Refugee and Immigrant Populations in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Additional Readings and Information
Cambodian Newspapers (in English):
Koh Santepheap Daily Online
Cambodian News Sites
Books and Articles:
Frontline World: Chronicle of Survival
Synopsis of the history of Cambodia from 1953-2002 referencing specifically the changing relationship between the U.S. and Cambodia.Smith-Hefner, Nancy J. Khmer American: Identity and Moral Education in a Diasporic Community. London: University of California Press, 1999.
This literature is the story of the passage to America and the efforts of Cambodian-Americans to re-create the fabric of culture and identity in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide (Amazon.com, Online).
Pran, Dith. Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
This book provides eyewitness accounts of the life in Cambodia during the Pol Pot era, which took place from 1975 to 1979. These accounts were written by survivors who were children at the time (Amazon.com, Online).
St. Pierre, Stephanie. Teenage Refugees from Cambodia Speak Out (In Their Own Voices). New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1995.
In this book, the young people talk about their lives here in America and back in their homeland, their trip to the U.S., and the adjustments that they have had to make (Amazon.com, Online).
Welaratna, Usha. Beyond the Killing Fields: Voices of Nice Cambodian Survivors in American America. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.
Through these stories, the readers explore the cultural, linguistic, and religious challenges that Cambodian refugees face in this country and the long-term impact that the violence and turmoil has and may continue to have in their lives (Amazon.com, Online).
Hopkins, Mary Carol. Braving a New World: Cambodian (Khmer) Refugees in an American City. Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 1996.
This ethnography, based on a five-year field study, presents a holistic view of a nearly invisible ethnic minority in the urban Midwest, Cambodian refugees. The book details their struggles to adjust in the face of the many barriers presented by American urban life, such as poverty, dangerous neighborhoods, and unemployment, and also by the conflict between their particular needs and American institutions such as schools, health care, law, and even the agencies intended to help them.
Sources:
Provides a variety of books (non-fiction, fiction,
children's etc.) that wrestle with themes that face Cambodians worldwide.