Vietnamese community in Paris?
 

Is there a quarter or at least a small concentration of Vietnamese people and businesses in Paris? I'm not talking about restaurants but rather French residents descended from Vietnamese immigrants and the services they provide to the community.

I found an article that generally discussed various aspects of Asian immigrant groups in Paris and it was a little helpful, mentioning belleville, and the 3rd arrondissment as having concentrated Chinese communities but it wasn't clear to me where to look for little Saigons and the like. http://goldsea.com/Features/Parisasi...risasians.html

Is the community so politically divided that there is no concentrated area? The article mentioned that the Vietnamese have incorporated into French society via inter-marriage but I'm still surprised to not find much on an ex-pat community. If anyone knows of or has frequented these areas, I'd love to hear a little more.

It may well be that there is no special Vietnamese area in Paris, if the situation here in Montreal is anything to go by. Montreal received huge numbers of Vietnamese immigrants, but there is no one part of the city that is "Little Vietnam."

As the article said about Paris, the Vietnamese in Montreal have generally integrated into the community as well. And I don't think it has anything to do with politics but rather with the fact that the Vietnamese tend to be very entrepreneurial or disciplined or whatever you want to call it: They have "landed on their feet."

I believe that the "Chinese" community in the 12th arrondissement is actually heavily Vietnamese.

13th Michael, near Porte d'Italie :-)

It sounds like that article was fairly accurate -- I would say generally around Belleville and then the 13th, and a few others places, just like it said.

As others said, the 13th area called "Chinatown" commonly, has large segments of other Asian peoples, including Vietnamese.

I don't understand your comment about being politically divided, but French Indochina was a long time ago, you know, that are you not going to find current recent Vietnamese immigrants because of that.

I've spent a little time walking around the 13th, as I recall, there is a Vietnamese art theater there (cinema) which is pretty good.

I hit the button too soon -- I was going to say that they celebrate both Chinese and Vietnamese New Year's in "Chinatown" area of Paris, for example. The main streets are ave d'Ivry and Choisy. There are tons of supermarkets, stores, restaurants, etc. in that area.

I can't find a current listing of that cinema (it may have been Chinese, I forget), but it was kind of small so may not be open any more.

cocofromdijon, of course. I knew that it was near the Place d'Italie because we had friends living in the highrises there. Just got the number wrong.

thanks so much -- I'll check these areas out next week when I arrive. Most Vietnamese communities are deeply divided about the outcome of the revolution during the 1960s and 70s. Being from S. California, I know that the antagonisms are pretty intense -- one of my roommates had the "wrong" flag up in our living room which was visible from the residential street we lived on. We came home one day to the front of our house plastered with copies of the other flag, along with some veiled threats about being careful of firebombs. (we took the flag down...) The article I cited also mentioned a fatal stabbing during a "political argument" amongst S.E Asian students (Cambodian and Vietnamese?) at the Cité Universitaire in the 1970s. Very sad, but when we recall what was happening during that period I can see how it happened. Thanks for the references.

One thing you seem to be forgetting is how long ago France's special relationaship with Viet Nam ended - Dien Bien Phu was 1954 after all - meaning that even people who came to France as infants are 50+.

My understanding is that much of the "community" has assimilated in 50 years.

A lot of them moved there after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

pss georgiegirl :-) ta messagerie ne fonctionne plus? j'ai eu 3 messages d'erreur :-(
à bientôt ;-)
coco