6 April 2012
By Max Shapira
BBC News
Phnom Penh
"First day I get off the flight, officials surround me like vultures, because they think I got money - I got no money!" - Sam
Immigrants taken to the US by their parents as young children grow up as Americans - but on paper they remain foreigners. This means they can be deported if they commit a crime, and condemned to a life of permanent exile.
Sam's first memory is riding a sledge in the snow on the way to primary school in New Hampshire.
His favourite film is Scarface and in breaks during our conversation, he raps Tupac lyrics. He loves skateboarding and going to the gym.
There are millions of American 20-somethings just like Sam but unlike them, Sam can never set foot in the US again.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Sam was deported from the US to Cambodia, a country he had never even visited before. A land of chaotic traffic, fermented fish and endemic corruption.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime, the US granted asylum to thousands of Cambodians fleeing the anarchy in their home country.
They set up home in places like Lowell, Massachusetts, and Long Beach, California. They got jobs, went to school, learned the language and became, in all but name, Americans.
Given permanent resident status, many never thought of applying for citizenship but in March 2002, in the wake of 9/11, the US and Cambodia signed an agreement allowing any non-citizen refugees who had committed felonies to be deported back to Cambodia.
Since then several hundred have been returned. Today they are stranded and lost, a long way from home.
I first met Sam in Phnom Penh 2010, just a few months after he'd arrived in Cambodia. Since then we have met several times to talk about what has happened to him.
Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, he arrived in the US one month old, with his mother, brother and sister.
Sam is proud of his childhood. Thrust into a bewildering, new world, things were not easy but he still talks happily of how he and the few other Khmer kids stuck together. And even though they were smaller than the rest, they would look out for each other and hold their own in fights.
After high school, Sam did a range of jobs, mainly factory work. He had a stint in juvenile detention for refusing to help a police investigation and a couple of other short stays in prison, including one for stealing a car radio and speakers.
But by 2009 he was working, living with his girlfriend and caring for his young son. That was when the immigration authorities took him in.
His earlier robbery of the car stereo made him liable for deportation at any time. After several months in detention, he was forced on a plane to Cambodia.
Last week, as we sat in a cafe Sam told me about what it was like arriving in the country.
"First day I get off the flight, officials surround me like vultures, because they think I got money. I got no money? They were talking to me in Cambodian, but I couldn't' understand."
Rubbing his head intently, as though still unable to process his experience, he continued: "Then we get out and it is hot. Hot! And all I've got is the clothes on my back and 28 cents in an envelope. And I was like, 'What the hell am I going to do? What the hell am I going to do?'"
Fortunately for Sam, the organisation RISC, which helps new returnees, picked him up from immigration at the airport and gave him a bed for a few nights. But this support is unusual. Most Cambodians have not warmed to the returnees.
"People die every day to try and go to America and for you to come back here? They think you're some kind of terrible person," Sam says.
Being a returnee is not something that's easy to hide. Sam has spent a long time in the gym in the US, he's twice the size of most Cambodian men, he has tattoos and speaks the language with a strong American twang. Blending in is not a possibility.
At first he spent a lot of his time with fellow returnees. Now he says he doesn't want to - that it doesn't help him settle in.
Many, already suffering from drug dependencies and untreated mental illnesses, find themselves drawn back into crime. It is not uncommon for returnees to end up trapped in Cambodia's bewildering and brutal penal system.
Sam has tried to get work but in a country where the average monthly salary is considerably under $50 (£32) a month it's not easy to find a job to support himself. Whenever we talk he tells me he feels like he's in a "daze", a feeling that he can't shake, a sense of bemusement. Although he knows it to be true, he can't accept that America has shunned him so completely. That it won't forgive him. Ever.
In the two years since I first met him, things have got a little better. He has joined a church which seems to provide him with a sense of belonging, his Khmer language skills have improved and with the help of friends and family in the States he can afford to rent an apartment.
But when I ask him if he might ever feel at home in Cambodia, he is adamant: "NO! Never! Definitely. Never ever! No matter how long I'm here. The feeling of being home is when you're really home. I'll never have that feeling again."
9 comments:
Viet and Chinese live in Cambodia or US for generation and generation they can speak Viet and Chinese their mother tonque but you just live in US not even 1/2 generation then you can not speak Khmer how dump you are. You are Khmer and you pretend not to know anything about Khmer you are idiot. You deserve to be sent back not to Cambodia but to where you were born Khao I Dang
Khmer in Srok Viet or Srok Thai or Srok Malaysia are being kill and jail and discriminate everyday. only Cambodia embrace all races without discremination.
Indonesia direct killed million of Chinese during 50s, Chinese Malaysia can not own business or property without share with Malay, foreigner was not born in Thailand or did not possess citizenship are not allowed to hold any position in government at all level and can not own land and property.
Sam should be sent back to Khao I Dang where he was born not Cambodia, Cambodia has enough bad people to deal with. Sam is Khmer he should know Khmer fluently even though he grew up in US this is his duty, he can not change the fact that his appearance as Khmer not whiteman and in Khmer parent therefore he should not abandon his mother lonque Khmer.
Stop publish the story about deportees suffering as at least they better of than unfortunate Cambodian who got killed and being slave of Thai fishing boat and Malaysian maid, at least these deportees return to their native land and no one force them to be slave. At least some generous Khmer gave them helping hand and they still have family in US to give a hand.
Stupid khmers, wherever they go, they always do stupid things: they forget their language, their culture and their values which are the most important thing to a person's identity. Deportations for those stupid khmers could easily have been avoided if they were not stupid enough not to apply for citizenship in the first place after having been in the USA for years and speak the language fluently. These stupid khmers are now doing bad things in Cambodia. They continue doing crimes and refuse to change to become a better person.
It seems to me that Sam did not care much about anything when he was in the US. If he thinks that he's American why didn't he apply for US citizenship? I know many refugees that don't have a good command of the English language became US citizens and they are doing very well in adjusting their live to the American way of living. Why does he think that he's good man while he went out to steal car stereo? What else did he do then? Only Sam can know the answer....
Sam has been beaten and shot in the head last Monday and currently in the hospital awaiting to be deported to hell. According to eye witnesses, he was involved in an attempt to steal a motocycle from a school girl and was caught by a mob of khmers youths and was beaten to near death and one youth pulled out a gun and shot to the side of his head. His family in the USA has requsted that he be buried with his skateboard and his tatoos. The request has been granted under a condition that he has to learn some khmer to make that request by himself in khmer. He was born a khmer, must therefore die a khmer. Not knowing his own language and culture is not acceptable even in hell and it's an insult to his ancestors.
To all above, I am not say Sam is enough. He steal car stereo not like he rape or kill someone. His crime does not fit his punishment. Hey you assholes above Sam is Khmer, he is one of us. I lived in U. S for 30 years and working as Aircraft Line Technician, I am well educate unlike Sam. I still felt sorry for any Khmer that got sent back. So what he doesn't speaks fluently Khmer that doesn't make him any less Khmer than all of you assholes.
Do you have any ideas how the blacks, Mexican, White, others treat Khmers in the U.S. I used to get beaten up in High School becaus I don't have others Khmers like Sam and his friends to help protected each others. Blacks right now is abusing others Khmer young naive woman and after they got done with this Khmer women they make them prostituted for them because these Khmer women don't have people like Sam to fucked up these Niggers.
Hey personally I would like to see Sam get a second chances to go back to school and educate.
Even he is deported to Cambodia ,but over there ,He could make a very good life than other Khmer-American if he is smart enough .Because I see many people who returned to live in Cambodia , some of them became millionaire and living much more comfortably than they were in USA .
12:33 AM,
You can send money to Sam on a monthly basis and convince him to go to school and be a productive citizen in Cambodia first, then I will help you campaign to get his ass back to the US.
Until then your Sam should stay where he is. He is lucky Cambodia allows him a place to stay even though he looks down on his own country by refusing to learn to adapt and become a local citizen of a country.
He wants to be in the US and does not feel like living at home in Cambodia, well then move the fuck out of Cambodia into any country that wants him. Definitely Cambodia will be better off with one shit like that down the tube out into the ocean.
5:37 you are mean to your fellow Khmer. Sam didn't do anything to help improve himself in the U. S. He does deserve a second chances. America is known for given peoples second chances. America original 13 colonies came here over 400 Years ago were full of criminal from Europe. Seem like they didn't do too bad to build this country into Super Power.
Sam and others got double sentences by been deported back to Cambodia. In America you can't be convicted twices for the same crime. Its in the constitution. Sam and others deportees grew up in a very racist, bad ghetto neighborhood. what's the fuck do you expect how these Kids turn out. How the fuck do they suppose to learn Khmers when all they knew is ghetto language. Most Khmers who settled in America were poor and uneducated. So the only place they can afford are poor crime neighborhood, these kids grew up only learned from gangsters way. The fucking Cambodia want to kiss ass to the U.S by signing this agreement to except deportees.
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