unable to continue the traditional weaving industry due to its inability to compete with cheaper, mass produced fabric made available by the market. As such the mainstay of Cham economy became trade. Given their settlements’ geolocation, the Chams have for generations engaged in trade across the Cambodia-Viet border and in trans-local trade across the Mekong Delta as far away as Central and North Vietnam, especially to places unreached by the modern market, utilising their multilinguistic abilities and territorial knowledge, with many being able to speak Vietnamese, the national lingua franca, Khmer, and Malay, in addition to the Cham language. This nature of the Chams points instead to their cosmopolitan nature, rather than to the commonly held idea of ethnic minorities as being isolated due to the remote situation of their communities. Despite this cosmopolitan nature, the economic difficulties faced by the Chams mentioned above ironically goes against state narratives of economic liberation enjoyed under to its open market policies. The Chams are seen to regard themselves as a disenfranchised group, whereas the majority Kinh were regarded to be endowed with better access to the state. The Chams’ continuous mobility and their outward migration to the cities and overseas for higher education and better job opportunities on the other hand have resulted in political agency for the Chams, resulting in remittances that benefit the local communities and reduced frictions with other ethnic groups. The Cultural Dimension The matrilineal traditions practiced by the Central Chams of Vietnam can no longer be seen among the Chams of the Mekong Delta. However, certain kinship practices are still found to be shared among the two groups, such as monogamy and the post-marital matrilocal practice in which the man moves in with his bride’s family following his marriage. The two groups also share a common Malayo-Polynesian Cham language that is mutually understandable, although differences in pronunciation and accent exist. However, the written Cham script derived from Sanskrit known as the akhar thrah, while still being maintained by the Central Chams in both its writing system and texts, has been lost among the Chams of the Mekong Delta. This causes the Central Chams to render their southern counterparts as having “lost their Cham culture”. However, the Chams of the Delta do not regard this as a lack on their part, where the Arabic alphabet is used instead for the written form of the Cham language. In addition,