where did vietnamese people originate from?
Asian
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 Vietnamese settlers began to settle in modern @-@ day Cochinchina and Ho Chi Minh City from the 1620s onwards . To the Cambodians , these lands were known as Kampuchea Krom and traditionally under the control of the Khmer Empire . From the era of Chey Chettha II onwards , they came under the control of the Nguyễn lords . In 1813 , Emperor Gia Long sent 10 @,@ 000 Vietnamese troops into Phnom Penh and some members of the Cambodian royal family came under the control of the Vietnamese court . The Nguyen court imposed Vietnamese customs upon the Cambodian populace , and names of towns and provinces were changed to Vietnamese ones . Vietnamese settlers were encouraged to settle in Cambodia and official documents from the Vietnamese court recorded an average of 5 @,@ 000 Vietnamese settlers coming into Cambodia in the 1830s . The policies imposed by the Nguyen court stirred resentment among the Cambodian populace and provoked occasional rebellions . 

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 Migrations from northern China populated Yunnan , Guangdong , and northern Vietnam . The political turmoil that followed Wang Mang 's usurpation led to another wave of Chinese migration . Han settlers and soldiers from the north were affected by diseases common in tropical regions , such as malaria and schistosomiasis . 

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 Vietnamese Cambodians ( Khmer : ខ ្ មែរវៀត , KhmerViet ) refer to ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia . They mostly reside in southeastern parts Cambodia bordering Vietnam or on boathouses in the Tonlé Sap lake and Mekong rivers . The first Vietnamese came to settle modern @-@ day Cambodia from the early 19th century during the era of the Nguyễn lords , and most of the Vietnamese came to Cambodia during the periods of French colonial administration and the People 's Republic of Kampuchea administration . During the Khmer Republic and Khmer Rouge governments in the 1970s , the Vietnamese were targets of mass genocides thousands of Vietnamese were killed and many more sought refuge in Vietnam . Ethnic relations between the Khmers and Vietnamese are poor , and the Vietnamese have been the main target of xenophobic attacks by political parties since the 1990s . Most of the Vietnamese are stateless residents of Cambodia , and as a result they face difficulties in getting access to education , employment and housing . 

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 The Vietnamese are generally concentrated along the river banks of the Tonlé Sap lake and Mekong river which encompass the provinces of Siem Reap , Kampong Chhnang and Pursat . Smaller populations may be found in Phnom Penh as well as southeastern provinces bordering Vietnam , namely Prey Veng , Svay Rieng , Kampot , Kandal , Kratié and Takeo . The Vietnamese population was at its largest in 1962 when the government census showed that they were the country 's largest minority and reflected 3 @.@ 8 % of the country 's population . Demographic researchers returned higher estimated numbers of Vietnamese than government censuses reflect . For example , in the 1960s , the number of resident Vietnamese may be as high as 400 @,@ 000 , while another Cambodian @-@ based researcher , Michael Vickery had estimated the Vietnamese resident population to be between 200 @,@ 000 and 300 @,@ 000 in 1986 . On the other hand , government censuses conducted during the 1980s put the figures to be no more than 60 @,@ 000 . The following population figures shows population figures of ethnic Vietnamese based on figures derived from government censuses : 

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 In 1880 , the French colonial administration to provide subject status to Vietnamese residents in Cambodia . Over the next fifty years , large numbers of Vietnamese migrated to Cambodia . Population censuses conducted by the French recorded an increase in the Vietnamese population from about 4 @,@ 500 in the 1860s to almost 200 @,@ 000 at the end of the 1930s . When the Japanese invaded Indochina in 1940 , Vietnamese nationalists in Cambodia launched a brief but unsuccessful attempt to attack the French colonial administrators . In 1954 , a citizenship law was passed on the basis of knowledge in the Khmer language and national origin , and effectively excluded most Vietnamese and Chinese Cambodians . At the grassroots level , Vietnamese also faced occasional cases of violent intimidation from the Cambodians . During a Sangkum congress in 1962 , politicians debated on the issue of citizenship on Cambodia 's ethnic minorities and a resolution was passed not to grant naturalization of Vietnamese residents . 
