETZMANN: Their establishment of their own community has been very significant. And it's one of the reasons, I think, why we do see clusters of refugees around the United States. Is that they do have enough to make a critical mass, if you will, that will allow certain grocery stores to survive, and allow them to have certain things that are their own special part of the culture.

KATE MOSSE: Kretzmann estimates there are 70 refugee owned businesses in the state, operating with varying degrees of success. She says they represent not only an attempt to make a living, but also a desire to contribute to the community, to be visible, to participate. The Southeast Asian population in the state numbers close to 24,000. It is composed of four ethnic groups: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, and the Hmong, a distinct ethnic group also from Laos.

And while many still struggle to overcome the barriers of language, and to become self sufficient, there are growing signs of community. The restaurants and shops, community centers, members of the Hmong community in Saint Paul, have recently begun to organize a credit union. Ni Hun, who publishes The Asian Business and Community News, says for the refugees the world of business is still very new. But in time, and with a lot of hard work, he believes Southeast Asian businesses will survive and prosper.

Hun says there is talk of organizing an Asian Chamber of Commerce. Jane Kretzmann says, the businesses provide important cultural goods and services, but they also increase the refugees involvement, and help in the adjustment to American life-- and that's what this melting pot is all about.

JANE KRETZMANN: It's just, in my mind, more of a statement of the refugees. They've gone through this incredible process, they're survivors. They can adapt to just about anything, painful as it may be. And I think it's a comment on the human spirit. That here they are even willing to go into business and take risks at this point.

KATE MOSSE: Jane Kretzmann, State Coordinator of the Minnesota Office of Refugee Services. This is Kate Mosse reporting.