Although our neighborhood is considered a residential area, it hardly seems so with so many shops and small businesses open along our street. On almost every corner there are small shops with “potraviny” written on it, which stands for groceries in Czech. Most of these small shops are run by Vietnamese people and I was surprised to learn that besides Czechs, Vietnamese are the second largest population in the Czech Republic, and in 2009 it was estimated that there were more than 60,000 Vietnamese people residing here.
During the Communist period, the Czech Republic invited Vietnamese immigrants as guest workers, who would return to Vietnam with skills and training. After the fall of Communism however, most Vietnamese stayed in the Czech Republic. During the 1990s and 2000s, Vietnamese people continued to migrate to the Czech Republic. The small business sector is the key economic domain of first-generation Vietnamese people, which is evident by the number of small shops open on our street run by Vietnamese people. Second generation Vietnamese are known for high levels of educational attainment and outperforming their Czech classmates. I love having the little shops open on every corner because they are convenient and in my experience, have the freshest food, especially fruit. I have yet to see a store here that is as big as Wal-mart and even the chain supermarkets are pretty small. I wish that in the States shops were smaller like they are here and easier to get to, it seems that everything here is a short walk away as opposed to always having to drive like in Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment