Suburban Refugees: Vietnamese Placemaking in Orange County’s Little Saigon

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Orange County is considered a wealthy suburb with one of the most expensive housing markets in the U.S. This suburban affluence masks increasing inequality and housing insecurity. This talk focuses on Orange County’s Little Saigon and asks, Who is Little Saigon for? How does placemaking occur in unequal suburbs? How are community organizers challenging housing inequality and deportation? Highlighting the stories of everyday residents, this talk shares the stories of Vietnamese refugees and their children who are making a significant impact in their communities. The discussion will focus on Huynh’s new book Suburban Refugees: Class and Resistance in Little Saigon (University of California Press, 2025), as well as her ongoing mutual aid work with deported Vietnamese Americans through the Ba Lo Project.

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