From Incarceration to Lok Kru: Teaching after Deportation

• In Event: The Southeast Asian Diaspora

Abstract

Since 2002, any non-citizen Cambodian with a felony conviction that triggers a one-year sentence can be deported, including those with refugee status. In this research, we examine closely how Cambodian American deportees, now schoolteachers, create coherence in their stories about life, education, and belonging. We focus on two individuals, Bora and Veasna, and examine, through a critical refugee studies lens, the ways that they narrate their life in the United States and in Cambodia, as well as how they understand their more recent teacher identities, albeit on their own terms. We consider how their perspectives can illuminate a number of important tensions related to immigration, belonging, and membership in US society, particularly with respect to the school to prison to deportation pipeline.

Authors

• VICHET CHHUON, University of Minnesota

• Insil Jeon, University of Minnesota

• Sophea Om, University of Minnesota