Cambodian Refugee’s and their adjustment to American...

Cambodian Refugee’s and their adjustment to American Society One of the youngest ethnic groups of Southeast Asians migrated to the United States during the mid 1970s was the Cambodian population. They are considered one of the youngest generations of immigrants in American society along with the rest of the Southeast Asians or Indo-Chinese; Vietnamese, Lao, and Hmong. All of the ethnic groups in the Cold War era were seeking political asylum to the States from their respective homeland caused by a Civil War spreading across Vietnam. Nearly hundreds of thousands of Cambodians refugees fled to Thailand, Europe and other safe haven Asian countries but majority had escaped to the United States. Unlike earlier Asian immigrants like the Chinese†¦show more content†¦Therefore many fled, seeking political asylum during the reign. But prior to the event, the American and Cambodian countries have already established a relationship with one another. A small number of Cambodians lived in the Long Beach area where Cambodian students attending schools such as California State University of Long Beach (Kitano and Daniels 74). The presence of settled Cambodians within U.S. soil attracted many of the 1975 refugees to the Long Beach area. Thus it sparked a huge migration movement, but many foreigners faced even greater challenges in their new home. 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, â€Å"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. The,