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Vietnamese people in the United Kingdom or Vietnamese Britons (Vietnamese: Người Việt tại Vương quốc Anh) include British citizens and non-citizen immigrants and expatriates of full or partial Vietnamese ancestry living in the United Kingdom. They form a part of the worldwide Vietnamese diaspora.
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Ethnic Vietnamese: 37,458 (England and Wales only, 2021)[1] Born in Vietnam 28,000 (2014 ONS estimate) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester | |
| Languages | |
| Vietnamese, British English | |
| Religion | |
| Primarily Vietnamese folk religion, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, with some Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Vietnamese people, Vietnamese people in France, Overseas Vietnamese, Southeast Asians in the United Kingdom |
History and settlement
editVietnamese immigration to the United Kingdom started during WW2 but more significant numbers immigrated after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The UK only accepted a few hundred of the first wave of refugees who were fleeing from the victorious North Vietnamese. However, more than twenty thousand were accepted of a later wave of refugees who left Vietnam following the growing hostilities and border war between China and Vietnam. The hostilities with China resulted in many ethnic Chinese being forced out from Northern Vietnam. As a result the Vietnamese that came to the UK in that period are predominantly of ethnic Chinese background.[2]
Many Vietnamese immigrants began gravitating towards larger cities such as London, with the majority settling in the Lewisham (Vietnamese is the second most common language in the borough), Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Hackney areas. The existence of much larger and more established overseas Chinese communities in Britain has had a significant though perhaps understated effect in helping the new immigrants setting roots in their new country.
Demographics
editPopulation
editThe 2001 UK Census recorded 23,347 people born in Vietnam,[3] with over 65% of these originated in Northern Vietnam.[citation needed] A study published in 2007 reported that community organisations estimated that there were at least 55,000 Vietnamese in England and Wales, and that 20,000 of these people were undocumented migrants and at least 5,000 were overseas students.[2] The Office for National Statistics estimates that in 2014, 28,000 people born in Vietnam were resident in the UK.[4]
Distribution
editAs with most emerging ethnic groups in the UK, the largest concentrations of Vietnamese people can be found in the larger metropolitan areas and cities, such as London (33,000), with the majority (around 1/3 of all Vietnamese Londoners) being located in Lewisham, Southwark and Hackney.[2] Significant Vietnamese communities also exist in Birmingham (over 4,000), Leeds and Manchester (over 2,500).[5] According to the 2011 census, the cities with the most Vietnam-born residents are London (15,337), Birmingham (1,479), Manchester (865), Nottingham (405), Leeds (374), Northampton (322), Cambridge (259), Newcastle upon Tyne (245), Bristol (220) and Leicester (202).
Languages
editAlthough the majority of the first Vietnamese immigrants to the UK spoke no English at all, second generation Vietnamese descendants as well as more recent immigrants have a better understanding of the English language.[2] According to Ethnologue, Vietnamese is the main language of 15,200 UK residents.[6]
Religion
editBy far the most common religions for Vietnamese people in the UK are Buddhism and Roman Catholicism, which are followed by roughly 80% and 20% (respectively) of the total community's total population.[7] This is roughly in line with the religious breakdown of Vietnam, where 85% of the population are Buddhists and 7% are Roman Catholic.
Education and employment
editAccording to a 2007 study, amongst the first Vietnamese refugees in the country, it was estimated that 76% received education below secondary school level. According to 2001 findings, only 18.7% of London's Vietnamese-born population had higher level qualifications, which is 15% below the London average. Despite this, in the London borough of Lewisham, Vietnamese pupils along with Chinese and Indians outperformed all other ethnic groups. Education and employment statistics for second generation British-born people of Vietnamese origin are largely uncollated.[2]
Social issues
edit
Health
editA PRIAE study in 2005 showed a high number of cases of osteoporosis and memory problems amongst elderly Vietnamese people in the UK. It is believed that the Vietnamese community in the UK finds it extremely difficult to gain access to the country's health services, the main reasons for this include unfamiliarity with the British health and social care sectors, Vietnamese cultural beliefs, and financial difficulties, as well as many immigrants being incapable of speaking English or being able to understand it in written form.[2]
Housing
editA study by Refugee Action showed that during the years leading up to 1993, the majority of Vietnamese British people were concentrated in overcrowded local authority housing. More recent findings state the reasons for South East Asians in the UK requesting council housing as being because they were told to leave the family home, health/medical issues and relationship breakdowns.[2]
Human trafficking and Modern slavery
edit39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a lorry trailer on 23 October 2019. The victims consists of mostly teenagers, who travelled in a refrigerator unit, but the refrigeration was not turned on and temperatures rose to 38.5C during the journey. This has sparked huge controversy and uproar.[8][9] In the first quarter of 2024, Vietnamese became the most common nationality of migrants crossing the English channel by boat, rising rapidly from 505 Vietnamese migrants in 2022 to 1,323 in 2023, to the first quarter of 2024 alone recording 1,060.[10] Some would have paid upwards of £20,000 to trafficking gangs, using borrowed money at interest rates of 1,000 per cent.[11] A 2023 investigation found that the majority of people being smuggled were from the province of Nghe An.[12] In response, in 2024 the Home Office launched a targeted social networking campaign to deter Vietnamese nationals from illegally migrating to the UK.[13]
Notable people
edit- Aoife Hinds, actress
- Huong Keenleyside, novelist
- Jane March, film actress and former model
- Cecile Pin, French-born writer
- Sum Ting Wong, drag performer
- Jonathan Van-Tam, healthcare professional and one of two Deputy Chief Medical Officers for England
- Michael “The Beast From The East” Pham, Muay Thai boxer
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ "TS:002 Ethnic group (detailed)". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sims, Jessica Mai (January 2007). "Vietnamese Community in Great Britain - Thirty Years On" (PDF). Runnymede Trust. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
- ^ "Country-of-birth database". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Archived from the original on 11 May 2005. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ "Table 1.3: Overseas-born population in the United Kingdom, excluding some residents in communal establishments, by sex, by country of birth, January 2014 to December 2014". Office for National Statistics. 27 August 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2016. Figure given is the central estimate. See the source for 95% confidence intervals.
- ^ "Meeting the needs of Vietnamese adult learners". National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2012-06-15.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Languages of the United Kingdom". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. SIL International. Retrieved 2012-06-15.
- ^ "Vietnamese". Directory of Information on Faiths and Cultures. National Health Service. Retrieved 2012-06-15.
- ^ "Essex lorry deaths: Men jailed for killing 39 migrants lose appeal bid". BBC. 23 November 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
- ^ Gentleman, Amelia. "Essex lorry deaths: 39 Vietnamese migrants suffocated in container, court hears". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
- ^ "Vietnamese migrants now the largest group illegally crossing Channel to UK". ITV News. 23 May 2024.
- ^ Hymas, Charlie (15 April 2024). "More migrants crossing the Channel are from Vietnam than anywhere else". The Telegraph.
- ^ Smith, Peter (3 October 2023). "Inside the people smuggling routes which Vietnamese are using to reach the UK". ITV News.
- ^ "Home Office launches 'stop the boats' ad campaign in Vietnam". BBC News. 25 March 2024.
