Starting in 1975, some 150,000 Cambodians came to the United States as refugees. Since the mid 1990s immigration has been mainly on a non-refugee status. There are today a quarter million Cambodian immigrants. One of the earliest settlements was Lowell, Massachusetts, where today 13% of the population is Cambodian.
Here is Rady Mom’s story:
The Khmer Rouge came. One night you were sleeping in your bed, the next night on the ground. We dodged all the bullets to get out. Here are photos of my family at the Khao-I-Dang camp in Thailand, and my family today. The Chester Park Church in Duluth, Minnesota, sponsored us and 34 other families. We moved from Duluth to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1984. In 2005 I ran for city council but lost. In 2015 I was elected as state representative for 18th Middlesex District State, the first Cambodian elected state office holder. You see a lot of people going to Cambodia to seek wives, and to give financial support to relatives there to launch businesses.
I am a third generation practitioner of acupressure. Today I work under the guidance of Grand Master Wong, who lives in Lowell.