What is it about?
This study explores how the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic has developed over more than seventy years, from the first organized migration during the socialist period to one of the country’s most established minority communities today. Combining census and statistical data with long-term ethnographic observation in Prague and Brno, we examine changes in migration, settlement, employment, community life and identity. We pay particular attention to the locally used term “Việt Xù”, which reflects the distinctive experience and identity of Vietnamese people living in Czechia. The study shows how Vietnamese migrants moved from state-organized labor and educational migration to entrepreneurship and increasingly diverse forms of employment. Places such as Sapa in Prague and Vinamo in Brno have become important economic, social and cultural centers. At the same time, the community continues to face challenges including language barriers, social distance and racism. Younger generations are changing this picture. Growing up with Czech language and culture, they are increasingly integrated into Czech society while also negotiating their relationship with Vietnamese heritage and identity.
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Why is it important?
The Vietnamese experience in Czechia shows that migration is not simply a story of newcomers adapting to a host country. Over several generations, migrants can become an established part of the society in which they live and actively reshape its economy, culture and understanding of national belonging. The Czech case is particularly significant because the Vietnamese community developed from socialist-era migration into a formally recognized national minority. This challenges traditional distinctions between “migrants” and “minorities” in Central Europe. Understanding this transformation can help researchers, policymakers and the wider public think differently about integration: not as a one-way process of assimilation, but as a long-term transformation involving migrants, their descendants and the society around them.
Perspectives
One of the most revealing aspects of the Vietnamese experience in Czechia is the community’s own term for itself: “Việt Xù”. Rather than simply reproducing the widely used Vietnamese term “Việt Kiều” for overseas Vietnamese, this locally developed expression reflects a distinctive history of living between Vietnamese and Czech social worlds. Long-term observation of Vietnamese communities in Prague and Brno shows that integration does not necessarily mean abandoning one identity in favor of another. Vietnamese-run businesses, associations and community spaces such as Sapa and Vinamo can preserve cultural ties and create a sense of belonging, while younger generations increasingly participate in Czech society through language, education and everyday social life. The result is not a simple transition from “Vietnamese” to “Czech”. It is the emergence of new forms of belonging shaped by migration, generation, memory and everyday life in Czechia.
Ph.D. Filip Kraus
Palacký University Olomouc
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: From Migrant Group to Ethnic Minority Group: Internal Perspectives on the Formation of the Vietnamese Diaspora in the Czech Republic, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences s VSSR, December 2025, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences's VSSR,
DOI: 10.56794/vssr.4(225).80-99.
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