Javanese people have lived in Vietnam, before this country was independent

As we know, Indonesians have an extraordinary distribution. Not only can be found here, people with the blood of the Republic of Indonesia can also be found in places far away. For example Madagascar, Suriname, Christmas Island, even in New Caledonia. How come there are Indonesians there, there are many reasons, ranging from colonialism to migration.
It's still a matter of the Indonesian population scattered everywhere, in Vietnam there are also our blood relatives. They are the Javanese, or more specifically the Baweans, who live there. To this day, it is not known with certainty how these Bawean people got to the neighboring country. But for sure, they were there for a long time, even before Vietnam became independent.
Uniquely, the Bawean people who are here, still know their original culture, although there are not many of them.
As far as information is available, both documentaries and print media, there is no definite source, which tells, about when the Bawean tribe first came to Vietnam. This information is only estimated that the arrival of the Bawean People to Vietnam began during the colonial period during the Dutch colonial era.
According to one of the oldest Baweans in Vietnam, the arrival of the Baweans had several reasons. One of their goals in coming to Vietnam was, to work for the French government, which had power in Vietnam. The reason they did not return home was because they did not have a valid citizenship document, or the communication cut off from family and relatives in the Bawean archipelago, which is in East Java.
From the historical information found, the Al Rahim Mosque was built by the Bawean people, at a time when Vietnam was colonized by French troops. At that time, the Bawean people, known as the Boyan people, built the mosque out of wood. Now most of the Bawean people live around the Al Rahim Mosque in Ho Chi Minh City. According to information from Imam Haji Ally, a leader of the mosque's takmir, Masjid Al Rahim has been established since 1885.
Most of the Bawean people in Vietnam, do not know their native culture. From the information found, as many as 400 Bawean people cannot master Indonesian. In their daily life, they only use Vietnamese. Only the elderly Bawean residents are still fluent in using Malay in communicating. From the data from searches and interviews, they can speak Indonesian only when they are in school, because Indonesian subjects are indeed listed in the education curriculum in Vietnam. Even some Bawean people who live in Vietnam, are reluctant to go home, because they are married to ethnic Vietnamese natives, or do not know the whereabouts of family news, on Bawean Island itself.
From the explanation of one of the Bawean citizens in Vietnam, their citizenship status, administratively is written as a Vietnamese citizen. To apply for an ID card, at first, the Bawean people experienced difficulties in terms of administration. Bawean residents moved to Vietnam, before the status of Vietnam's independence. This has created a debate, because the status of Bawean residents is unclear. Even Vietnam does not accept the identity cards of Bawean citizens, which are issued by the French government, because their status is written as Malay citizens. Then the Cham ethnicity offered Bawean residents to be part of their ethnicity, because they felt they were both Muslims. Bawean residents refused, because they are not ethnic Cham. Because these Baweans have lived in Vietnam for a very long time, the Vietnamese government finally recognized them, as Indonesia.