Khmer Krom

Khmer Krom

ជនជាតិខ្មែរក្រោម (Khmer) người Khmer Nam Bộ (Vietnamese)
Khmer Krom dancer in Trà Vinh province
Total population
c. 2.5 million[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
Southern Vietnam (Mekong Delta and SE Vietnam)	1.32 million (2019)[1]
Cambodia	1.2 million (1999)[2]
United States	30,000 (1999)[2]
France	3,000 (1999)[2]
Australia	1,000 (1999)[2]
Other countries	6,000 (1999)[2]
Languages
Khmer, Vietnamese
Religion
Theravada Buddhism 95%,[3] Roman Catholic 5%
Related ethnic groups
Khmers, Northern Khmers

The Khmer Krom (Khmer: ជនជាតិខ្មែរក្រោម, Chónchéatĕ Khmêr Kraôm, [cɔnciət kʰmae kraom]; lit. 'Lower Khmer people' or 'Southern Khmer people'; Vietnamese: người Khmer Nam Bộ, người Khmer Việt Nam, người Việt gốc Miên (used before 1975)) are ethnically Khmer people living in or from the Mekong Delta (Tây Nam Bộ), the south western part of Vietnam known in Khmer as Kampuchea Krom (Khmer: កម្ពុជាក្រោម, Kâmpŭchéa Kraôm [kampuciə kraom] lit. 'Lower Cambodia'). The Khmer Krom people are considered as the Indigenous people of Southern Vietnam and having the oldest extant recorded history of inhabiting in the region.^[4] In Vietnam, they are recognized as one of Vietnam's fifty-three ethnic minorities.

In Accordance to Resolution 117-CT/TƯ issued September 29, 1981 of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Resolution 122-CT issued on May 12, 1982 from the Vietnamese Ministry Committee, Khmer was sanctioned by the government as the only state-recognized ethnonym of the Khmer Krom people, stated that all other colloquial exonyms previously used by Vietnamese to refer to Khmer people "are incorrect and have negative racial connotations." Both Resolutions declared that any acts of misuse to misspelling that intended to incite and direct hate speech and discrimination toward the Khmer people are prohibited by the law.^[5]

In Khmer, Krom (ក្រោម kraôm) means 'low' or 'below'. It is added to differentiate from the Khmers in Cambodia. Most Khmer Krom live in Tây Nam Bộ, the southern lowland region of historical Cambodia covering an area of 89,000 square kilometres (34,363 sq mi) around modern day Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, which used to be the southeasternmost territory of the Khmer Empire until its incorporation into Vietnam under the Nguyễn lords in the early 18th century. This marks the final stage of the Vietnamese "March to the South" (Nam tiến).^[6][7]

Khmer Krom people have been members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization since 15 July 2001.^[8]

According to the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) "the Khmer Krom people face serious restrictions of freedom of expression, assembly, association, information, and movement".^[9]