Overseas Vietnamese

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Overseas Vietnamese (Vietnamese: Việt Kiều, a Sino-Vietnamese word literally translating to "Vietnamese sojourner"), refers to communities of Vietnamese living outside Vietnam in a diaspora. The term is usually used in Vietnam to refer to Vietnamese Americans from the United States and Vietnamese Europeans, either those who were born outside Vietnam, or fled as refugees after the unification of the country under the North Vietnamese in 1975. The term is often used towards members of the Vietnamese diaspora who return to Vietnam for visits or business. The term has been in use long prior to 1975. Of the about 3 million overseas Vietnamese, about 300,000 left before 1975 (mainly to neighboring countries and France). Outside of Vietnam, this term is rejected. The group is self-identified as Người Việt Hải Ngoại (Overseas Vietnamese) or occasionally Người Việt Tự Do (Free Vietnamese).

Contents

Vietnamese worldwide

Distribution
Total: 3 million
Location:
United States
1,223,736 (2000, [1])
Cambodia and Laos
600,000 [2]
France
300,000 [3]
Australia
174,200 (2001, [4])
Canada
151,410 (2001, [5])
Germany
83,526 (2004, [6])
Taiwan
85,528 [7]
Russian Federation
up to 150,000 [8]
United Kingdom
35,000 [9]
People's Republic of China
around 20,000 [10]
Norway
16,944 (2003, [11])
Czech Republic
approx. 25,000 [12]
Japan
12,965 (2000, [13])
Poland
around 10,000 [14]
Elsewhere
400,000

Overseas Vietnamese can be generally divided into four distinct categories. The first category consists of people who have been living in territories outside of Vietnam prior to 1975; they usually reside in neighboring countries, such as Cambodia, Laos, and China. These people are not usually considered "Việt Kiều" by people residing in Vietnam. During French colonialism, some also migrated to France and some French-speaking areas, such as Québec. The second category, consisting of the vast majority of overseas Vietnamese, are those who escaped Vietnam after 1975 as refugees and their descendants. They usually reside in industrialized countries in North America, Western Europe, and Australia. The third category consists of Vietnamese working and studying in the Soviet bloc who opted to stay there after the Soviet collapse. This group is found mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. The last category consists of recent economic migrants who work in more industrialized countries such as the Republic of China on Taiwan and Japan. They also include women who married men from Taiwan and South Korea through marriage agencies. These brides usually follow their husbands to live in those countries.

United States

Main article: Vietnamese American

According to the 2000 census, more than 1.2 million people with Vietnamese origin live in the United States, constituting between a third to a half of all overseas Vietnamese. They tend to live in metropolitan areas in the West, especially in California and Texas. Significant areas where they are well-represented include Orange County, California, San Jose, California, and Houston, Texas. As almost all of them left Vietnam after 1975 to escape the communist Vietnamese government, they are generally antagonistic towards the current government of Vietnam.

See also: List of U.S. cities with large Vietnamese American populations, List of Vietnamese Americans, Little Saigon

Cambodia

The Vietnamese constitute about 5% of the population of Cambodia, and they have been antagonized by ethnic Khmers. Clashes between ethnic Khmers and Vietnamese have been the cause of some conflicts between the two countries. The platform of some mainstream parties include restricting rights of the Vietnamese minority.

Europe

Main article: Vietnamese Europeans

France

The number of ethnic Vietnamese living in France is estimated to be around 300,000 as of 2006, making it the largest East Asian community in Europe and the second largest Vietnamese community outside Asia after the United States.[15]

The French-Vietnamese have been in the country since the early 1900s due to the colonization of Vietnam by France, but they only started to become visible after the massive influx of refugees after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Unlike their counterparts in North America or Australia, the French Vietnamese have not formed distinct Vietnamese enclaves within the major cities of France (although many Vietnamese-run shops can be found in the Chinatown neighborhood of Paris) and the degree of assimilation is relatively higher than in the United States, Canada or Australia due to better cultural, historical and linguistic knowledge of the host country.

The community is still strongly attached to its homeland while being well-integrated in the French society. As the first generation of French-Vietnamese refugees continues to hold on to traditional values, the second generation of French-born Vietnamese strongly identifies with the French culture rather than the Vietnamese one and most of them are unable to speak and/or understand the Vietnamese language.[citation needed] The level of integration of immigrants and their place in French society have become prominent issues in France in the past decade, but the majority of the French people views the Vietnamese community in a much better light than other immigrant groups, partially because of their relatively high degree of integration within the French society and their economic as well as academic success. Most of the French Vietnamese live in Paris and its surrounding areas but a sizeable number also reside in the major urban centers in the south-east of the country, primarily Marseille and Lyon.

Germany

Vietnamese comprise the largest Asian ethnic group in Germany[16]. In western Germany, most Vietnamese arrived in the 1960s or 1970s as refugees from the Vietnam war. The comparatively larger Vietnamese community in eastern Germany traces its origins to assistance agreements between the GDR and the North Vietnamese government. Under these agreements, guest workers from Vietnam were brought to East Germany, where they soon made up the largest immigrant group [17], and were provided with technical training. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, many stayed in Germany, although they often faced discrimination, especially in the early years following reunification.

Norway

Main article: Vietnamese Norwegians

Norway has received Vietnamese refugees since 1975. They number about 18 500 and are considered one of the best integrated non-western immigrant groups in Norway.

Czech Republic

Many Vietnamese immigrants in the Czech Republic reside in Prague. There is an enclave called "Little Hanoi", named after the capital city Hanoi of Vietnam. Unlike Vietnamese immigrants in Western Europe and the United States, these immigrants were usually communist cadres studying or working abroad who decided to stay after the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.

Russia

Main article: Vietnamese people in Russia

Vietnamese people in Russia form the 72nd-largest ethnic minority community in Russia according to the 2002 census. The Census estimated their population at only 26,205 individuals, making them one of the smaller groups of Việt Kiều.[1] However, unofficial estimates put their population as high as 100,000 to 150,000.[2][3]

Australia

Main article: Vietnamese Australian

Vietnamese Australians constitute the seventh-largest ethnic group in Australia, numbering about 156,581 or 0.8% of the population according to the 2001 census. Vietnamese is the sixth most widely-spoken language in the country, with 174,236 speakers. They vary widely in income and social class levels. Many Vietnamese Australians are upper-class professionals, while others work primarily in blue-collar jobs. Australian-born Vietnamese Australians are overrepresented at universities in Australia, yet the community still suffers from one of the highest unemployment rates. Over three quarters of Vietnamese-Australians live in New South Wales (40.7%) and Victoria (36.8%). Being mostly refugees after the Vietnam war, they are generally antagonistic toward the government of Vietnam.

The popular surname Nguyễn is the seventh most common family name in Australia[4] (second only to Smith in the Melbourne phone books).[5]

Canada

Main article: Vietnamese Canadian

According to the 2001 census, Canada has 151,410 people with Vietnamese origins. They include 67,450 in Ontario, 28,310 in Québec and 21,490 in Alberta. They are similar to Vietnamese Americans in most respects. Some of those lived in Québec before 1975.

Philippines

Many Vietnamese boat refugees landed in the Philippines in post-1975 and, as a result, a community called Viet-Ville (French for "Viettown") was formed in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, making it the center of Vietnamese commerce and culture complete with Vietnamese restaurants, shops, and Catholic churches and Buddhist temples at the time. Its ethnic Vietnamese population of the community has dwindled greatly, however, as many have since been resettled in the United States, Australia, or Western Europe. Viet-Ville remains a popular destination for local Filipino residents.

Hong Kong

For more details on this topic, see Vietnamese people in Hong Kong.

Vietnamese migration to Hong Kong began after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, when boat people took to the sea and began fleeing Vietnam in all directions. Those who landed in Hong Kong were placed in refugee camps until they could be resettled in a third country; eventually, under the Hong Kong government's Comprehensive Plan of Action, newly arriving Vietnamese were classified as either political refugees or economic migrants; those deemed to be economic migrants would be denied the opportunity for resettlement overseas.[citation needed]

South Korea

For more details on this topic, see Vietnamese people in South Korea.

Vietnamese people in South Korea consist mainly of migrant workers and women introduced to South Korean husbands through marriage agencies.[6][7]

Relations with Vietnam

Relations between overseas Vietnamese populations and the current government of Vietnam traditionally range between polarities of geniality and overt contempt. Generally, overseas Vietnamese residing in North America, Western Europe, and Australia (which represent the vast majority of overseas Vietnamese populations) are unilaterally opposed to the existing government of Vietnam. However, there is a smaller population of overseas Vietnamese residing in Central and Eastern Europe, most of whom have been sent for training in formerly communist countries; these populations generally maintain positive relations with the government. Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's visit to Washington, D.C. in June 2005 was met with several hundred Vietnamese American protesters despite the city's location far away from the largest Vietnamese-American communities. Those who left prior to the political exodus of 1975 generally identify their sentiments as somewhere in between the two polarities.

However, relations seem to be improving in recent years. The former South Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Cao Ky returned to Vietnam in 2004 and was generally positive about his experience. Notable expatriate artists have returned to Vietnam to perform (some are met with scorn and boycott by the expatriate community itself after they have done so). Notably, the composer Pham Duy have returned to Ho Chi Minh City to live the rest of his life there after living in Midway City, California since 1975. The government in Vietnam used less antagonistic rhetorics to describe those who left the country after 1975. According to the Vietnamese government, while in 1987 only 8,000 overseas Vietnamese returned to Vietnam for visits, that number jumped to 430,000 in 2004.

The Vietnamese government, for its own part, had actively tried to woo back overseas Vietnamese, who bring capital and expertise. Its view of the Việt Kiều changed from "cowardly traitors" to "essential elements of Vietnamese people". The government enacted laws to make it easier for overseas Vietnamese to do business in Vietnam, including those allowing them to own land. However, some overseas Vietnamese still complain about discrimination that they face while trying to do business there.

See also

References

  1. ^ (Russian) Население по национальности и владению русским языком по субъектам Российской Федерации (Microsoft Excel). Федеральная служба государственной статистики. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
  2. ^ Blagov, Sergei. "Russian rhetoric fails to boost business", Asia Times, 2000-02-08. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.
  3. ^ (Vietnamese) "Cộng đồng người Việt Nam ở nước ngoài", Quê Hương, 2005-03-09. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.
  4. ^ The Age. Nguyens keeping up with the Joneses. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
  5. ^ Melbourne City Council. City of Melbourne - Multicultural Communities - Vietnamese. Retrieved on 2006-27-11.
  6. ^ Nguyen, Nhu (1999). The Reality: Vietnamese Migrant Workers in South Korea. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Mobility Research and Support Center. 
  7. ^ Onishi, Norimitsu. "Marriage brokers in Vietnam cater to S. Korean bachelors", International Herald Tribune, 2007-02-21. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.

External links

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