Laos

Vietnamese moved into Laos in numbers under French administration, staffing the colonial civil service and the trades, and in some towns of the Mekong corridor they formed the majority of the urban population. Savannakhet, Thakhek and Vientiane all had Vietnamese schools, temples and associations before either country was independent. Much of the community left during the wars; what remains is old, settled and quietly central to the commerce of those towns.

The migrations that built it

1. 01 French Indochina: administrators, traders and craftsmen
2. 02 1945–1975: departures through the war years
3. 03 1990s onward: renewed trade and labor migration