boat people

See also: boatpeople and boat-people

English

Noun

boat people pl (normally plural, singular boat person)

1. (historical) Refugees fleeing by sea, particularly those fleeing from South Vietnam during the 1970s and '80s.
   • 2010, Walter Mondale, David Hage, The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics‎^[1], Scribner, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 184e:

     Indochinese refugees, known throughout the world as the “boat people,” were subject to horrific suffering and dangers when the Vietnamese government began expelling them after the fall of Saigon.

2. An ethnic group that principally lives on fishing and houseboats, particularly the Tanka or Dan people of East Asia.
3. plural of boat person

Related terms

• yacht people

 

Translations

refugees fleeing by sea

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 船民 (zh) (chuánmín)

• Finnish: venepakolaiset pl
• German: Bootsflüchtlinge (de) m pl, Boatpeople (de) m pl
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: «лю́ди с ло́дки» m pl («ljúdi s lódki»)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: người thuyền nhân

ethnic group that principally lives on fishing and houseboats

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蜑家 (zh) (dànjiā), 疍家 (dànjiā)

• Finnish: venekansa
• German: Schiffsvolk n, Bootmenschen m pl
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can