Here we have an Asian woman, which can be considered elderly, running a successful business in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of DC next to the busy 16th Street. If we had not known the organization was not for profit, it would have been easy to assume the business being a Chinese carryout or beauty salon. The woman is not a cashier or nail specialist, but is the president and chairperson of the Vietnamese American Community Service Center, VACSC for short. Her name is Hien Vu and she has been at her current position in the organization for 6 years. Her main duty to the community is to assist those in need, specifically the Vietnamese and African population in Northwest DC. Not to mention she is the founder of the VACSC and has built the organization from its roots on her own with little government funding, often finding herself use money from her own pockets. Why does she do all this you ask? “I felt an obligation to help the Vietnamese community because of the difficulties I have faced myself when arriving to the United States”. Being an immigrant in a foreign land myself, I can understand the urgency she felt after her claim to success had arrived from a job with the DC federal government, giving aid to those that needed it.
Asking about the people coming in for help she says “the client calls me ahead of time, and we set up a date to meet again while I refer them to my several friends who own actual businesses”. Then perhaps these people will be able to attain a minimum wage job or less at a restaurant and such. Clients contact Hien Vu regularly and check whether there are any new openings, despite the fact they already have a job. They work hard, at the lowest of levels, only to achieve enough money to support their own family at a comfortable setting. They take on the strain and challenge of balancing two rigorous jobs with a personal life, their well-being, and lastly the happiness of the family. I know firsthand the experience that comes with doing so, learning the importance in life, and developing positive moral values. We all want to give a better life to our kids than we had ourselves, so working two jobs, with sleepless days and nights is not a problem for many of the Vietnamese community.
Other times, Mrs. Vu deals with people that may or may not be legal residents of the United States, but strives to deliver to their kids what their own parents could not, an improved lifestyle, with normality. She goes on to tell me of “under the table jobs” where employees would get an untaxed wage, considerably less than the federal minimum wage, to avoid the necessary requirements to apply for a job, dealing with taxes and such. There would be no benefits in these jobs, so health insurance is out of the question. The exact income amount is difficult to determine as gratuity is the main source of the income, but can be estimated to be around $10,000 to $15,000 per year. And again, this is untaxed income. But society has forced them to have these types of jobs as they have less than a high school diploma or equivalency.
Hien Vu not only searches for jobs as needed, she is asked to “help get them accustomed to a new environment, familiarity with bills, paperwork, or translation of a document. There is a high standard set by Mrs. Vu when people come to her for assistance; there is an expectation that they uphold their duties as an American, such as not committing crimes or not spending all their income on luxury items, teaching them to spend their money wisely. It’s possible to see a promotion, so there is a reason to not quit a job as you create a bond with the owner.
When asked whether there was a correlation between race, gender, education level, and income, she responded by saying “Males were often accepted to better jobs than females; however their education level were consistently not at a high level, so it is a non factor for this purpose.” Preventing this issue would be troubling but “as long as there is people making more money than others, the amount will always range from lower to higher class. We cannot eliminate the lower class, only diminish the number of people classified in it. First generation families will only see their progress if the hard work is put in. The opportunities given to them may not be ideal, but is enough to survive in the tough world.
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