Unsettled
eBook - PDF

Unsettled

Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Unsettled

Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto

About this book

After surviving the Khmer Rouge genocide, followed by years of confinement to international refugee camps, as many as 10,000 Southeast Asian refugees arrived in the Bronx during the 1980s and '90s. Unsettled chronicles the unfinished odyssey of Bronx Cambodians, closely following one woman and her family for several years as they survive yet resist their literal insertion into concentrated Bronx poverty.  

Eric Tang tells the harrowing and inspiring stories of these refugees to make sense of how and why the displaced migrants have been resettled in the "hyperghetto." He argues that refuge is never found, that rescue discourses mask a more profound urban reality characterized by racialized geographic enclosure, economic displacement and unrelenting poverty, and the criminalization of daily life. 

Unsettled views the hyperghetto as a site of extreme isolation, punishment, and confinement. The refugees remain captives in late-capitalist urban America. Tang ultimately asks: What does it mean for these Cambodians to resettle into this distinct time and space of slavery's afterlife?

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Yes, you can access Unsettled by Eric Tang in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Sciences sociales & Études asiatico-américaines. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
1
War/Time
I
n 
the 
wake 
of 
the 
Cambodian 
genocide, 
the 
majority 
of 
Cambo-
dians 
seeking 
asylum 
and 
resettlement 
in 
another 
country 
fled 
to 
neighboring 
Thailand. 
By 
crossing 
into 
another 
country, 
they 
re-
defined 
themselves 
from 
“internally 
displaced 
people” 
to 
“refugees,” 
according 
to 
the 
Office 
of 
the 
United 
Nations 
High 
Commissioner 
for 
Refugees 
(UNHCR).
1
Crossing 
into 
Thailand 
in 
itself, 
however, 
did 
not 
guarantee 
en-
try 
into 
a 
refugee 
camp 
from 
which 
the 
refugees 
could 
make 
an 
asy-
lum 
claim. 
Once 
across, 
the 
refugees 
had 
to 
gain 
entry 
into 
a 
camp 
that 
was 
jointly 
administered 
by 
UNHCR 
and 
the 
Thai 
government, 
whereupon 
they 
could 
submit 
their 
application 
to 
a 
third 
and 
final 
country 
of 
asylum, 
including 
the 
United 
States. 
Many 
Cambodians 
never 
made 
it 
that 
far. 
They 
were 
stopped 
by 
Thai 
soldiers 
who 
either 
pushed 
them 
back 
into 
Cambodia 
or 
into 
non-UNHCR 
camps 
run 
by 
exiled 
Cambodian 
factions 
(including 
the 
Khmer 
Rouge) 
who 
op-
posed 
the 
Vietnamese-backed 
People’s 
Republic 
of 
Kampuchea 
(PRK) 
regime. 
Among 
those 
who 
crossed, 
the 
most 
unfortunate 
were 
the 
men, 
women, 
and 
children 
murdered 
by 
ruthless 
Thai 
soldiers.
Ra 
crossed 
over 
from 
Cambodia 
into 
Thailand 
in 
early 
December 
1979, 
nearly 
one 
year 
after 
the 
Vietnamese 
invaded 
Cambodia. 
The 

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. List of Figures
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Introduction: Refugee in the Hyperghetto
  5. 1. War/Time
  6. 2. Housed in the Hyperghetto
  7. 3. Welfare Resistance
  8. 4. Workfare Encampments
  9. 5. Sweatshops of the Neoplantation
  10. 6. Motherhood
  11. Conclusion: “Unsettled”
  12. Notes
  13. Bibliography
  14. Index