By Kirk Boutselis
Lowell Sun Correspondent (Massachusetts, USA)
LOWELL -- For many, it was war, oppression and genocide that mobilized groups of Southeast Asians to leave the land of their fathers and mothers and travel across an ocean and a continent to settle in Lowell.
When they first started to arrive in the late 1970s, the immigrants and refugees from war-torn parts of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam faced a society, culture and language that were all but alien to them.
Lan Pho, 67, director emerita of the Center for Diversity and Pluralism at UMass Lowell, said these immigrants -- herself among them -- were walking on a "one-way street" where they simultaneously taxed the city's schools and resources without contributing much to the fabric of the community.
Now, 30 years later, that same group of nervous but hard-working immigrants are spinning a new thread to the patchwork quilt that is the Mill City. They number about 20,000 -- nearly one-fifth of the city's population -- and have become educators, civic leaders and businessmen. Lowell has even become the city with the second largest concentration of Cambodian immigrants in the nation after Long Beach, Calif.
"Now it's a two-way street," Pho said. "Now they offer something that the city never had before and we hope that other cities will look at Lowell and have the same experience as Lowell."
Pho was one of more than 100 residents last night who gathered at the Mogan Cultural Center for a celebration of the Southeast Asian community's 30-year contributions to Greater Lowell. It was also an opportunity for Pho, who now lives in San Diego, to promote her new book, Southeast Asian Refugees and Immigrants in the Mill City, which she edited with UMass Lowell professor Jeffrey Gerson and Sylvia Cowan of Lesley University.
"No matter how much I love the weather of California, I miss the spirit of Massachusetts," she said. "And the spirit is not so much with the place as it is with the people."
Cowan, who heads the intercultural-relations program at Lesley University, said the book collaboration with Pho and Gerson was an opportunity to tell the stories that may never have been told. Inside is a series of essays and studies about the resettlement of Southeast Asian immigrants to Lowell and its toll on regional economics, politics and community psychology.
"They brought a lot of vitality to the community," Cowan said of the Southeast Asian immigrant population. "It has made the city much richer in terms of cultural diversity."
Also attending last night were former Gov. Michael Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, who was one of nine community leaders and refugee advocates to receive special awards.
Dukakis, whose parents were Greek immigrants, said the influx of Southeast Asian culture to the area is one of the reasons for the Lowell "miracle."
"The strength of this city, the strength of this state, and the strength of this nation is bound up in the immigrant experience," he said.
When they first started to arrive in the late 1970s, the immigrants and refugees from war-torn parts of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam faced a society, culture and language that were all but alien to them.
Lan Pho, 67, director emerita of the Center for Diversity and Pluralism at UMass Lowell, said these immigrants -- herself among them -- were walking on a "one-way street" where they simultaneously taxed the city's schools and resources without contributing much to the fabric of the community.
Now, 30 years later, that same group of nervous but hard-working immigrants are spinning a new thread to the patchwork quilt that is the Mill City. They number about 20,000 -- nearly one-fifth of the city's population -- and have become educators, civic leaders and businessmen. Lowell has even become the city with the second largest concentration of Cambodian immigrants in the nation after Long Beach, Calif.
"Now it's a two-way street," Pho said. "Now they offer something that the city never had before and we hope that other cities will look at Lowell and have the same experience as Lowell."
Pho was one of more than 100 residents last night who gathered at the Mogan Cultural Center for a celebration of the Southeast Asian community's 30-year contributions to Greater Lowell. It was also an opportunity for Pho, who now lives in San Diego, to promote her new book, Southeast Asian Refugees and Immigrants in the Mill City, which she edited with UMass Lowell professor Jeffrey Gerson and Sylvia Cowan of Lesley University.
"No matter how much I love the weather of California, I miss the spirit of Massachusetts," she said. "And the spirit is not so much with the place as it is with the people."
Cowan, who heads the intercultural-relations program at Lesley University, said the book collaboration with Pho and Gerson was an opportunity to tell the stories that may never have been told. Inside is a series of essays and studies about the resettlement of Southeast Asian immigrants to Lowell and its toll on regional economics, politics and community psychology.
"They brought a lot of vitality to the community," Cowan said of the Southeast Asian immigrant population. "It has made the city much richer in terms of cultural diversity."
Also attending last night were former Gov. Michael Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, who was one of nine community leaders and refugee advocates to receive special awards.
Dukakis, whose parents were Greek immigrants, said the influx of Southeast Asian culture to the area is one of the reasons for the Lowell "miracle."
"The strength of this city, the strength of this state, and the strength of this nation is bound up in the immigrant experience," he said.
3 comments:
""The strength of this city, the strength of this state, and the strength of this nation is bound up in the immigrant experience," he said. (Dukakis)"
True, and so the strength of Cambodia, Cities, Towns, and villages is bound up from immigrant experience from Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand among others. And we'll always be 100 times better than Ah traitors oversea.
KI-Media should put this Viet troller parasite @ 4:15 PM on a leash now!
I am not getting this Kirk fellow of the Lowell Sun...
Is his article about Khmer "refugees" or Khmer "immigrant" or more specifically, is it about Southeast Asian immigrants or Khmer "refugee" or immigrant?
Are we talking about Lowell MA, and have we not just been informed that the Khmer made up about a quarter of the entire city? How the heck does this Khmer population of the city of Lowell became the Southeast Asian immigrant?
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