Book of May / June 2025
Host: Pacinthe Mattar
Topics covered:
The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse is a powerful, genre-bending memoir that traces one family’s flight from Vietnam in the aftermath of war—and a haunting absence that follows. Decades after fleeing Saigon as the city fell, author Vinh Nguyen returns to the fragments of his family’s past, searching for the father who vanished during their escape.
In 1975, as the Vietnam War came to a close, thousands fled the country in desperation. Among them was Nguyen’s family—his mother, siblings, and himself. His father was supposed to follow them – but he was never seen again and what happened to him still remains unknown decades later. In the lead up to the fiftieth anniversary of the war’s end, Nguyen embarks on an emotional journey through memory, myth, and silence to reconstruct a life lost to history.
A beautiful, aching search for his father unfurls on the pages of The Migrant Rain Falls In Reverse: blurring the lines between recollection and imagination, Nguyen’s lyrical narrative weaves together fractured family stories, inherited grief, and the quiet echoes of displacement. Through abandoned homes, forgotten refugee camps, and the guarded secrets of loved ones, Nguyen confronts the ache of uncertainty and the weight of what can never be fully known.
The Vietnam War (1954–1975), was a prolonged conflict between North Vietnam—supported by communist allies—and South Vietnam, backed by anti-communist forces and the United States. The war’s roots lie in Vietnam’s struggle for independence from French colonial rule, culminating in the Geneva Accords of 1954 that divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel. North Vietnam, under Ho Chi Minh, sought to unify the country under communist rule, while South Vietnam, supported by U.S. military and economic aid, resisted.
From 1965 onward, the U.S. escalated its involvement, peaking with over half a million troops stationed in Vietnam. Despite massive military efforts, the U.S. could not achieve a decisive victory, and in 1973, American forces withdrew following the Paris Peace Accords. In April 1975, North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon, which was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, marking the end of the war and the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule.
The war caused widespread devastation, displacing millions of people within Vietnam and prompting waves of refugees to flee abroad. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) , approximately 2.5 million Vietnamese fled their homeland between 1975 and the mid-1990s, often in dangerous conditions aboard overcrowded boats—a phenomenon that gave rise to the term “boat people.” According to Refugees International, up to one-third of boat people perished at sea.
Countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines became temporary hosts for large numbers of Vietnamese asylum seekers. Under pressure from international organizations, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR, many Western nations—including Canada, the United States, Australia, and France—established resettlement programs for Vietnamese refugees.
Following the fall of Saigon, the Canadian government launched the Indochinese Refugee Program in 1979, responding to public demand to accept more refugees. Through this initiative, Canada resettled over 110,000 Vietnamese refugees by the early 1980s, most arriving through organized sponsorship programs. This effort marked a turning point in Canada’s humanitarian immigration policy and contributed to the growth of a vibrant Vietnamese diaspora in the country today.
Many Vietnamese communities around the world trace their origins to wartime migration, and subsequent generations continue to grapple with the intergenerational effects of trauma, loss, and adaptation.
The Vietnam War’s refugee aftermath highlights root causes Amnesty International is tackling—war, environmental degradation, political persecution—for modern migration challenges. Today’s global crises (e.g., Sudan, Palestine, Myanmar, Ukraine, Afghanistan) are a reflection and continuation of these patterns. Humanitarian bodies including Amnesty International as well as Human Rights Watch, IOM, and Refugees International all emphasize the need to address these root causes, protect refugees, and facilitate safe resettlement.
The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse
By Vinh Nguyen
Counterpoint LLC Publishing Company
Vinh Nguyen
writer, editor & professor
Vinh Nguyen is a writer, editor, and professor who was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He is a nonfiction editor at The New Quarterly, where he curates an ongoing series on refugee, migrant, and diasporic writing. He is the co-editor of the academic books Refugee States: Critical Refugee Studies in Canada and The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives, and the author of Lived Refuge: Gratitude, Resentment, Resilience. His writing has been short-listed for a National Magazine Award and has received the John Charles Polanyi Prize in Literature. In 2022, he was a Lambda Literary Fellow in Nonfiction for emerging LGBTQ writers. He lives in Toronto.
Download the Amnesty Book Club Discussion Guide for The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse in a high-resolution printable and low-resolution sharable PDF file.
Listen to Vinh Nguyen’s interview on CBC’s The Sunday Magazine:
Urgent Action to Halt Mass Deportations
Canada: End the Safe Third Country Agreement
Stop Bill C-2, Canada’s new border bill, an attack on the human right to seek asylum
Sources: UNHCR, International Organization for Migration, Refugees International, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Red Cross, Senate of Canada, Government of Canada
Vauhini Vara
Discussion Guide coming soon.
Omar El Akkad
Author Omar El Akkad joined the Amnesty Book Club on May 4, 2025. Please join the Amnesty Book Club to watch the recording.
Vinh Nguyen
Author Vinh Nguyen joined the Amnesty Book Club on June 20, 2025. Please join the Amnesty Book Club to watch the recording.
The Honourable Murray Sinclair
Discussion Guide coming soon.
Katherena Vermette
Discussion Guide coming soon.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Discussion Guide coming soon.
