Overseas Vietnamese

Overseas Vietnamese (Vietnamese: Người Việt Hải Ngoại, which literally means "Overseas Vietnamese", or Việt Kiều, a Sino-Vietnamese word literally translating to "Vietnamese sojourner") refers to Vietnamese people living outside Vietnam in a diaspora. Of the about 3 million Overseas Vietnamese, a majority left Vietnam as refugees after 1975 as a result of the Fall of Saigon and the resulting takeover by the Communist regime.

The term "Việt Kiều" is used by people in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to refer to ethnic Vietnamese living outside of the country, and is not a term of self-identification. The Overseas Vietnamese community itself rarely use this for self-identification, instead, most prefer the technically correct term of Người Việt Hải Ngoại (literally translating to Overseas Vietnamese), or occasionally Người Việt Tự Do (Free Vietnamese).