Overseas Vietnamese - Vietnamese Worldwide

Vietnamese Worldwide

Overseas Vietnamese can be generally divided into four distinct categories that rarely interact with each other. 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 Vietnamese also migrated to France and some French-speaking areas, such as Québec. The second category, consisting of the vast majority of overseas Vietnamese, are former South Vietnamese those who fled Vietnam as refugees, after the end of the Vietnam War, along with their descendants. They usually reside in industrialized countries such as those in North America, the European Union, Hong Kong, China, Guangdong, Fujian and Australia. The third category consists of Vietnamese working and studying in the former Soviet bloc who opted to stay there after the Soviet collapse. This group is found mainly in the European Union and the Russian Federation. The last category consists of recent economic migrants who work in regional Asian countries such as Taiwan and Japan. They also include Vietnamese brides who married men from Taiwan and South Korea through marriage agencies. These brides usually follow their husbands to live in those countries. In Taiwan, Vietnamese economic migrants count about half of overseas Vietnamese there, and the brides cover the rest. There is much social tensions, controversy and criticism about the latter group in Vietnam, saying them being "blinded by money" of their foreign husbandsm, and many are beaten. Recently a new group of Vietnamese have been emerging. These naturally-born Vietnamese who attended high school and college overseas (international student), are called by natives as "du học sinh"; they stay in those countries and work and live as permanent residents.