Cambodians in France
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (80,000 (2011)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Paris, Lyon | |
| Languages | |
| French, Khmer | |
| Religion | |
| Theravada Buddhism |
Cambodians in France consist of ethnic Khmer people 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.
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 1976, 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 finding government assistance.
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