Under communism they came as guest workers, then they conquered the world of mini markets. Today, Vietnamese are present in the economy, culture, ministries and sports of the Czech Republic.
Little Hanoi in Prague – The area of the Vietnamese megapark Sapa on the southern edge of Prague
Billboards in Vietnamese, a huge market like a maze, shabby halls, shops large and small, restaurants offering everything from takeaway to fine dining – this is Sapa, a piece of Vietnam in the middle of the Czech Republic. The Vietnamese market town in the capital Prague is the equivalent of Chinatown in New York, San Francisco and London. It is also popularly known as Little Hanoi. Here, in the Libus district of Prague, on the southern outskirts of the Czech capital, several thousand Vietnamese live and work on 350,000 square meters. The complex is much more than just a huge market: Sapa is the center of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. The place is so extraordinary that there is even a travel agency called Sapa Trip that organizes tours for tourists through the market.
Little Vietnam on the outskirts of Prague
It's Thursday afternoon and Vietnamese predominate among the sellers and buyers, as well as in the restaurants, at the hairdresser's or in the Buddhist temple. “We come here to buy Vietnamese groceries,” says a young woman. “Here we get everything, like in Vietnam.” And a young Vietnamese with the Czech first name Jan adds: “For us it's more than a market. It's our little Vietnamese world.”
The Sapa market in the south of Prague attracts with small and large shops
In some places, the health inspector would probably raise an eyebrow. At the same time, bizarrely exotic offers lure, for example at the vegetable and fruit stands with fruits that are completely unknown to Czechs. Nevertheless, many of them like to come here to shop. Like Helena Vodenkova, a 50-year-old from Prague. “There's a wide range of vegetables, fruits, seafood, Asian sauces or spices. And it's not expensive,” she says. However, she has to pay in cash because cards are not accepted here. Even the Vietnamese couple who makes a bulk purchase worth 700 euros in a huge supermarket pays with a wad of bills.
Guest workers and mini markets
The Vietnamese community, which various estimates number between 60,000 and 100,000, is officially the third-largest ethnic minority in the ten-million-population Czech Republic, after Slovaks and Ukrainians. It is exceptional not only for its size, but also for its influence and for its smooth coexistence with the Czech majority society.
“Vietnamese came here more than 60 years ago as part of the former Czechoslovakia's relief efforts for Vietnam “, says Milos Kusy, chairman of the Czech-Vietnamese Society, in an interview with DW. “They came as students and apprentices, proved extremely hardworking and learned quickly.”
Milos Kusy, President of the Czech-Vietnamese Society
Therefore, in 1975 it was decided to combat the labor shortage in Czechoslovakia's factories by recruiting in Vietnam. Her exceptional diligence, her willingness to integrate into society and a minimal crime rate compared to other immigrant foreigners contributed to her integration , explains Kusy. This also explains why the otherwise rather xenophobic Czechs have no problem with the Vietnamese immigrants.
“After the fall of communism in 1990, Vietnamese were allowed to open their own shops in the Czech Republic. That started the big boom in Vietnamese mini-markets,” Kusy continues. Vietnamese food and textile shops opened up all over the country in the 1990s. “They were lifesavers, so to speak, especially for socially disadvantaged Czech families. Clothing in particular was offered at extremely low prices, so that even poorer Czechs could afford them,” says Kusy. “Another advantage was the almost unlimited opening hours, seven days a week.” This earned the Vietnamese an extraordinary amount of respect among the Czechs. According to a survey by the opinion research institute CVVM from 2020, the Vietnamese ranked fourth on the popularity list for minorities in the Czech Republic, behind Slovaks, Poles and Hungarians – and ahead of the Germans. Only 21 percent of respondents saw them negatively.
New generation of Czech Vietnamese
Today, the second generation of Vietnamese born in the Czech Republic have reached adulthood and hold Czech citizenship. The third generation is already going to schools and kindergartens. “Vietnamese children are excellent learners. Many Vietnamese study at Czech universities, especially in the fields of economics and technology,” Marcel Winter, honorary chairman of the Czech-Vietnamese Society, told DW. Today representatives of the new generation serve as officers in the Czech army and in senior positions in the ministries. For example, the Foreign Minister's spokeswoman, Lenka Do, is of Vietnamese descent.
Lenka Do, spokeswoman for the Czech Foreign Ministry
There are also many Vietnamese among lawyers, actors and athletes. Filip Nguem was voted best soccer goalkeeper three years ago, Monika Leova was crowned Miss Czech Republic and actress Ha Thanh Spetlikova is a star of TV series. “From an early age, our parents drummed into us that we are immigrants and that we have to try harder than others, that we have to be better than our Czech classmates. So it's embedded in our mentality that we try 200 percent have to,” says Tuan Lam Hoang, a 28-year-old lawyer.
Vietnamese fans at a tennis tournament in the Czech Republic
A lesser known and less enjoyable chapter in the history of the Vietnamese in the Czech Republic is their dominance in the drug trade. “It only affects a few hundred Vietnamese. Most of the community has clearly distanced itself from them, recognizing that they not only damage the reputation of the entire minority, but also spread drugs among Vietnamese youth,” said the chairman. of the Czech-Vietnamese Society, Milos Kusy.
Vietnamese mainly dominated the production of amphetamine, which they would have brought to an “industrial level”. “They only had five percent of the crystal meth breweries, but they produced up to 80 percent of the crystal meth in the Czech Republic,” explains Kusy. Through members of the Vietnamese minority in Germany, they also controlled the market for the hard drug in the Federal Republic. However, this crime is declining thanks to the successful interventions of the Czech and German police and their cooperation with the Vietnamese community. Nevertheless, the Czech Republic has severely restricted the issuing of visas to Vietnamese since 2016.