The majority of Vietnamese Americans are Buddhist,
There are approximately 150 to 165 Vietnamese Buddhist temples in the United States, Most temples are small, consisting of a converted house with one or two resident monks or nuns.[3
Societal perception and portrayal
As with other ethnic minority groups in United States, Vietnamese Americans have come into conflict with the larger U.S. population, particularly in how they are perceived and portrayed. There have been degrees of hostility directed toward Vietnamese Americans. For example, on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the white fishermen complained of unfair competition from their Vietnamese American counterparts resulting in hostility. In the 1980s, the Ku Klux Klan attempted to intimidate Vietnamese American shrimpers.[32] Vietnamese American fishermen banded together to form the first Vietnamese Fishermen Association of America to represent their interests.
Political activism
According to a study, Vietnamese Americans are among the most assimilated immigrant groups in the United States.[10] While their rates of cultural and economic assimilation were unexceptional compared to other groups (perhaps due to language differences between English and Vietnamese), their rates of civic assimilation were the highest among all the large immigrant groups.[10] Vietnamese Americans, being political refugees, view their stay in the United States as permanent and became involved in the political process in higher rates than other groups.
As refugees from a Communist country, many Vietnamese Americans are strongly opposed to communism. In a poll conducted for the Orange County Register in 2000, 71% of respondents ranked fighting communism as "top priority" or "very important".[11] Vietnamese Americans regularly stage protests against the Vietnamese government, its human rights policy and those whom they perceive to be sympathetic to