Cambodians Research Paper

The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up

Unfortunately, Vietnamese Americans make up only a small percent of the total American Population today. There are many stereotypes associated with the Vietnamese, but the truth is, we really know very little about their culture. After the Viet Nam War, many Vietnamese citizens immigrated to the United States to escape political Prosecution and poverty. Faced with a variety of obstacles and

“It was the last time I would see them for 14 years.” Uong, who is a Vietnamese refugee, fled his home at the age of 10—being separated from his family for 14 years (Uong). Being a refugee is rough as it requires one to leave his home country and to start a new life in a completely different world. According to Yen Le Espiritu, a "refugee" is described as a person who harbors "a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion" (Espiritu 209). There are many variations of refugee groups as countless minority groups have left their homeland due to reasons such as persecution. Cambodian Refugees and Vietnamese Refugees are both minority groups in the United States today whom have fled their homeland to escape communism and persecution. These groups have suffered many conflicts and overcome many obstacles in order to rid themselves of persecution and in order to gain the freedom that all humans should possess. Although Cambodian Refugees and Vietnamese Refugees are two different groups, they possess both similarities and differences. Cambodian Refugees and Vietnamese Refugees share differences when it pertains to the topic of war, when it pertains to the topic of hardships faced while fleeing one’s homeland and to the topic of adjusting to life in America—while also sharing similarities when it pertains to adjusting to life in America.

Eric Tang’s Unsettled is an ethnographic account of Cambodian refugees in the Bronx, New York that evokes a nuanced understanding of the refugee experience. Unlike many other ethnographies, Tang’s work centers around one individual named Ra Pronh, a fifty year old woman who survived the Cambodian genocide and has lived as a refugee for most of her life. The bulk of his work draws upon two main sources: Tang’s notes that are gathered from his work as a community organizer in refugee neighborhoods and his interviews with Ra Pronh over a three year time period. Throughout his interviews with Ra, Tang often encountered a language barrier with her. There were times where Ra’s children would translate her words from Khmer to English for Tang to

The Hmong people do not call any one country home, but have relocated several times throughout history due to war and political oppression. An article published in the Journal of Multicultural counseling and Development finds that the Hmong primarily lived in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. They had a great impact in helping western forces during the Vietnam War, and wars in Laos in efforts to end Communism. The article continues and describes how many tried to escape from Laos; those that survived settled in refugee camps that had terrible living conditions. (Tatman, 2004). Although the Hmong are diffused around the world, their distinct cultural traditions and customs create a strong cultural identity. After discussing of the traditions and social customs of the Hmong culture learned through two different interviews, the cultural traditions and social customs will be compared and contrasted with European-American culture, and will be concluded with the impact that Hmong culture has on today’s society.

When the Philippines became a territory of the U.S. after the Spanish-American War, Philippine could freely enter the country. Recruited by the thousands as cheap labor to work the Hawaiian sugar plantation and “the fisheries of the Northwest and Alaska” (Takai, 314). They quickly began to migrate to the U.S mainland. They were agricultural workers and domestic service workers, which is what the economy needed at that time. In contrast, in class, we learned that the first Chinese immigration to North America began with the California Gold Rush and the first railroad project. Following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese immigrants were increasingly as their success in the farming industry. Therefore, they way they came to America makes Filipino quite distinct from the Chinese and

A little under fifty years ago, there was a sudden increase in Vietnamese refugees. In order to save their independence and lives, immigrating to another country was the only option for these people. Throughout their time in California, an area dominated by Asian refugees, they have found ways to practice their traditional culture thousand of miles away. However, the difficulty in assimilating to a new culture was a hurdle they needed to fight. With this in mind, the Vietnamese community constructed business such as: salons, markets, and restaurants. A band of refugees who were originally exiled, steadily adapted to their new home in which they flourished by innovating the Vietnamese culture with American life.

The pain and the suffering, the oppression, and the exclusion all describe the history of Asia America. When they arrived to the United States, they become labeled as Asians. These Asians come from Japan, China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, and many other diverse countries in the Eastern hemisphere. These people wanted to escape from their impoverished lives as the West continued to infiltrate their motherland. They saw America as the promise land filled with opportunity to succeed in life. Yet due to the discrimination placed from society and continual unfair

In what concerns cultural practices, Yang, Kou studied the 30th annual Hmong New Year event celebrated in the United States, defined as a unique Hmong festival, which turns to be the occasion of displaying the Hmong culture. However, the researcher noted that this New Year event was also dominated by other activities and concepts, largely influenced by the American culture. Therefore, the research aimed at presented the Hmong New Year in the USA as a festival that combines two cultures. However, the paper missed to present the influence of said Festival on the Hmong international community.

Cambodians entered the United States as exiles after a gathering of Cambodian Communists named Khmer Rouge, driven by the French-instructed Pol Pot, won a common war that had seethed from March 1970 to April 1975 and continued to manage the nation with uncommon ruthlessness. In control from April 17, 1975, to January 7, 1979, they decimated all the real establishments in the nation. An expected 1.7 million individuals out of an expected aggregate populace of

It should be noted that measuring the demographics of the Cambodian American community has historically been challenging; it is widely suspected that the community is repeatedly undercounted by the Census Bureau. A 1992 report of the Census Bureau identified several problems that lead an inaccurate count of this particular ethnic group (Bunte and Joesph Cenus data). They include language barriers, mistrust of strangers and the government due to the post-traumatic effects of the Khmer Rouge also known as, “Pol Pot Syndrome” and the unusual residence and household composition as significantly affected Census counts. To sum it up, the statistics are usually generalized as a whole to easily identify the migration patterns, social behaviors and economic resources of the Cambodian Americans.

When I was young I remember moving cities and I thought it was going to be the end of the world for me. One of the thoughts that always went through my mind was what if I do not fit in? or will I be able to make any friends? Luckily for me I was able to speak English and I knew I could communicate with people if I had to. This was not the case for Cambodian refugees when they moved to the United States because the Khmer Rouge was attacking Cambodia. Thousands of people moved to the United States and many of these people were kids who did not have a saying whether they wanted to stay or come with their parents because they could not take care of themselves. Many of these kids are now suffering because they fell into the wrong crowds and committed a crime when they were young and due to the antiterrorism and death penalty act they are now being deported back to Cambodia, which they know nothing about, and some of them do not even know how to speak the language. I will be talking about the Cambodian kids that were affected by their parents moving to the United States and how the antiterrorism and death penalty act has affected some of them.

Cambodia has had a very bumpy history and has experienced much turmoil throughout its history. Cambodia dates back to 10AD. It has been a monarchy for most of its history. In the middle 1800s France took over control of Cambodia and Cambodia was called French Indochina. It retained its independence in 1953. Cambodia was involved in the Vietnam war in the 1960s. Cambodian communists, the Khmer rouge took full control of Cambodia in the 1975 and renamed the country Kampuchea. Throughout the 1975s 1.5 million people were killed. The war was not resolved until 1991.

There was a point, around 56 years ago, when the small towns along the salient southern Cambodian coast were the height of style. After a near century of French rule, Cambodia became independent in 1953. By then, the population was over seven million, with most of the population being Buddhist. Throughout this period the people kept holiday villas in Kep, an appealing village nearing the Vietnamese border as well as in Sihanoukville. However, the country’s serenity was torn to pieces in 1970 as Sihanouk was overthrown. The countries captivating coastal towns transformed into burnt-out villas, wilted wildlife and buildings scarred with sprays of bullet holes.

Located in Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia was home to one of the bloodiest political regimes to exist in the 20th century. In a country, in which American government reports in 1959 documented, was full of “ ‘docile and passive people…[who] could not be counted on to act in any positive way for the benefit of US aims and policies’”, the United States conflict in neighboring Vietnam brought about incredible changes to an unsuspecting people (qted. in Dunlop 70). The countryside was bombed by the United States in order to uproot suspected North Vietnamese holdouts and supply routes starting in 1969. These bombing raids, which devastated