Question: Do Khmers who live in Vietnam consider themselves Vietnamese or Cambodians? And do Khmers in Thailand think of themselves as Thai or Cambodians, too?
Answer: I think that it depends on the person but you should distinguish the different concepts between nationality and ethnicity.
Vietnam
The Vietnamese and/or Cambodian are national identity and the Khmer is just etthnical identity. In Vietnam, the Khmer people are recognized as the Vietnamese nationality having the Khmer ethnical identity.
And the Khmer people in Vietnam consider themself as the Khmer ethnicity but the Vietnamese nationality. It is why they are willing to get the Vietnamese national identity card.
The Khmer people in Vietnam get the Vietnamese National Identity Card
There are no laws to prevent/Limit the Khmer people in Vietnam to acquire their Vietnamese national identity card. And Vietnam has other 52 minority ethnic like the Khmer people and none of them are discriminated against by the Vietnamese law for the basic right of having Vietnam national identity of who have lived for generations in Vietnam including the Khmer ethnic, the Hoa ethnic, Laos ethnic, Thai ethnic..etc.
I am an attorney in the Washington DC area, with a Doctor of Law in the US, attended the master program at the National School of Administration of Việt Nam, and graduated from Sài Gòn University Law School. I aso studied philosophy at the School of Letters in Sài Gòn.
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I have worked as an anti-trust attorney for Federal Trade Commission and a litigator for a fortune-100 telecom company in Washington DC.
I have taught law courses for legal professionals in Việt Nam and still counsel VN government agencies on legal matters.
I have founded and managed businesses for me and my family, both law and non-law.
I have published many articles on national newspapers and radio stations in Việt Nam.
In 1989 I was one of the founding members of US-VN Trade Council, working to re-establish US-VN relationship.
Since the early 90's, I have established and managed VNFORUM and VNBIZ forum on VN-related matters; these forums are the subject of a PhD thesis by Dr. Caroline Valverde at UC-Berkeley and her book Transnationalizing Viet Nam.
I translate poetry and my translation of "A Request at Đồng Lộc Cemetery" is now engraved on a stone memorial at Đồng Lộc National Shrine in VN.
I study and teach the Bible and Buddhism. In 2009 I founded and still manage dotchuoinon.com on positive thinking and two other blogs on Buddhism.
In 2015 a group of friends and I founded website CVD - Conversations on Vietnam Development (cvdvn.net).
I study the art of leadership with many friends who are religious, business and government leaders from many countries.
I have written these books, published by Phu Nu Publishing House in Hanoi:
"Positive Thinking to Change Your Life", in Vietnamese (TƯ DUY TÍCH CỰC Thay Đổi Cuộc Sống) (Oct. 2011)
"10 Core Values for Success" (10 Giá trị cốt lõi của thành công) (Dec. 2013)
"Live a Life Worth Living" (Sống Một Cuộc Đời Đáng Sống) (Oct. 2023)
I practice Jiu Jitsu and Tai Chi for health, and play guitar as a hobby, usually accompanying my wife Trần Lê Túy Phượng, aka singer Linh Phượng.
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CVD 