The Refugee Act of 1980 and Cambodian Resettlement in the United States

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The Refugee Act of 1980 and Cambodian Resettlement in the United States

Page One of the Refugee Act of 1980

Author:  Matt O’Donnell
Grade(s): 11–12

Suggested Amount of Time: 90 minutes
Area of Study: Cambodian Diaspora

Compelling Question

  • What is the Cambodian diaspora and refugee experience?

Lesson Question
  • What was the 1980 Refugee Act?
  • What impact did the 1980 Refugee Act have on Cambodian refugees?
  • Where did Cambodian refugees settle in the United States?
  • What challenges did Cambodian refugees encounter when they resettled in the United States?
Lesson Objective

Students will consider how changes to the United States policy and the impact of the Refugee Act of 1980 impacted Cambodian Refugees including resettlement in the United States.

Lesson Background

The Refugee Act of 1980 was enacted to address the large number of refugees arriving from Southeast Asia as a result of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Genocide. The law changed the United States’ definition of refugee to match the United Nations’ definition. The United Nations had defined refugees in the 1967 UN Refugee Protocol. This new definition eliminated restrictions based on ideology and location. The Act also increased the annual admission quota for refugees into the United States. The law also called for the creation of the Office of Refugee Resettlement which would oversee resettlement programs throughout the country.

Students should have an understanding of the Cambodian Genocide and the reasons why refugees fled Cambodia. The lesson “Cambodian Refugee-History, Process, and Implication (The Cambodian Diaspora post-1975)” would support students in being prepared for this lesson.

Historical Thinking Skill

This lesson will facilitate student proficiency in cause and consequence one of Seixas’ historical thinking skills (Seixas & Morton, 2013). To help students to understand that there are short-term and long-term consequences of events. To help students understand and assess the varying importance of causes.

Change is driven by multiple causes, and results in multiple consequences. These create a complex web of interrelated short-term and long-term causes and consequences.  Students consider how the Refugee Act of 1980 led to short and long term consequences for Cambodian refugees.

Ethnic Studies Theme

This lesson connects to the ethnic studies theme of power and oppression from the Asian American Studies Curriculum Framework (Asian American Research Initiative, 2022). Students will consider war, migration and imperialism as contexts shaping citizenship and racialization.

Students will explore how the United States’ policies toward immigration impacted Cambodian Americans.

For additional guidance around ethnic studies implementation, refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (2022)  https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp.

Handouts
Videos
  • On the Corners of Argyle and Glenwood - Extended Version 
  • Eric Tang on the refugee in the hyperghetto 
  • Dan Durke - Oral History 
  • Bokanika Kan - Oral History 
  • Cambodian refugees in US reflect on failures in resettlement process  
Readings
  • 1980 Refugee Act (located at the end of the lesson)
  • Cambodians in the United States: Refugees, Immigrants, American Ethnic Minority. 
  • Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. 
  • Profiles of some good places for Cambodians to live in the United States 

Warm up: 

  • Teacher will play the song, “On the Corners of Argyle and Glenwood - Extended Version”. The teacher should ask the students to write down a few things they notice or wonder about from the lyrics to the song, or the images in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ynC_eEPhtw 
  • The teacher will ask students to share their noticings and wonderings from the video.
  • As a class, discuss what refugee experiences were revealed in the video.

Shared Learning:

  • The teacher will divide the class into three groups. Each group will be given the task of researching a specific topic:
    • Group 1 - Changes in refugee policy in the United States
    • Group 2 - Locations for refugee resettlement in the United States
    • Group 3 - Challenges for refugees when they resettled in the United States.
  • The teacher will then subdivide each larger group into smaller groups of three to four students.
    • Each group of three to four students will be given the resources and asked to create a slide presentation, video or infographic to be used for sharing  information with other groups.
  • Directions for Group 1: Review the following documents to find the answer to these questions:
    • Documents: 
    • Questions
      • What was the 1967 United Nations Refugee Protocol?
      • What was the Refugee Act of 1980?
      • How did the Refugee Act of 1980 change US refugee policy?
      • How are refugees different from immigrants?
    • Task: Create a five slide presentation, video, or infographic highlighting changes to US immigration policy. The slides, infographic or video should include pictures and at least one quotation from the resources.
  • Directions for Group 2: Review the following documents to find the answer to these questions:
    • Documents:
    • Questions: 
      • Where did Cambodian Refugees resettle in the United States? How were resettlement areas chosen?
    • Task: Create a five slide presentation, infographic or short video showing where Cambodian refugees resettled in the United States and explain why those areas were chosen The slides, infographic or video should include pictures and at least one quotation from the resources.
  • Directions for Group 3: Review the following oral histories to find the answer to these questions:
    • Sources:
    • Questions: 
      • Where did the refugee featured in the oral history video resettle in the United States?
      • What issues did they encounter in the area/s they resettled?
        • How were language barriers an issue?
        • What were some issues with finding employment?
        • What issues did refugee students face?
    • Task: Create a five slide presentation, video or infographic  to highlight issues Cambodian Refugees encountered in the United States. The slides, infographic ,or video should include pictures and at least one quotation from the resources.

Circular Exchange/Multimedia Presentations:

  • The teacher will create new groups of three students. Each group should have one representative from Group 1 - Changes in refugee policy in the United States, one representative from Group 2 - Locations for refugee resettlement in the United States and one representative from Group 3 - Challenges for refugees when they resettled in the United States. 
  • Each member of the group will take turns presenting their slides, video or infographic to the other group members. Every student will fill in the guided notes handout while listening to the presentations.

Closure

 As an exit ticket, each student will reflect on one aspect of the Cambodian refugee resettlement in the United States that stood out to them. The teacher should have the students write or record their reflections to the questions, “What is one aspect of the Cambodian refugee resettlement in the United States that stood out to you? Why did you choose that issue?” The students will write their reflections on a shared Google Doc or other digital whiteboard platform.

  • The teacher can also give the students the option of choosing a challenge refugees faced, a statistic, or a policy that surprises them.

In groups, students will create a five-slide presentation, video, or infographic about their assigned group topic:

  • Group 1 - Changes in refugee policy in the United States
  • Group 2 - Locations for refugee resettlement in the United States
  • Group 3 - Challenges for refugees when they resettled in the United States.

The slides, infographic, or video should include pictures and at least one quotation from the resources.

  • Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:
    • Vary activities and sources of information so that they can be:
      • Personalized and contextualized to learners’ lives
      • Culturally relevant and responsive
      • Socially relevant
      • Age and ability appropriate
      • Appropriate for different racial, cultural, ethnic, and gender groups
  • Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:
    • Pre-teach vocabulary and symbols, especially in ways that promote connection to the learners’ experience and prior knowledge
      • Model academic language and vocabulary
    • Provide written transcripts for videos or auditory clips
  • Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:
    • Use story webs, outlining tools, or concept mapping tools
      • Provide a graphic organizer and schedule frequent check-in conversations to ensure understanding of the content

For additional ideas to support your students, check out the UDL Guidelines at CAST (2018).  http://udlguidelines.cast.org 

  • Emerging: Consider the following method to support with emerging students:
    • Speaking: Assign roles in group work 
      • Students assume specific roles to actively engage in, help lead, and contribute to collaborative discussions. 
      • Students engage in conversation with diverse partners where the class is split into two groups. One group stands and forms an outside circle while the other group forms an inner circle with students in the inner circle facing the students in the outside circle as conversation partners. Inner circle is rotated to switch partners. 
      • Ground rules or guidelines for conversations are used as the basis for constructive academic talk. Teacher provides judicious corrective feedback during student talk. 
      • Teacher deliberately partners specific students for conversations.  
  • Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:
    • Speaking: Repeat and expand student responses in a collaborative dialogue 
      • In partner and group discussions, students use conversation moves to extend academic talk. Conversation moves help students add to or challenge what a partner says, question, clarify, paraphrase, support thinking with examples, synthesize conversation points, etc.
  • Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:
    • Speaking: Require the use of academic language 
      • In response to a prompt, the teacher offers a sentence frame orally and/or in writing to support expression of student thinking. Frames are adjusted based upon specific grammatical structure, key vocabulary, content learning, and language proficiency level descriptors, etc. Frames are a temporary scaffold that require modification.
      • Apply domain-­specific vocabulary and general Academic vocabulary in open sentence frames to perform functions, like describing or explaining, that target specific grammatical structures.

For additional guidance around scaffolding for multilingual learners, please consult the following resources:

  1. Students can conduct interviews with refugees in their communities to compare their experiences with those of Cambodian refugees.
  2. Students can compare areas of the United States that became ethnic enclaves for different groups of refugees.

American Initiative. 2022. Asian American Studies K-12 Framework.  https://asianamericanresearchinitiative.org/asian-american-studies-curriculum-framework/ 

Britt, K. 2020, May 11. English Learner Toolkit of Strategies. California County Superintendents.  https://ccsesa.org/english-learner-toolkit-of-strategies/ 

Brown University. 2016, June 15. Eric Tang on the refugee in the hyperghetto [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7VrBy7DnHU 

California Department of Education. 2022. Ethnic studies model curriculum. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp 

California Department of Education & English Learner Support Division. 2012. California English Language Development standards (Electronic Edition) kindergarten through grade 12 (F. Ong & J. McLean, Eds.). California Department of Education. https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/documents/eldstndspublication14.pdf

California Educators Together. (n.d.). ELA / ELD framework. https://www.caeducatorstogether.org/resources/6537/ela-eld-framework

CAST. 2018 The UDL guidelines. http://udlguidelines.cast.org 

Chan, S. (n.d.). Cambodians in the United States: Refugees, Immigrants, American Ethnic Minority. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.317

Historical Society of Long Beach. 2023, June 16. Dan Durke - Oral History [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwH0r12yKgU 

Historical Society of Long Beach. 2023b, June 21. Bokanika Kan - Oral History [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPTpqncUvbc 

OHCHR. (n.d.). Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/protocol-relating-status-refugees 

Profiles of some good places for Cambodians to live in the United States. (n.d.). https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb52900697&brand=oac4&doc.view=entire_text

San Diego County Office of Education. (n.d.). Providing appropriate scaffolding.  https://www.sdcoe.net/educators/multilingual-education-and-global-achievement/oracy-toolkit/providing-appropriate-scaffolding#scaffolding

Seixas, P. & Morton, T. 2013. The big six: Historical thinking concepts. Nelson Education.

Stuart Isett. 2022, May 17. On the Corners of Argyle and Glenwood - Extended Version [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ynC_eEPhtw 

Tulare County Office of Education. (n.d.). Strategies for ELD. https://commoncore.tcoe.org/Content/Public/doc/Alpha-CollectionofELDStrategies.pdf 

Voice of America. 2015, October 20. Cambodian refugees in US reflect on failures in resettlement process [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsvNhg6rKbw 

Model Curriculum

Cambodian American Studies

Standard(s)

HSS 11.11 RI.11-12.7 W.11-12.2

Grade(s)

Grade 11 Grade 12