Boston, Vietnamese, and looking for burial plots

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Boston.com has an interesting, and somewhat sad article on some of the Vietnamese population there who are looking to gain access and get proper burial plots where they can be buried with others who've had the same shared experiences, but because of financial constraints are having a hard time:

Statistics show that 46 percent of Vietnamese in Massachusetts are living on low incomes, says the Institute for Asian American Studies at UMass-Boston.

Nguyen says he receives a senior benefits check of $578.46 a month. Even if he could afford to have his body shipped back to Vietnam and buried there - a package that some peg in the $10,000 range - Nguyen says he would not do it.

He does not want to burden his three children who live here now with such a long trip to visit his grave. Besides, he says, "I'm US citizen."

Having already reached other markers in their new home, such as learning English and registering to vote, many Vietnamese seniors are anxious to account for their final touchstone: getting buried here.
Read more from the article here.