Total population | |
---|---|
80,000 (2020)[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Paris, Lyon[2] | |
Languages | |
French, Khmer | |
Religion | |
Theravada Buddhism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Asians in France |
Cambodians in France (French: Cambodgiens en France; Khmer: ជនជាតិខ្មែរនៅប្រទេសបារាំង) consist of ethnic Khmer people who were born in or immigrated to France. The population as of 2020 was estimated to be about 80,000 making the community one of the largest in the Cambodian diaspora.[1] 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 including the horrors of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge who took over in Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975. A few numbers of Cambodian people were able to escape and migrate to France before the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia as the Cambodian Civil War came to an end and overthrow U.S.-backed military dictatorship of Lon Nol and the Khmer Republic. His brother Lon Non and the other Khmer officials were arrested and executed by the CPK, the Marxist-Leninist dictatorship that seized power in Phnom Penh. 13 days before the Fall of Saigon and the Second Indochina War ended on 30 April 1975.