Southeast Asian Refugees

In the 1970s and early 1980s, thousands of refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam came to the United States. The Vietnam War had spread to Cambodia and Laos, leading to civil war and other conflicts within those countries. Unlike traditional immigrants who move from one country to another by choice, refugees are individuals who are forced to flee from their country to escape danger or persecution. Many Cambodians, Laotians, Hmong, and Vietnamese escaped from their countries to avoid political persecution, starvation, or execution. Most of these refugees spent a few months to several years living in refugee camps in neighboring countries. When it proved too dangerous for them to return to their home countries, arrangements were made for many of them to resettle in the United States and other countries. This entry discusses the background, demographics, and bilingual education programs for this population.

By 2005, more than 2 million Southeast Asian Americans whose families originated from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam were living in the United States. About one-third of the Southeast Asian American population was between the ages of 5 and 17, and thus of school age (K-12). Although the Southeast Asian American student population is much smaller than the Spanish-speaking student population, several large, Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese communities exist in cities throughout the United States, posing significant challenges to the local schools charged with meeting their unique linguistic, cultural, and educational needs. Although many students from these communities have been successful, Southeast Asian American refugee students have not done well academically as a whole. This is partly due to the trauma of months of uncertainties in refugee camps, but perhaps more importantly, caused by the lack of bilingual and other language education programs designed to meet their needs.

Four major ethnic groups constitute the Southeast Asian American refugee population today: Vietnamese, Cambodians (or Khmer), Laotians (or Lao), and Hmong (from the highlands of Laos). Some smaller ethnic group refugee students from Laos include the Thaidam and Iu Mien. By 2005, most Southeast Asian American students in Grades K-12 were U.S.-born. A small number of recent immigrants are from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, most of whom have [Page 762]been sponsored by relatives or others who came as refugees in the previous decades. Also, a large group of Hmong refugees who had been living in an unofficial refugee camp in Thailand were allowed to resettle in the United States in 2004 (see below).

Although there are students in American schools today from other Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, these students are not discussed here because they are fewer and are traditional immigrants not associated with the refugee experience.