CABRAMATTA

Cabramatta is in the southwestern region of Sydney. It has a large population of people speaking Vietnamese (31.16 %) and Chinese (25.42 %). Their total (56.58 %) exceeded a half of Cabramatta’s population. The following table and graph compare the population of the five major ethnic languages spoken at home. They show an extraordinarily low figure of people speaking only English (11.2 %).


Location of the surveyed area at Cabramatta:


The findings:
The language groups with the highest percentages in Cabramatta were Vietnamese and Chinese. This has turned the English-speaking population here into an ethnic minority! The streets cape is severely dominated by the two cultures and their languages. Compared to Bankstown, the concentration was much greater in Cabramatta. The cultural influences were not only reflected in the use of language, but also in its architectural designs. Chinese was the most dominant language found in this suburb, with 86 % of the shops surveyed displaying the language, which could be broken down into the following categories: Chinese only (24 %); Chinese and Vietnamese (48 %); Chinese and Khmer (4 %); and Chinese, Vietnamese, and Khmer (10 %). Although the Vietnamese-speaking population was the highest, shops displaying only Vietnamese languages accounted for just 4 % of the total number of shops surveyed. This indicated that this community was integrated under the influence of Chinese culture. This is supported by evidence in the dominance of Chinese architectural design, such as the gateway leading to the shopping plaza, inscribed with verses from prominent Chinese political leaders. It is very probable that many of these Vietnamese immigrants had Chinese ancestry and had fled to Vietnam and Cambodia from China after the communist takeover in 1949.

A multi-lingual suburb —
Chinese, Vietnamese, Khmer & English