During the war, relentless bombing resulted in the destruction of the land and rice fields littered with land mines and contaminated with chemicals and herbicides used to destroy rice and other crops. Due to its strategic importance, Laos became part of the US Secret War and was subjected to a US bombing campaign. Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, making it the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world. In 1975, the Pathet Lao, the Lao Communist Party, took power in the country after a civil war with the Royal Lao Army which began in 1960. In the years after 1975, many Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians faced food shortages, severe hunger, and death from disease and starvation.

The flight of refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to other countries around the South China Sea, either by boat to harbours in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, and Singapore, or overland to Thailand and China, started in April-May 1975 and continued, intermittently, until the early 1990s.

The first major refugee outflow took place in 1975-76, following the communist victories in all three countries. After a short respite during 1977, the refugee outflows again increased rapidly in 1978, both by boat over the South China Sea and across the land borders from Cambodia and the Mekong River from Laos, reaching catastrophic proportions by early 1979. A series of local wars, the reign of terror of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, harvest failures, terrible economic conditions, and the persecution of those people who were termed class and ethnic enemies pushed huge numbers of people to embark on terribly dangerous, often deadly, journeys from their homelands. The international community managed to agree to resolve this major international humanitarian and political crisis in Southeast Asia in July 1979, through resettlement in developed countries.

By the end of 1980, the number of camps was dramatically reduced, and the refugee crisis appeared, at first, to be resolved. By 1981, the three refugee source countries were on a slow, uneven road to internal stabilization. However, through the early 1980s, large parts of their populations felt under pressure and continued to escape to surrounding countries and then to resettlement in the West. By the late 1980s, however, with Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia largely stabilized, it became evident that an increasing proportion of those arriving in refugee camps were motivated by family and economic factors. In 1989, through the international Comprehensive Plan of Action, the international community introduced screening for refugee status and agreed to phase out third country resettlement as the principal solution to population outflows in Southeast Asia.

For Canada, the Indochinese Refugee Movement was very important for a number of reasons. It was the largest single refugee resettlement movement to Canada since the post-World War II emptying of displaced person camps in Europe. It was the first mass refugee movement that resettled visible minority populations that were culturally, ethnically and linguistically very different from the Canadian mainstream. It was the first refugee movement in which ordinary Canadians, the Canadian people, played a decisive role through the newly created private and group sponsorship vehicles. The extraordinary role of ordinary Canadians in resolving the Southeast Asian refugee crisis was recognized internationally when the UN awarded the Nansen Medal (the highest international honour for assisting refugees) to the people of Canada in 1986.

To meet the administrative and operational challenges of the Indochinese refugee movement, Canada's public servants created several innovative solutions (private and group sponsorships, designated classes, and the Refugee Matching Centre) that are still in place. Finally, and most importantly, the successful integration of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees into Canadian society has demonstrated that refugees can, and do, make real contributions to Canada, and that they and their children can and do become committed, productive, patriotic Canadians.