Long-lasting consequences of being targeted

• The paper studies the effects of South Vietnam’s policies targeting the Chinese minority from 1956 to 1963. • Exposure to these policies negatively affects education and labor market outcomes. • Directly impacted women experience higher fertility rates both intensively and extensively. • The policies reduce the next generation’s human capital, limiting their educational opportunities. • Hostile policies create long-term barriers to educational mobility across generations. While numerous majority-controlled governments globally have enacted hostile policies targeting minority groups, the long-term consequences of these policies remain insufficiently explored. By exploiting policy changes directed at the Chinese ethnic minority in South Vietnam between 1956 and 1963, this paper investigates the long-lasting effects of in utero exposure to hostile policies on multigenerational outcomes and social mobility. The findings reveal that such exposure adversely affects education, labor market outcomes, family formation, and economic well-being, while significantly increasing women’s fertility both intensively and extensively among directly impacted individuals. These hostile policies furthermore have intergenerational consequences, diminishing the next generation’s human capital and hindering educational mobility across genera- tions.