When were the major waves of immigrants from Cambodia to the United States?
Before 1975, almost no Cambodians lived in the United States. Cambodian refugees began immigrating to the United States in large numbers in 1979. The biggest wave of immigrants came in the early 1980s. Of the 118,823 foreign-born Cambodians in the 1990 Census, only 14% had arrived before 1980. After 1985, the wave of immigrants had peaked and consequently declined because of the more stable political situation in Cambodia. Push Factors Turmoil created by the Vietnam War resulted in the invasion of Cambodia by America and South Vietnam, and then a leftist group known as the Khmer Rouge came into power. The Khmer Rouge tried to create a completely new society by removing everything ‘old’ or individual-centered, including traditions, elderly people, and family life. The attempt to industrialize the country eventually reduced it ‘into a collection of forced labor camps’. An unknown number of people were killed by the poor living conditions, starvation, and bombing. Between one and two mill
