Vietnamese Cambodians: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Ethnic Vietnamese people in Cambodia}}{{good article}}

| group = Vietnamese Cambodians <br><small>ជនជាតិខ្មែរវៀតណាម<br>Người Campuchia gốc Việt</small>

| pop = '''180,000 -1000–1,000,000''' (est.)<br/>1% - 6.25% of the Cambodian population<ref>{{Cite news|date=2 July 2021|title='Please show mercy': Evicted by Cambodia, ethnic Vietnamese stuck at watery border|work=[[Reuters]]|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-vietnam-evictions-idUSKCN2E75RA}}</ref>

'''Vietnamese Cambodians''' refers to ethnic group of [[Vietnamese people|Vietnamese]] who live in [[Cambodia]] or it refers to Vietnamese who are of full or partial [[Khmer people|Khmer]] descent. According to Cambodian sources, in 2013, about 15,000 Vietnamese people live in Cambodia. A Vietnamese source stated that 156,000 people live in Cambodia,<ref>{{Cite news|date=23 September 2016|title=VN phối hợp với Campuchia đảm bảo cuộc sống người Việt|work=Ngày Nay|url=https://ngaynay.vn/vn-phoi-hop-voi-campuchia-dam-bao-cuoc-song-nguoi-viet-post25879.html}}</ref> while the actual number could be somewhere between 400,000 and one million people, according to independent scholars.<ref name="cambodia">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/28/magazine/cambodia-persecuted-minority-water-refuge.html|title=A People in Limbo, Many Living Entirely on the Water|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=2018-03-28}}</ref> They mostly reside in southeastern parts of Cambodia bordering Vietnam or on [[houseboat]]s in the [[Tonlé Sap]] lake and [[Mekong]] rivers. The first Vietnamese came to settle modern-day Cambodia from the early 19th century during the era of the [[Nguyễn lords]] and most of the Vietnamese came to Cambodia during the periods of [[French protectorate of Cambodia|French colonial administration]] and the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]] administration. During the [[Khmer Republic]] and [[Khmer Rouge]] governments in the 1970s under the [[Pol Pot regime]], the Vietnamese amongst others were targets of mass [[Genocide|genocides]]; thousands of Vietnamese were killed and many more sought refuge in Vietnam.

Ethnic relations between the [[Cambodians]] and Vietnamese are complex, where despite engagement and collaboration between the two countries of [[Cambodia]] and [[Vietnam]], Vietnamese have been the target of [[Xenophobia|xenophobic]] attacks by opposition political parties against [[Hun Sen]]'s policies since the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heng |first=Kimkong |date=2022-04-12 |title=2022/36 “Cambodia-Vietnam Relations: Key Issues and the Way Forward” by Kimkong Heng |url=https://www.iseas.edu.sg/articles-commentaries/iseas-perspective/2022-36-cambodia-vietnam-relations-key-issues-and-the-way-forward-by-kimkong-heng/ |language=en-US |volume=2022 |issue=36}}</ref> Many of the stateless Vietnamese residents face difficulties in getting access to education, employment, and housing.<ref>https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Cambodia-StatofConflictandViolence.pdf</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Christ |first=Kiernan |date=2022-06-14 |title=The Perpetual Foreigner: Statelessness among the Vietnamese Minority in Cambodia |url=https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2022/06/14/the-perpetual-foreigner-statelessness-among-the-vietnamese-minority-in-cambodia/ |access-date=2023-07-30 |website=Georgetown Journal of International Affairs |language=en-US}}</ref> Although xenophobic sentiments have been a continuing source of concern, they have not been a barrier towards neighbourly ties within the context of [[Southeast Asia]] and other international affairs. <ref>{{Cite web |last=VnExpress |title=Vietnam, Cambodia to further strengthen multifaceted relations - VnExpress International |url=https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-cambodia-agree-to-bolster-relations-4533645.html |access-date=2023-07-30 |website=VnExpress International – Latest news, business, travel and analysis from Vietnam |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-11-13 |title=Cambodia-Vietnam, a true friendship in ASEAN context - Khmer Times |url=https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501183775/cambodia-vietnam-a-true-friendship-in-asean-context/ |access-date=2023-07-30 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heng |first=Kimkong |date=2022-04-12 |title=2022/36 “Cambodia-Vietnam Relations: Key Issues and the Way Forward” by Kimkong Heng |url=https://www.iseas.edu.sg/articles-commentaries/iseas-perspective/2022-36-cambodia-vietnam-relations-key-issues-and-the-way-forward-by-kimkong-heng/ |language=en-US |volume=2022 |issue=36}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dialogue on War Legacies and Peace in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia |url=https://www.usip.org/events/dialogue-war-legacies-and-peace-vietnam-laos-and-cambodia |access-date=2023-07-30 |website=United States Institute of Peace |language=en}}</ref>

Relations between Cambodia and Vietnam date back to when [[Chey Chettha II]], in order to balance the influence of the Siamese forces, which had devastated the previous capital at [[Longvek]] during the reign of his father, had struck an alliance with Vietnam and married Princess [[Nguyễn Phúc Ngọc Vạn]], a daughter of Lord [[Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên]], in 1618.<ref>Mai Thục, ''Vương miện lưu đày: truyện lịch sử,'' Nhà xuất bản Văn hóa - thông tin, 2004, p.580; Giáo sư Hoàng Xuân Việt, Nguyễn Minh Tiến hiệu đính, ''Tìm hiểu lịch sử chữ quốc ngữ,'' Ho Chi Minh City, Công ty Văn hóa Hương Trang, pp.31-33; Helen Jarvis, ''Cambodia,'' Clio Press, 1997, p.xxiii.</ref><ref name="nghiamvo-1623">{{cite book |author1=Nghia M. Vo |url=http://www.sacei07.org/women10.jsp |title=The Women of Vietnam |author2=Chat V. Dang |author3=Hien V. Ho |date=2008-08-29 |publisher=Outskirts Press |isbn=978-1-4327-2208-1 |series=Saigon Arts, Culture & Education Institute Forum |access-date=2010-06-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200648/http://www.sacei07.org/women10.jsp |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In return, the king had granted the Vietnamese the right to establish settlements in Mô Xoài (now [[Bà Rịa]]), in the region of [[Prey Nokor—whichNokor]]—which they colloquially [[Names of Ho Chi Minh City|referred to]] as ''Sài Gòn'', and which later became [[Ho Chi Minh City]].<ref name="kamm">{{cite book |author=Henry Kamm |url=https://archive.org/details/cambodiareportfr00kamm |title=Cambodia: report from a stricken land |publisher=Arcade Publishing |year=1998 |isbn=1-55970-433-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambodiareportfr00kamm/page/23 23] |quote=chey chettha II. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="ngbac">{{cite web |title=Nguyễn Bặc and the Nguyễn |url=http://nguyenphuoctoc.net/doc/nguyen_bac_english.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413074249/http://nguyenphuoctoc.net/doc/nguyen_bac_english.html |archive-date=2009-04-13 |access-date=2010-06-16}}</ref> Vietnamese settlers first entered the Mekong and the Prey Nokor area (later Saigon) from the 1620s onwards. The region then as now is known to the Cambodians as [[Kampuchea Krom]] but by cession and conquest (Vietnamese expansion to the South, dubbed [[Nam Tiến]]), the area came under Vietnamese control. Under the reign of [[Chey Chettha II]], Cambodia formally ceded the eastern portion to the [[Nguyễn lords]].<ref>Corfield (2009), p. 3</ref>

With the unification Vietnam under Emperor [[Gia Long]], the Court of Huế asserted its hegemony in 1813 and sent 10,000 troops to Phnom Penh. The Cambodian court was split into rival factions vying for power and some members of the Cambodian royal sought the support of the Vietnamese, thus implanting Vietnamese power within the kingdom.<ref>Schliesinger (2015), p. 258</ref> Favors were granted to allow more Vietnamese settlers and by the reign of Emperor [[Minh Mạng]], Vietnam chose to impose its rule directly, relegating the Cambodian court to a minor role. Administrative renaming of town and provinces was carried out while Vietnamese customs were forced upon the Cambodian populace.<ref>Kuhnt-Saptodewo (1997), p. 154</ref> The heavy-handed policies stirred resentment among the Cambodian populace, provoking protracted insurgency and unrest.<ref>Corfield (2009), pp. 17–18</ref> Vietnam was forced to withdraw, accepting the restoration of the royal candidate Ang Duong as the Cambodian king. Vietnam nonetheless joined Siam to hold Cambodia in joint vassalage.

In 1880 with the establishment of the [[French Protectorate of Cambodia|French colonial administration]], Cambodia joined Vietnam as part of [[French Indochina]], the status to Vietnamese residents in Cambodia was formally legalized. Over the next fifty years, large numbers of Vietnamese migrated to Cambodia.<ref>Corfield (2009), p. 28</ref> Population censuses conducted by the French recorded an increase in the Vietnamese population from about 4,500 in the 1860s to almost 200,000 at the end of the 1930s.<ref name="Sch259">Schliesinger (2015), p. 259</ref> When the [[Japanese invasion of French Indochina|Japanese invaded Indochina]] in 1940, Vietnamese nationalists in Cambodia launched a brief but unsuccessful attempt to attack the French colonial administrators.<ref>Corfield (2009), p. 40</ref>

The Vietnamese are generally concentrated along the river banks of the Tonlé Sap lake and Mekong river which encompass the provinces of [[Siem Reap]], [[Kampong Chhnang Province|Kampong Chhnang]] and [[Pursat]].<ref>Ehrentraut (2013), p. 30</ref> Smaller populations may be found in Phnom Penh as well as southeastern provinces bordering Vietnam, namely [[Prey Veng Province|Prey Veng]], [[Svay Rieng Province|Svay Rieng]],<ref>Willmott (1967), p. 107</ref> [[Kampot Province|Kampot]], [[Kandal Province|Kandal]], [[Kratié Province|Kratié]]<ref name="Eh71"/> and [[Takéo Province|Takéo]].<ref name="Sch260"/> The Vietnamese population was at its largest in 1962 when the government census showed that they were the country's largest minority and reflected 3.8% of the country's population. Demographic researchers returned higher estimated numbers of Vietnamese than government censuses reflect. For example, in the 1960s, the number of resident Vietnamese may be as high as 400,000,<ref name="Tabeau48"/> while another Cambodian-based researcher, [[Michael Vickery]] had estimated the Vietnamese resident population to be between 200,000 and 300,000 in 1986. On the other hand, government censuses conducted during the 1980s put the figures to be no more than 60,000.<ref name="Sch261">Schliesinger (2015), p. 261</ref> The following population figures shows population figures of ethnic Vietnamese based on figures derived from government censuses: