Diaspora, Acculturation, and Reality.

Diaspora
Running late, as the Vietnamese do, I jumped onto the #173 bus to meet my friend Hà at the last and final stop of the route to enter what is known as the "Asia Center." Both excitement and curiosity overcame me as I would be entering something familiar. Hà, mentioning to me of the Asia center, brought up various thoughts in my head. One of which was the development of an Asian community here in such a homogenous society. Diaspora is seen everywhere, especially within countries like France, Britain, or the United States. But being a child of Vietnamese refugees, Vietnamese Diaspora intrigues me most. Few weeks prior, I ventured off and visited the "Four Tigers Asian Market" with a few of my friends. That experience showed me only one aspect of the Vietnamese Diaspora here in Budapest.



Hà arrived a few minutes after I and everyone else dispersed off the bus. From a distance, I could see this massive, dome-like structure which was the Asia Center. The both of us walked towards it in the gushing winds of autumn in Budapest; contrary to the climate in Việt Nam. I asked her when the building was constructed, to which she replied five or so years ago; not that very long ago. The establishment or even recognition of an Asian and Southeast Asian community here in Budapest has only been a recent phenomenon. As we entered the center, it somewhat reminded me of Saì Gòn Square, the newly enhanced one. Inside where a bunch of clothing, perfume, and gift shops run by mostly Vietnamese or Chinese immigrants. What I really wanted was a bowl of phở. My expectation in comparison to that of the "Four Tigers Market" was much higher. 600 forint later, I received a relatively small bowl of phở tái. It satisfied me mainly because I have not had any phở in over a month and a half. We walked around for a few hours, talked, had some gelato and I headed back to the dorms.



Many of these Vietnamese I saw at the Asia Center seemed at a higher socio-economic status than that of those in Four Tigers market. According to Hà, most of these vendors purchase the goods from those at the Four Tigers market wholesale and sell them for a little higher price. Vietnamese people seemed to be the dominant, or rather, the majority of the vendors here. Many of the customers were the Magyar population. Within Diaspora, there is this struggle of integration, or acculturation. Even being in the States, I witness so many struggles and eases of integration into society. What springs from the lack of integration is often times discrimination, racism. Walking on the streets of Budapest, it seems as if the Magyar place themselves above other ethnic minorities. Walking through the Asia Center, the two groups seemed to interact quite well with one another. Within that point in time, my view of the Vietnamese Diaspora within this city and country was that of inequity, economically, like that of the Gypsies.



Today, running only three minutes late; an improvement from the previous day, I met Hà and a few of her friends -- Nhung and Khánh -- at the Astoria red-line metro. We were going to see an exhibit on WC -- toilets -- at this exhibition hall near Mammut shopping center. There four other friends of hers -- Hiếu, Hại, Qùynh, and Dũng-- were waiting for us. As we entered there was also a photo exhibit on Chicago; nothing new to me. The WC exhibit was quite interesting; a mixture of art and history. Most of the art displayed was going for quite a high price of over 100,000 HUF. After thirty minutes, the group of us entered Mammut shopping center for a drink. We gulped down our ice teas, ginger ales, and sinh tó's and headed over to Dũng's home.



As we arrived I was somewhat in awe at the size of his family's home. It was magnificent and beautiful -- mansion like. An indoor swimming pool, an elevator, two balconies, and four stories. My previous perception of the Vietnamese here in Budapest was smashed to pieces as I realized that the Vietnamese here are simply not vendors but are also successful. Perhaps I was just being naive when I thought that all Vietnamese in Hungary were in the lower level of the socio-economic ladder. As in any country, there will be a disparity in income, class, and status. Within the States, amongst the Vietnamese diaspora population, there are filthy rich and those that are scrapping for money. But what I find perhaps a difference between the Diaspora in Budapest and that of the U.S., in socio-economic terms, is that of refuge and starting off on the same foot. Here in Budapest, during the 1980's, while the country was still under Soviet control, many Vietnamese from the North arrived due to politics. They remained and perhaps had some leverage in success in terms of economics. Those who arrived later did not have those same possibilities. This is also the case in the U.S., with refugees being able to acculturate into society much easier than that of later immigrants who came, but the only difference between the earlier Diaspora groups was that one was already integrating within politics and the other had to start from the bottom up. This is only my assumption and guess of course.



As the night went on, Dũng's family generously offered all of us dinner. How wonderful, my actual first Vietnamese dinner in over a month and a half. Bún chả, nem rán, nộm, and canh chua; a fullilling and full meal. Dũng's family had some type of dinner party with a very large group of Vietnamese-Hungarians over. It somewhat reminded me of the dinner parties I used to attend back when I was young. There were Vietnamese adults sitting at the dinner table, speaking loudly as ever, the karaoke machine blasting Vietnamese tunes, the group of youth sitting in the bedroom playing PS2, and us playing card games in one room. I am half away across the world, and I feel the same culture of Vietnamese Diaspora as I do when I am at home. Outside of economic differences in Vietnamese Diaspora, the social and cultural elements tend to be exactly the same as in the States. Overall the night was great and I enjoyed my time a lot.



Acculturation
As I said my goodbyes to Hà, I slowly walked to the bus stop, which would bring me back to the university. It was nearing five in the afternoon, just two hours before Bianca's dinner party. She invited Roldan, Kevin, Elena, Caroline, and I to share her delicious cooking. It was some sort of Hungarian Goulash, which was not exactly Goulash -- according to Bianca herself. Within the stew, there were vegetables and sausages, not meat (Bianca says that sausages are not meat). After two servings and two rolls of bread, I no longer could suck in my stomach to hide the blub. We all sat there talking and playing some games -- Uno and Bluff -- and began to drink a little, only one beer for me. As we stepped outside of Bianca and Sebastian's flat, this one really mean Hungarian woman stared and screamed swear words at us. In a way I suppose both this Hungarian dinner and the negative words projected at us reflects our own personal integration within this society; being a foreigner. To be here but to not fully be accepted; an important factor in acculturation within any society.



Following the dinner get-together, we headed to this really local Hungarian bar where we were the only foreigners. Arany Aszok, a Hungarian brewed beer was only 280 forint, but the Hungarian bartender kept on giving us 20 forint short each time. This of course is not a custom of Hungarian culture. Maybe it is more in Việt Nam where the vendors will give you incorrect change and you'd just have to accept that; being ripped off. The night was edging on and Roldan and I were mighty tired. We said goodbye to the rest of the crew and jumped on the night bus back to the dorms. Goodnight long day.



Acculturation within Hungarian society for me is much harder than that of into Vietnamese society. I now feel how it was for those who I studied with just last year who were not of Vietnamese descent. There is that border between you and the rest of society. The possibility of obtaining a taste of what it is like by frequenting pubs or eating the food is seen, but a full acculturation, integration into such a society takes many years of learning and adaptation. In just one and a half months here, I feel that I have become aware of some of the customs and cultures, but to only a certain extent. Two and a half months remain and who knows how much more I will learn. I do enjoy Hungary and the culture that I have been exposed to -- much different than that of both Việt Nam and of the States.



Reality
I walk several times to various stops on the blue-line metro. In each of these subways, there are always homeless people trying to remain warm during the changing seasons. It is now in the early stages of autumn and the weather is becoming much colder during the days and even colder during the nights. I see the same people, lying on the cardboard sheets, wrapped in the worn out sweaters, sleeping. They shake their cups, clinking with little change, as the commuters pass by in their daily routine. These people live in a life where there appears to be no upward mobility. I often wonder as I pass these individuals if there are any types of social service programs which help them. In the States, there are many homeless shelters where the homeless are able to sleep in a big room with a bed, pillow, and blanket and a free plate of food. Although these services exist within the U.S. there is still a high visibility of homelessness throughout the city of Chicago.


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Homelessness of course has countless roots -- inheritance (born into poverty), job loss, lack of education and inability to find work, amongst others. I have yet to speak to any of the homeless here in Budapest as my Hungarian language skills are poor as can be. As I pass them and sometimes put a few forint coins in their cup, I am filled with a dozen thoughts. The forint I put in their cups may be used for food, water, or for alcohol, cigarettes. But I seldom ever judge those who are homeless because their circumstance cannot be imagined by me. Aside from these thoughts, thoughts of inequalities in society and throughout the world emerge. I feel so uneasy that such a reality is existent. I can understand how they might have reached this point to succumb to begging for money, but I cannot fathom why this happens and why there is not more focus on elevating these individuals from their current status.


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Walking past the sidewalk across the street from the Main Building at Corvinus, homeless men are lined up against the wall, lying, wrapped up in their warm blankets, sleeping like those in the subway stations. In the morning I pass them, in the evening they still remain there. A life where one lives on the streets, inhabiting this little corner of the world for who knows how long. I sympathize with them. I feel that all individuals should be given the opportunity to progress. Society, it tends to be, has forgotten about these people. They are invisible, yet visible. Too much trouble, too much work to help these people perhaps; they remain stuck, cornered in such a reality. In my Human Development in Transition Economies class, we discussed poverty and its impact to human development of a society, especially one that is in transition. This element creates a sense of dualism where one group succeeds and the other remains at the bottom. The continuance of such a system stagnates a society's human development, which in turn negatively effects the nation as a whole. I feel that human development, especially through the medium of social service work, really tackles many of the main problems within society. Working with the poverty, eradicating homelessness should be taken into consideration and emphasized greatly. A reality without such problems would progress the world.

Trần, Qúy-Hạc.