Southeast Asia: News, Culture, Voices

In 1980 – as tens of thousands of refugees fled violence in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos – President Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act. He declared that the United States would finally take responsibility for the devastating effects of its policies in the region.

Touch Roth, 65, a refugee from Cambodia, with her granddaughter in their Bronx apartment. (D Merina)

Within ten years, more than one million refugees arrived to American cities. But over two decades later, America’s promise remains unfulfilled.

I spent the last few months reporting on the Southeast Asian refugee community in the Bronx and produced a half-hour radio documentary called Mekong in the Bronx. You can listen here. It airs nationwide on July 3rd on Free Speech Radio News.

Also, check out a short clip of a song by rapper, Boomer. He’s one of the Cambodian American youth who was deported back to Cambodia under a secret agreement between the US and Cambodian governments.