Cambodian immigration to France began in the latter half of the 19th century, when Cambodia became a French protectorate. The first wave of migrants largely consisted of students and workers belonging to the country’s elite class, including members of the royal family. During World War I, soldiers and civilians in the French colonial empire were recruited to help with the war effort in Metropolitan France. About 2,000 Cambodians arrived in France during the conflict period.

However, most Cambodians arrived in France as refugees as a result of their country’s heavy turmoil during the latter half of the 20th century. Following the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975, a small number of Cambodians were able to flee their country and arrive in France with the French government’s assistance. A much larger influx of refugees arrived in France during the Cambodian-Vietnamese War that resulted in the collapse of the Khmer Rouge and end of the Cambodian Genocide in the 1980s.

Roughly 50,000 Cambodian refugees arrived in France by 1989. France was an ideal destination for Cambodians who were educated or already had family present in the country, while poorer and uneducated refugees tended to immigrate to the United States and Australia. The final wave of refugees arrived in the late 1990s, when the last refugee camps closed. In contrast to the Vietnamese, Laotian and ethnic Chinese populations in France, Cambodian refugees from conflicts in Indochina arrived relatively later compared to their peers, and had a harder time in finding government assistance.

CULTURE AND DEMOGRAPHICS

The Cambodian French population is concentrated in Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France region, as well as in Lyon and the Rhône-Alpes region.

In contrast to Cambodian communities in the United States, Canada and Australia, the Cambodian population in France is on average, more educated, older and has a much higher average income. While the community is still attached to its country of origin in some cultural spheres, Cambodians in France have largely integrated into French society relatively well.

Nevertheless, unlike their Indochinese peers from Vietnam and Laos, Cambodians in France have not yet achieved a model minority image; and despite having income and education levels higher than other Cambodian diaspora communities, the average for the community is lower than the national average.

Buddhism plays an important role in the community and is seen as a marker of ethnic identity; in contrast, the ability to speak the Khmer language is less emphasised. Though immigrant parents set up language schools for their children soon after migration, many children discontinued their language studies due to the difficulty of learning Khmer grammar and the Sanskrit-based Khmer alphabet.

Numerically, the Khmer are the dominant group among Cambodians in France, but Cambodians of Chinese descent are also found among the population. Though interethnic marriages between Chinese and Khmers were common in Cambodia and remain so in France, the Chinese have tended to organise themselves around dialect groups and remain somewhat separate from other Cambodians in France.

A small number of Cambodians in France consist of the wives and mixed-race children of French colonizers who repatriated to France between 1955 and 1965. Regardless of their ethnicity, many of those used Khmer rather than French as their home language■

Cambodians in France consist of ethnic Khmer and Chinese who were born in or immigrated to France. The population as of 2011 was estimated to be about 80,000, making the community one of the largest in the Cambodian diaspora. The Cambodian population in France is the most established outside Southeast Asia, with a presence dating to well before the Vietnam War and subsequent Indochina refugee crisis.

Lucie Mao was elected Miss Cambodge-France 2014, in Bussy Saint-Georges (near Paris) on 22 December 2013 (photo : Malay Phcar/M7France.fr)

Several Cambodian children refuged inside the French embassy were adopted by French citizens. The other children died with their parents

Several hundred people remained inside the French embassy during about two weeks. Food and water were lacking

Cambodians living in France

L’Écho du Cambodge n° 168 décembre 2014

SETTLEMENT

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