CEHD’s Cambodian connections

Posted
January 31, 2023

IN JANUARY 2018, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Associate Professor Vichet Chhuon, International Initiatives and Relations Director Marina Aleixo, and Department of Family Social Science Professor Catherine Solheim traveled to Cambodia in Southeast Asia. The trip was part of a grant-funded project to examine transnational family separation that resulted from U.S. immigration policies. “We traveled with several family members whose loved ones had been deported to Cambodia,” Chhuon says.

CEHD’s engagement with this issue began back in 2016 when eight Cambodians living in Minnesota were detained by Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE). Of the eight, three were released back to their families and five were deported to Cambodia. One of those released was Ched Nin, who grew up in Faribault, Minnesota, after arriving in the United States when he was six years old.

Read more about this initiative to support deported Minnesotans

The first cohort of the CEHD teacher training program in October 2018.