Vietnamese people in Germany
Encyclopedia
Vietnamese people in Germany form the country's largest group of resident foreigners from Asia
, with Federal Statistical Office
figures showing 83,446 Vietnam
ese nationals residing in Germany
at the end of 2005. Not included in those figures are individuals of Vietnamese origin or descent who have naturalised as German citizens
. Between 1981 and 2007, 41,499 people gave up Vietnamese citizenship to take German nationality. A further 40,000 irregular migrants of Vietnamese origin were estimated to live in Germany, largely concentrated in the Eastern states, .
. The first of the boat people
who fled the country after the fall of Saigon, consisting of 208 families totalling 640 individuals who had fled on board the Hai Hong, arrived in Hanover
on 3 December 1978 by plane. None spoke German. Several factors aided their social and economic integration into German society. They received official aid in the form of social benefits and job placement assistance, as well as broader societal support for their successful adaptation to German life. Further, unlike other migrant groups, they knew that they had no option to return to their country of origin if they failed in their adopted land. They spread out through a variety of economic sectors, but were somewhat concentrated in the metal industry. By the eve of German reunification
, West Germany had roughly 33,000 Vietnamese immigrants, largely consisting of boat people and their relatives who were admitted under family reunification schemes.
ese students to attend study and training programmes there as early as the 1950s; cooperation expanded in 1973, when they pledged to train a further 10,000 Vietnamese citizens in the following ten years. In 1980, they signed an agreement with the reunified Socialist Republic of Vietnam for enterprises in East Germany to provide training to Vietnamese; between 1987 and 1989. The East German government viewed industrial trainee programmes not just as a means to increase the labour supply to local industry, but also as development aid to the poorer members of the socialist bloc. By the mid-1980s, Vietnamese, along with Mozambicans, comprised the main groups of foreign labourers in the GDR. From a population of just 2,482 in 1980, the number of Vietnamese residents of East Germany grew to 59,053 by 1989, with the largest influx in 1987 and 1988. They were concentrated mainly in Karl-Marx-Stadt, Dresden
, Erfurt
, East Berlin
, and Leipzig
. Their contracts were supposed to last for five years, after which they would return home.
Vietnamese guest workers received salaries of roughly M
400/month, of which 12% went to the government of Vietnam, and another portion was paid in consumer goods—mainly sewing machines, bicycles, clothes, sugar, and soap—instead of cash, due to inflation. In terms of their characteristics and relations to mainstream society, they were almost the exact opposite of the boat people: they were the elite of their country of origin, rather than refugees from it, and they knew that they would leave Germany, so put forth little effort towards integrating into East German society or learning the local language. Despite the official rhetoric of socialist brotherhood, personal contacts between Vietnamese trainees and their German co-workers were discouraged; furthermore, pregnancies among female Vietnamese workers were punished by forced abortions. They were sometimes subject to xenophobic violence, and even when their physical safety was maintained, they became the target of resentment due to their preferential access to consumer goods. Despite their thoroughly socialist context, many helped their families to become petty capitalists, using raw materials and sewing machines sent back to Vietnam to privately produce fashionable clothing, such as imitation stone-washed jeans
, and sell it to their neighbours.
, the German government sought to reduce the populations of former guest workers in the east by offering each DM
3,000 to leave the country and return home. Tens of thousands took this offer, but they were soon replaced by a further influx of Vietnamese asylum-seekers who had been employed as contract workers in other Eastern Europe
an nations. Throughout the 1990s, German attempts to repatriate the new immigrants back to their country of origin were not particularly successful, due to both Berlin's reluctance to forcibly deport them, and Hanoi's refusal to re-admit them; however, nearly four-tenths were barred from permanent residency in Germany.
Tensions between Germans and Vietnamese broke out into violence beginning on 22 August 1992 in the northeastern city of Rostock
, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where neo-Nazis attacked Roma people, and then, on the third day of the riots, set fire to a housing complex where over 100 Vietnamese asylum-seekers lived. Some were injured, but none died; the police evacuated the Vietnamese residents but took no action against their attackers. A week later, extremist demonstrators burned a tent city in Berlin. Though some local residents cheered them on in Rostock, the rest of Germany was far more critical of their actions; 15,000 leftists staged a march through Rostock to condemn the violence. Rostock's
mayor, Klaus Kilimann, remained out of town on holiday until the third day of the crisis, and was blamed for exacerbating the situation by not ordering the police into action earlier; he in turn blamed state officials, but after continuing pressure, finally resigned in late 1993.
Gangs became rampant in the Vietnamese community in Germany after reunification, with about half a dozen gangs competing for turf in the Berlin area in 1996, each with about 150 members. In the first 5 months of the year, there were 15 recorded killings among them. These criminal enterprises primarily smuggled cigarettes, but also branched out to gambling, prostitution, and video and audio piracy. In 1994, Vietnam agreed to accept the guest workers in exchange for US$
65 million in "development assistance", but by the end of they year only 67 were accepted instead of the agreed number of 2,500. Some investigators believe that Hanoi is reluctant to accept the guest workers because those behind the gangs operating in Germany may be high-ranking government officials or army officers.
of Vietnamese Germans is very unusual. Vietnamese Vertragsarbeiter, who fell pregnant during their stay in the GDR, were subjected to forced abortions or forced deportions, so that most second generation Vietnamese are born after 1989.
The Vietnamese population in Germany is fairly young compared to the average and to other minority groups; 25% consist of children 15 and under, 63% are between the ages of 15-45, with only 10% in the 45-65 age bracket and 2% over the age of 65. 10,000 live in Berlin, of whom roughly one-quarter consist of Hoa (descendants of Chinese immigrants to Vietnam). Vietnamese, along with Koreans, form one of the only Asian groups in which men and women migrated to Germany in roughly equal numbers, at least among legal residents; in contrast, there are far more Thai and Filipino women than men in Germany, while the reverse holds true for Chinese and Indians.
After the 1993 announcement that only those who had a legal means of financial support would be able to receive a residential permit, even more former guest workers, with little hope of achieving professional employment due to their poor German language skills, turned to self-employment. Floral stands and grocery stores were two common business choices. Others imported cheap products from Vietnam, especially garments, and sold them in small family-scale businesses; however, they could not compete with large discount retailers.
Due to the economic pressures on small retailers, the number of unemployed Vietnamese in Germany has shown an upward trend, rising to 1,057 individuals in 2000.
's Vien Giac, the largest Buddhist pagoda in Europe. The temples, as well as street parades staged during important festivals, thus serve as important focal points for identity formation among Vietnamese Buddhists in Germany, and a sign that they are making themselves feel at home in their adopted country. At the same time, however, the temples and their visibility in public space have provoked backlash from German neighbours, who feel they are a symbol of non-assimilation to German society.
Catholics form a smaller community; as of May 1999, there were 12,000 Vietnamese Catholics in Germany, according to the statistics of the Conference of the German Bishops
.
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, with Federal Statistical Office
Federal Statistical Office of Germany
The Federal Statistical Office of Germany is a federal authority of Germany. It is a part of the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Germany....
figures showing 83,446 Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese nationals residing in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
at the end of 2005. Not included in those figures are individuals of Vietnamese origin or descent who have naturalised as German citizens
German nationality law
German citizenship is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis. In other words one usually acquires German citizenship if a parent is a German citizen, irrespective of place of birth....
. Between 1981 and 2007, 41,499 people gave up Vietnamese citizenship to take German nationality. A further 40,000 irregular migrants of Vietnamese origin were estimated to live in Germany, largely concentrated in the Eastern states, .
West Germany
The Vietnamese community in West Germany consists of refugees from the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The first of the boat people
Boat people
Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made...
who fled the country after the fall of Saigon, consisting of 208 families totalling 640 individuals who had fled on board the Hai Hong, arrived in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
on 3 December 1978 by plane. None spoke German. Several factors aided their social and economic integration into German society. They received official aid in the form of social benefits and job placement assistance, as well as broader societal support for their successful adaptation to German life. Further, unlike other migrant groups, they knew that they had no option to return to their country of origin if they failed in their adopted land. They spread out through a variety of economic sectors, but were somewhat concentrated in the metal industry. By the eve of German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
, West Germany had roughly 33,000 Vietnamese immigrants, largely consisting of boat people and their relatives who were admitted under family reunification schemes.
East Germany
East Germany began to invite North VietnamNorth Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
ese students to attend study and training programmes there as early as the 1950s; cooperation expanded in 1973, when they pledged to train a further 10,000 Vietnamese citizens in the following ten years. In 1980, they signed an agreement with the reunified Socialist Republic of Vietnam for enterprises in East Germany to provide training to Vietnamese; between 1987 and 1989. The East German government viewed industrial trainee programmes not just as a means to increase the labour supply to local industry, but also as development aid to the poorer members of the socialist bloc. By the mid-1980s, Vietnamese, along with Mozambicans, comprised the main groups of foreign labourers in the GDR. From a population of just 2,482 in 1980, the number of Vietnamese residents of East Germany grew to 59,053 by 1989, with the largest influx in 1987 and 1988. They were concentrated mainly in Karl-Marx-Stadt, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Erfurt
Erfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
, East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
, and Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. Their contracts were supposed to last for five years, after which they would return home.
Vietnamese guest workers received salaries of roughly M
East German mark
The East German mark commonly called the eastern mark , in East Germany only Mark, was the currency of the German Democratic Republic . Its ISO 4217 currency code was DDM...
400/month, of which 12% went to the government of Vietnam, and another portion was paid in consumer goods—mainly sewing machines, bicycles, clothes, sugar, and soap—instead of cash, due to inflation. In terms of their characteristics and relations to mainstream society, they were almost the exact opposite of the boat people: they were the elite of their country of origin, rather than refugees from it, and they knew that they would leave Germany, so put forth little effort towards integrating into East German society or learning the local language. Despite the official rhetoric of socialist brotherhood, personal contacts between Vietnamese trainees and their German co-workers were discouraged; furthermore, pregnancies among female Vietnamese workers were punished by forced abortions. They were sometimes subject to xenophobic violence, and even when their physical safety was maintained, they became the target of resentment due to their preferential access to consumer goods. Despite their thoroughly socialist context, many helped their families to become petty capitalists, using raw materials and sewing machines sent back to Vietnam to privately produce fashionable clothing, such as imitation stone-washed jeans
Stone washing
Stone washing is a textile manufacturing process used to give a newly manufactured cloth garment a worn-out appearance. Stone-washing also helps to increase the softness and flexibility of otherwise stiff and rigid fabrics such as canvas and denim....
, and sell it to their neighbours.
Post-reunification
After German reunificationGerman reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
, the German government sought to reduce the populations of former guest workers in the east by offering each DM
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
3,000 to leave the country and return home. Tens of thousands took this offer, but they were soon replaced by a further influx of Vietnamese asylum-seekers who had been employed as contract workers in other Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an nations. Throughout the 1990s, German attempts to repatriate the new immigrants back to their country of origin were not particularly successful, due to both Berlin's reluctance to forcibly deport them, and Hanoi's refusal to re-admit them; however, nearly four-tenths were barred from permanent residency in Germany.
Tensions between Germans and Vietnamese broke out into violence beginning on 22 August 1992 in the northeastern city of Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where neo-Nazis attacked Roma people, and then, on the third day of the riots, set fire to a housing complex where over 100 Vietnamese asylum-seekers lived. Some were injured, but none died; the police evacuated the Vietnamese residents but took no action against their attackers. A week later, extremist demonstrators burned a tent city in Berlin. Though some local residents cheered them on in Rostock, the rest of Germany was far more critical of their actions; 15,000 leftists staged a march through Rostock to condemn the violence. Rostock's
mayor, Klaus Kilimann, remained out of town on holiday until the third day of the crisis, and was blamed for exacerbating the situation by not ordering the police into action earlier; he in turn blamed state officials, but after continuing pressure, finally resigned in late 1993.
Gangs became rampant in the Vietnamese community in Germany after reunification, with about half a dozen gangs competing for turf in the Berlin area in 1996, each with about 150 members. In the first 5 months of the year, there were 15 recorded killings among them. These criminal enterprises primarily smuggled cigarettes, but also branched out to gambling, prostitution, and video and audio piracy. In 1994, Vietnam agreed to accept the guest workers in exchange for US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
65 million in "development assistance", but by the end of they year only 67 were accepted instead of the agreed number of 2,500. Some investigators believe that Hanoi is reluctant to accept the guest workers because those behind the gangs operating in Germany may be high-ranking government officials or army officers.
Demography and distribution
The population pyramidPopulation pyramid
A population pyramid, also called an age structure diagram, is a graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a population , which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is growing...
of Vietnamese Germans is very unusual. Vietnamese Vertragsarbeiter, who fell pregnant during their stay in the GDR, were subjected to forced abortions or forced deportions, so that most second generation Vietnamese are born after 1989.
The Vietnamese population in Germany is fairly young compared to the average and to other minority groups; 25% consist of children 15 and under, 63% are between the ages of 15-45, with only 10% in the 45-65 age bracket and 2% over the age of 65. 10,000 live in Berlin, of whom roughly one-quarter consist of Hoa (descendants of Chinese immigrants to Vietnam). Vietnamese, along with Koreans, form one of the only Asian groups in which men and women migrated to Germany in roughly equal numbers, at least among legal residents; in contrast, there are far more Thai and Filipino women than men in Germany, while the reverse holds true for Chinese and Indians.
Employment
With the loss of their jobs, many Vietnamese guest workers turned to street vending, especially of smuggled cigarettes, while others subsisted on meagre unemployment benefits. Media portrayals of cigarette vendors were initially sympathetic, but by 1993, increasingly emphasised their link with organised crime. Cigarette vendors were subject to frequent police abuse; in Berlin, some Vietnamese residents even started a street fight with a police officer who frequently beat up one cigarette vendor, and threatened to hold a protest and block traffic to bring attention to the issue. By mid-1994, discussion of the police abuse of Vietnamese dominated local media; more than 85 investigations were opened against police officers in Berlin and surrounding areas, but in the end, only five officers were punished.After the 1993 announcement that only those who had a legal means of financial support would be able to receive a residential permit, even more former guest workers, with little hope of achieving professional employment due to their poor German language skills, turned to self-employment. Floral stands and grocery stores were two common business choices. Others imported cheap products from Vietnam, especially garments, and sold them in small family-scale businesses; however, they could not compete with large discount retailers.
Due to the economic pressures on small retailers, the number of unemployed Vietnamese in Germany has shown an upward trend, rising to 1,057 individuals in 2000.
Education
2008 studies by German education experts show that the children of former Vietnamese guest-workers are also among the highest performing pupils in German schools, especially those in East Germany.Internal divisions
Even after the reunification of their host country, the Vietnamese community in Germany remains divided. Initial sympathy by southerners towards northerners was replaced by suspicion, with the former boat people's staunch anti-Communism aggravating the former guest workers. The former boat people are also far better-integrated into society, and speak German well. However, the children of the boat people retain only tenuous links to Vietnamese culture; in many cases, their parents spoke to them in German rather than Vietnamese, with the hope of speeding their integration; as a result, the parents' German improved with the constant practise, while the children's Vietnamese skills atrophied. In contrast, many of the former guest workers from East Germany speak German poorly.Religion
The majority of Vietnamese migrants in Germany are at least nominal Buddhists. Vietnamese-style Buddhist temples they have set up serve as one of the most noticeable marks of their presence in the country, the most notable example being Lower SaxonyLower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
's Vien Giac, the largest Buddhist pagoda in Europe. The temples, as well as street parades staged during important festivals, thus serve as important focal points for identity formation among Vietnamese Buddhists in Germany, and a sign that they are making themselves feel at home in their adopted country. At the same time, however, the temples and their visibility in public space have provoked backlash from German neighbours, who feel they are a symbol of non-assimilation to German society.
Catholics form a smaller community; as of May 1999, there were 12,000 Vietnamese Catholics in Germany, according to the statistics of the Conference of the German Bishops
Conference of the German Bishops
The German Bishops' Conference is the episcopal conference of the bishops of the Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany. Members include diocesan bishops, coadjutors, auxiliary bishops, and diocesan administrators....
.
Notable people
This is a list of Vietnamese expatriates in Germany and German citizens of Vietnamese origin or descent.- Philipp RöslerPhilipp RöslerPhilipp Rösler is a German politician, who, since 2011, has been the Federal Minister of Economics and Technology and the Vice Chancellor of Germany...
, Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology and Chairman of the Free Democratic Party, adopted from Vietnam as an infant - Phạm Nguyễn Lan Phiên, piano prodigy, youngest piano student accepted at the Frankfurt College of Music
- Minh-Khai Phan-Thi, actress and former presenter for German music channel "VIVA"
- Marcel Nguyen, Gymnast