COMMENTARY LEGAL IDENTITY AND MINORITY STATELESSNESS IN CAMBODIA: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS CHRISTOPH SPERFELDT * TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction........................................................................................................... 347 Birth Registration and Education .......................................................................... 349 ‘Foreigner’ Census and Deportations ................................................................... 349 A Numbers Game ................................................................................................. 351 Relocations and Emigration .................................................................................. 352 Pathways to Citizenship ........................................................................................ 353 INTRODUCTION This piece summarises recent developments concerning stateless Vietnamese populations in Cambodia, with a specific focus on communities residing for generations around the Tonle Sap Lake in central Cambodia. The Vietnamese are Cambodia’s largest minority. Whilst some ethnic Vietnamese have Cambodian identification documents and have integrated into society, many others continue to live at the margins of society and face difficulties substantiating their legal status. 1 Due to lack of knowledge, as well as widespread negative attitudes towards the Vietnamese among the Khmer majority population, the Royal Government of Cambodia, international development partners and local NGOs have ignored the group for years. 2 Among the notable exceptions are Minority Rights Organization (‘MIRO’) and Women Peace Makers. 3 The Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has trod carefully, relying mostly on its close government-togovernment ties. Requests to naturalise long-term Vietnamese residents have been * 1 2 3 Honorary Fellow, Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School. The author thanks Lisa Tamiakis for comments on this paper. See generally Stefan Ehrentraut, ‘Perpetually Temporary: Citizenship and Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia’ (2011) 34(5) Ethnic and Racial Studies 779; Christoph Sperfeldt, ‘Minorities and Statelessness: Social Exclusion and Citizenship in Cambodia’ (2020) 27(1) International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 94. See Ramses Amer, ‘Cambodia’s Ethnic Vietnamese: Minority Rights and Domestic Politics’ (2006) 34(3) Asian Journal of Social Science 388; Tim Frewer, ‘Cambodia’s Anti-Vietnam Obsession’, The Diplomat (online, 6 September 2016) <https://thediplomat.com/2016/09/cambodias-anti-vietnam-obsession/>. See, eg, Chanrith Ang, Noémie Weill and Jamie Chan, Limbo on Earth: An Investigative Report on the Current Living Conditions and Legal Status of Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia (Investigative Research Report No 2, Minority Rights Organisation, 2014); Suyheang Kry and Raymond Hyma, Who’s Listening? Tackling Hard Issues with Empathy, ed Melissa Martin and Karen Simbulan (Women Peace Makers 2017).