<P> There are an estimated 14,900 ethnic Lao living in Vietnam, mostly in the northern provinces of the country . Laotian presence in the country began during the French colonization of Indochina, when Laotian students were able to move to Hanoi and receive higher education at the city's French institutions . High - ranking Laotian government workers were also trained by the colonial government in Hanoi . A number of Laotian laborers were also recruited to work in the rice fields and mines of northern Vietnam, and many remained in the country following its independence from France . </P> <P> In the 2010 United States Census, there were about 200,000 Americans of Laotian descent living the United States, making them the largest overseas Laotian community outside Asia . They tend to live in metropolitan areas on the West Coast and Upper Midwest . Areas with a significant Laotian population include the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, Minneapolis--Saint Paul, Dallas--Fort Worth metroplex, and the Seattle metropolitan area . </P> <P> Laotian Americans tend to be one of the underrepresented Asian American ethnic groups, and are not associated with the model minority image that includes other Asian ethnic groups such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and more recently, Vietnamese Americans . </P> <P> As of the 2011 Canada Census, there were about 22,000 Canadians of Laotian descent in the country, with nearly three - quarters of the population living in Ontario and Quebec . </P>

Which ethnic group fled laos to the u.s. europe and south america