Academic literature on the topic 'Cambodian Refugees'

As a result of the turmoil in Cambodia during the 1970s, traditional Cambodian society was fundamentally altered: Cambodians were uprooted, and after the Vietnamese invasion in 1978, thousands fled to camps on the Thai-Cambodian border, where many sought and were selected for resettlement in other countries. Approximately 12,000 Cambodians were accepted for resettlement in Australia as refugees in the period 1975-85, with approximately 2,500 settling in South Australia. The emigrants to South Australia were youthful, with 51% of all arrivals in the period 1979-85 aged 19 years or less (Stevens). Since this period when refugees first arrived in Australia from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, the social adaptation of refugee youth has been little researched. Generally, young people have been but one of the age groups included in large-scale surveys or in-depth studies, such as those by Wendy Poussard, Nancy Viviani, and others, that focused on the early stages of resettlement. The research that has focused on refugee youth has concentrated on educational achievement (Spearritt and Colman; Kelly and Bennoun; Chan; Mundy) or mental health status and adjustment (Krupinski and Burrows). At a time of ongoing debate about the size and nature of the immigrant intake, and concern that the resulting cultural diversity may foster ethnic conflicts and endanger social cohesion, this lack of research on the social aspects of the settlement process young refugees from Southeast Asia undertake is a significant omission.

One of the major challenges to the American health care system posed by the hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees who have come to the United States since 1975 initially appeared to be the containment and treatment of infectious diseases carried by many. However, this challenge was rapidly overshadowed by another more fundamental one: the cultural differences between American care-givers and their refugee patients. Since culture controls perceptions of health, illness, and disease causation and classification, culturally regulated beliefs and practices are key determinants of patient behavior and clinical care. Hospitals and clinics with significant Southeast Asian clientele have attempted to minimize cultural misunderstanding between staff and refugee patients by adding refugees to treatment teams. These refugees act as intermediaries between medical staff and members of their own ethnic communities.

Until recently, the United States did not deport refugees convicted of crimes to the communist-dominated countries of Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. After all, these refugees had fled persecution, and diplomatic ties between the United States and these countries are not particularly strong. But in March 2002, the United States convinced Cambodia to each month accept the repatriation of a few of its nationals who have been convicted of aggravated felonies. These individuals have served their sentences in the criminal justice system, and the vast majority either fled the killing fields of Cambodia as toddlers or were born in Thai refugee camps. Is justice really being served by their deportation?

Traumatic experiences before and during flight and resettlement shape the lives and needs of refugee families. Yet, the agency of the refugees themselves —that is, their will and ability to make decisions regarding their present and future—is often ignored by caseworkers, policy-makers, and members of their resettlement communities. A better understanding of how refugees frame, respond to, and recover from stressors associated with their journeys will help illuminate their needs and personal agency. We focus on the power and resiliency refugees possess as they navigate the terrain of flight and settlement. We argue that when we, and others such as humanitarian service agencies and policy makers, clearly hear and respect refugees’ voices, we can begin to co-create responses to refugees’ needs in collaboration with the refugees who, themselves, exhibit resiliency and hold valuable everyday forms of wisdom surrounding what they need to live successfully in a host nation.

Former refugees from Cambodia, along with their American-born children, frequently travel between the two countries, thereby blurring the lines between ‘Cambodian’ and ‘American’ identities. At the same time, there exists an almost ubiquitous conception of Cambodian cultural heritage as inseparable from Buddhist religious affiliation. In this context, some Cambodian-Americans who have adopted Christianity maintain both religious identities. Engaging in religious activity at the temple and at the church, these Buddhist-Christians defy the widely held Western view of religions as mutually exclusive of one another. Honouring two or more religious traditions is far from unusual in Cambodia, where the royal coronation ceremony combines Buddhist and Hindu elements, and where Chinese or indigenous Cambodian religious practices often infuse daily Buddhist practice. In this article, I explore dual religious belonging in the Cambodian-American context and call attention to the ways in which it exemplifies a perspective, prevalent in the non-Western world, that religion is hybrid by default; often is driven by a desire to enhance faithfulness vis-à-vis one's primary religion, be it Buddhism or Christianity; and can be characterised by a longing to maintain Khmer cultural identity while also acquiring potential practical and spiritual benefits associated with Christianity.

Cambodian Americans are a fairly recent language minority group in the United States; most families arrived in the United States as refugees during the 1980s. Over the past 30 years, there has been great concern in the community regarding the maintenance loss of their native Khmer language. This article provides an historical and contemporary sketch of the Khmer language in the United States, and discusses implications for its future survival. Data are drawn and analyzed from the U.S. Census, the 2007 American Community Survey, and other statistical sources, in addition to research conducted in Cambodian American communities, and the author’s experiences and observations as a (non-native) Khmer speaker. The findings indicate that the Khmer language is alive and well in the United States, and most school-age youth continue to speak Khmer, although few speak it with high levels of proficiency and few have literacy skills in the language given the lack of opportunities for Khmer HL education. Nonetheless, there are some positive factors that Khmer communities and educational institutions can draw on to ensure the future of Khmer as a HL in the United States. In the early 1990s, I attended a forum held at California State University, Long Beach sponsored by the United Cambodian Students of America. The distinguished guest speaker was Mr. Neou Kassie, a well-known Cambodian American and an outspoken human rights advocate. Mr. Neou began speaking elegantly and powerfully in Khmer, describing his advocacy work in Cambodia. A few minutes into his animated speech, one of the young college student leaders, with an embarrassed look on her face, interrupted him: “Excuse me Mr. Neou, can you please switch to English? Most of us are having a very hard time understanding you in Khmer.” Cambodian Americans are a fairly recent language minority group in the United States; most families have been in this country for less than 30 years. However, as the vignette above illustrates, issues have already emerged related to the maintenance or loss of Khmer as a heritage language in the United States. Even within the first ten years of refugee resettlement, Cambodian parents and community leaders expressed concern at what they perceived as rapid Khmer language loss among their youth (Smith-Hefner, 1990). Nonetheless, Khmer continues to be widely used in Cambodian American families and communities across the United States, and there are some efforts to provide opportunities for the next generations of Cambodian Americans to develop and maintain their native Khmer language. The purpose of this article is to provide a historical and contemporary sketch of the Khmer language in the United States, and to discuss implications for its future survival. Data for this article are drawn from the United States Census, the American Community Survey, and other statistical sources, in addition to research conducted in Cambodian American communities, and my own experiences and observations as a (non-native) Khmer speaker. It is my hope that these analyses will be useful to policy makers, educators, and researchers, and also to Cambodian American community leaders, educators, and others who are actively working to preserve the Khmer language in the United States. In this article, we first will look briefly at the history of Cambodian American immigration to the United States, including the tragic events in Cambodia leading to the large exodus of political refugees. Next, we will explore demographic information related to Cambodian Americans and the Khmer language in the United States, followed by a discussion of Cambodian Americans’ relationship with Cambodia. We then consider issues related to Khmer language maintenance and loss in the United States, including community and institutional efforts that provide opportunities for the learning and use of Khmer. The article concludes with a discussion of the future of Khmer as a Heritage Language in the United States.

Social workers, government, and non-governmental organizations in the United States have been inadequately prepared to address the impact of trauma faced by refugees fleeing persecution. Compounding their initial trauma experiences, refugees often undergo further traumatic migration experiences and challenges after resettlement that can have long-lasting effects on their health and mental health. Micro and macro social work practitioners must understand the impact of these experiences in order to promote policies, social work training, and clinical practice that further the health and well-being of refugees and society. Social workers are in a unique position to provide multi-dimensional, structurally competent care and advocacy for diverse refugee populations. The experiences of Cambodian refugees will be used to examine these issues. We will explore the benefits of an ecological perspective in guiding interventions that support refugees, and will apply the framework of structural competence to highlight multidimensional implications for social work with refugee populations.

Purpose: Adult day care programs in the United States are seeing an increase in culturally diverse patients. The purpose of this study was to better understand the subjective experiences of staff and Cambodian refugees attending an adult day center in the United States that provides services focused on the cultural needs of the older adults, such as Cambodian food, activities, and Cambodian staff. Design: This is a qualitative study using grounded theory to analyze 10 individual interviews from staff members and 80 individual interviews from participants who attend an adult day care program for Cambodians in a city in the northeast United States. Findings: Three primary themes emerged: The participants felt respected, there was a generational tension between the young staff and the participants, and the center acted as a cultural liaison between the medical providers and the participants.