boat people

pl.n.

Refugees, usually political ones, who attempt to flee from their native country to other countries by boat.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

boat people

pl n

refugees, esp from Vietnam in the late 1970s, who leave by boat hoping to be picked up by ships of another country

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

boat′ peo`ple

n.pl.

refugees who have fled a country by boat, usu. without sufficient provisions.

[1975–80]

Translations

boat people

n → boat people mpl

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in periodicals archive

Formed in 1980 to respond to the needs of the first wave of Vietnamese refugees, Boat People SOS (BPSOS) has provided relief, assistance, and support to these and subsequent immigrants in search of freedom and a dignified life.

Boat People SOS: from rescue at sea to Katrina relief: this dynamic nonprofit--formed to rescue and resettle Vietnamese refugees--continues to transform itself, recently providing relief to thousands of Vietnamese-Americans in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

"As Colombia and cocaine is to the U.S.," he warns, "the Pacific Rim and ice [crystal meth] will be to Australia." Mass migrations of boat people, he adds, can be expected.

Ice on the water

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese from the south fled the country (many as "boat people") and hundreds of thousands more who stayed in Vietnam were sent to "re-education camps," where they endured forced labor and indoctrination until they were determined to be sufficiently loyal to the new regime.

NHI's Vietnam: Vietnam now has one of the world's fastest-growing economies. For young people like Nguyen Song Nhi, 16, the "American War" is ancient history; their focus is on the future

This year alone, more than 20,000 African boat people have arrived in the Canary Islands - with another 3,000 estimated to have died in the attempt.

JOBCENTRE IN AFRICA TO SEND US THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS; EXCLUSIVE Britain braced for new flood of foreigners

It was 1978, and the exodus of boat people had just begun.

Stormy weather

The Indonesian government quickly stated that bilateral ties with Australia could be strained if asylum is offered to boat people claiming rights abuses.

West Papuan asylum seekers reach Australia

Choy, The Boat People and Achievement in America: A Study of Family Life, Hard Work, and Cultural Values (Ann Arbor, 1989).

Children in global migrations

military interventions, not to mention an endless cycle of "Haitian boat people" seeking haven on U.S.

Recovering Haiti's lost literary legacy: newer books help readers understand a complex cultural and political heritage, and renew interest in the island nation's remarkable homegrown classics

Most of the Vietnamese residents are themselves "boat people," or are the children of refugees who fled Vietnam.

California city becomes 1st U.S. "no Communist zone"

But it is also a one-sided book because its authors omit a sympathetic account of the Australian government's rationale for intercepting and detaining or deflecting boat people.

Dark Victory

Haiti's army ousted Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected president in 1990, eight months after his inauguration and instigated a reign of terror until the US sent 20,000 troops in 1994 to end the military dictatorship, restore Aristide and halt an exodus of boat people to the shores of Florida.

Rebels celebrate control

It is estimated that as many as 40 per cent of the Vietnamese boat people died en route either through drowning or at the hands of pirates.

Vietnamese journey