A qualitative collective case study explored variables that had an effect on decisions to pursue postsecondary education for twelve Cambodian Americans; the meanings they ascribed to engagement in the postsecondary educational process; factors that had an influence on selection of an institute of higher education; and self-described challenges and efforts to overcome challenges in the educational process. Results indicate Cambodian refugee parents supported their children's educational aspirations and nine of twelve respondents are currently engaged in or plan higher education, and one respondent plans vocational postsecondary education. Most respondents who lived in an ethnic enclave chose careers that contribute to the collective paradigm and have a positive sense of identity. Respondents identified academic challenges in English writing, vocabulary, and in higher mathematics. Female respondents cited desires for independence and self-determination as rationale for higher educational aspirations while males cited a desire to improve family quality of life. Respondents rarely received guidance counseling sufficient to support educational endeavors. Most attended community college and chose transfer universities that would allow them to live with relatives. Attaining fluency in Khmer supported academic achievement as did close relationships with instructors and teaching methodologies compatible with collectivistic cultural paradigms. Personal standards of achievement and motivational strategies were important to academic success and a connection between religious association, collectivism, and being male was in evidence.

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Most tourists visiting Cambodia only seek to visit the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat. The Cambodian, or Khmer people are capitalizing on this booming tourist industry, but they are also disseminating a more complex Khmer identity through other sites and festivals. This identity simultaneously hearkens back to the affluence of the Angkor Period in Khmer history and looks forward to the modernization of the country. After the reign of the Khmer Rouge, from 1975-1979, which led to what is now called the Cambodian Killing Fields, the Khmer people needed to create a new, hopeful, peaceful identity for their nation. The new Khmer identity is still being created and strengthened today. This thesis is about performance and its intersection with identity. It argues that the Khmer are using performance—both onstage and offstage—as a means towards identity formation. The contemporary performance of Khmer identity is serving to increase nationalism as well as raise interest and funding for Cambodia from foreign tourists. This thesis looks closely at three sites of Khmer performance: a Khmer performance enacted onstage entitled Sokacha, the Pioneer Day celebrations of the Khmer-Mormon community in Phnom Penh, and the yearly Water Festival. Each of these performance sites demonstrates the dual performance occurring—a performance to reify Khmer identity to Khmer people from around the world, and a performance of Khmer identity packaged for foreigners to purchase. Performance on stage has been altered, choosing only elements of traditional Khmer performance that emphasize the new identity. But the Khmer are using other venues, like festivals and celebrations, to perform identity. In adopting only elements of Khmer history that fit the hopeful trajectory of the new Khmer identity, the Khmer are creating and performing a new identity, both onstage and offstage, to fit the present and future Cambodia. Two identities of Cambodia are being performed: one aimed at Khmer to instill national pride, and one performed for the tourists that help fund that effort.

Cambodian Americans' (CAs) children still exhibit the second lowest rate of academic achievement in the United States, despite the tenets of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 that promote equality in American education. Furthermore, there is a gap in the literature on the relationship between the academic success of Cambodian American students (CASs) and the parents' and the children's factors. Using a structural strain theory of deviance of functionalism theory, this correlational study (a) explored whether education, income, birthplace, and gender of parents and age at immigration and gender of children the determinants of academic success of CASs and (b) examined the dimension of gender practices in CAs' households that might affect CASs' academic success. Survey data were collected from a purposive sample of 153 CASs' parents in Long Beach, CA, using a researcher-developed survey. Multiple linear regression was run for the correlation questions and frequency descriptive statistics were run for the gender practices. Findings indicated a significant relationship (p < .05) between academic success of CASs and the parents' education in Cambodia and the children's age at immigration to America. The descriptive statistics determined gender disparity in the participant households that might affect the academic achievement of female CASs. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to school administrators, nonprofits, local government, and federal government to collect segregate data on CASs' academic outcomes, develop social policies and programs, and allocate appropriate fund to support programs and cultural humility and competency training enhancing CASs' success and parents' involvement in their children's education.

This Master’s thesis uses the Indochinese Refugee Foundation of Lowell, Massachusetts, a federally funded social service provider, as a case study in the local politics of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement. I argue that the Foundation’s archives offered an opportunity to study the local implementation of the “economic self-sufficiency” mandate of the 1980 Refugee Act, which led the Foundation to increasingly scramble to get refugees off of the welfare rolls and in the labor market as quickly as possible. I conclude that this served to push refugees into low-wage, unskilled, insecure positions such as electronics assembly, and also led to an institutionalized neglect of the broad range of services refugees required. This neglect had a hand in creating the very poverty the Act originally sought to prevent. The archive also offered the opportunity to highlight two unexpected ways that Cold War militarism reshaped urban landscapes. First, the demography and culture of Lowell were profoundly reshaped by refugees resettled partly as a result of American Cold War foreign policy in Southeast Asia. Second, the expansion of Defense Department funded high-technology temporarily revitalized the city’s economic base and drew refugees to the city with the promise of employment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Cambodian children who attended a native language preschool would acquire a broader linguistic and experiential base in their native language and in English than a comparable group who have not attended any preschool. Specifically the study looked at the children's native language fluency, English fluency, and academic skills in elementary school. The sample of this study consisted of Cambodian children who had attended a native language preschool and who had remained in the same school district and a control group of Cambodian children from the same school district who had not attended preschool but who were similar economically and socially. An existing database was used to measure native language fluency, English fluency, whether or not the children met grade level standards and whether they were socially/emotionally prepared for school. It was found that although there was a difference in native language fluency there was no significant difference in English fluency or in meeting grade level standards. The findings suggest that further study is needed to determine long-term success academically between the two groups.

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Ziel der Dissertation ist es, eine umfassende Analyse der kambodschanisch-thailändischen diplomatischen Beziehungen von 1950 bis 2014 zu liefern. Die Arbeit geht über einen rein historischen Bericht hinaus, da sie darauf abzielt, die Wechselhaftigkeit der kambodschanisch-thailändischen Beziehungen zu erklären. Als Grundlage dient hierzu ein Ansatz sozialen Konflikts, der Staaten nicht als homogene Akteure ansieht, sondern vielmehr als eine Konfiguration konfligierender Kräfte, die ihre außenpolitischen Ziele im Einklang mit ihrer eigenen Ideologie, ihren Interessen und ihren Strategien verfolgen. Daher postuliert die Arbeit, dass die kambodschanisch-thailändischen Beziehungen nicht als Produkt einheitlicher Staaten angesehen werden sollten, die entweder miteinander kooperieren oder sich voneinander abschotten, sondern als Matrix sich überlappender Beziehungen zwischen gesellschaftlichen und politischen Gruppen beider Staaten, die konkurrierende Ideologien und/oder Interessen zur Förderung ihrer innenpolitischen Machtposition beherbergen. Das Projekt bringt zwei mit einer verknüpfte Argumente hervor. Erstens, kambodschanisch-thailändische Beziehungen sind wahrscheinlich dann kooperativ angelegt, wenn es sich bei beiden Machthabern um zivil-demokratisch gewählte Regierungen mit ähnlichen Ideologien, ökonomischen Interessen und Sicherheitsbedenken handelt. Umgekehrt verschlechtern sich die Beziehungen, wenn diese Faktoren nicht reziprok sind. Dies ist besonders dann der Fall, wenn eine der beiden Regierungen mehr mit der Opposition der anderen gemein hat. Zweitens, auch wenn antagonistische Nationalismen auf beiden Seiten bestehen, handelt es sich keinesfalls um eine Determinante, die die Außenpolitik beider Seiten festlegt. Die Arbeit argumentiert, dass Nationalismen nur dann aufgerufen werden, wenn zumindest eine der beiden Regierungen ihre Legitimität in der Heimat stärken muss und die andere Regierung nicht dieselbe Ideologie und strategischen Interessen teilt. / This dissertation aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of Cambodia-Thailand diplomatic relations over the past six decades, specifically from 1950 to 2014. In addition to empirical discussion, it seeks to explain why Cambodian-Thai relationships have fluctuated and what primary factors caused the shifts during the period discussed. In doing so, it employs the “social conflict” analysis, which views states not as unitary actors, but within which is comprised of different societal forces competing with one another and pursues foreign policies in accordance with their own ideology, interest, and strategy. As such, it is postulated that Cambodia-Thailand diplomatic relations should not be seen simply as relations between two unitary states cooperating with or securitizing against one another, but rather as a matrix of intertwining relationships between various social and political groups in both states harboring competing ideologies and/or interests to advance their power positions at home. Two inter-related arguments are therefore put forward in this research. Firstly, Cambodian-Thai relations are likely to be cooperative when both governments in power are civilian-democratically elected regimes and share similar ideologies, mutual economic interests, as well as security outlooks. Conversely, relations between them tend to deteriorate when these factors are not reciprocal. This is particularly true when one government has more in common with the dissidents of the government of the other side. Secondly, though antagonistic nationalism does exist between Cambodia and Thailand, it is not a determinant of the two nations’ foreign relations. This research argues that nationalism and historical animosity are invoked only if at least the government on one side needs to bolster its own legitimacy at home, and the government on the other side does not share a similar ideology or strategic interests with its own – the second aspect being the more important factor here.

Les zones franches illustrent de manière remarquable l’ouverture du monde aux échanges internationaux, comme en témoigne leur multiplication au cours des quatre dernières décennies. La zone franche n’est pas un phénomène statique, mais dynamique. Dynamique dans le sens où ses activités sont passées d’activités intensives en travail à celles plus sophistiquées de la technologie. Leur développement est classé en 4 générations : la 1ère génération (zones franches commerciales), la 2ème génération (zones franches industrielles et zones économiques spéciales), la 3ème génération (zones franches de service) et la 4ème génération (zones franches scientifiques). Basé sur le critère de performance en termes d’exportations et d’emplois, on peut classer les pays en quatre groupes selon le niveau de développement de leur zone franche. Les zones franches sont fortement concentrées dans les deux premiers groupes à savoir : les pays asiatiques (du Sud et du Sud-Est) et les grands pays d’Amérique latines (le Mexique). En effet, les plus importantes et les plus nombreuses sont implantées dans les pays où il existe une forte dynamique industrielle, là où se concentrent les trafics et où se déploient les stratégies des firmes étrangères. Plusieurs formes de firmes sont en effet présentes dans la zone franche : les sociétés entièrement étrangères, les sociétés conjointes (Joint-Venture). Les firmes des zones franches peuvent être une usine d’assemblage, une usine-atelier ou une usine intégrée pour fournir les produits à leur maison- mère dans certain cas. Dans d’autre elles vendent leurs produits aux autres entreprises ou grands distributeurs en tant que firmes indépendantes (sous-traitance). En effet, les firmes étrangères qui s’y trouvent installées ont un comportement stratégique vertical ou global.Il n’est pas étonnant que les zones franches de la 2ème génération soient créées au Cambodge où le démarrage du développement industriel est juste entamé. L’objectif du gouvernement est d’exploiter les avantages comparatifs (naturels et artificiels), d’étendre les échanges régionaux et mondiaux. Aussi, l’établissement des zones économiques spéciales marque vraiment un engagement du gouvernement royal du Cambodge dans le développement de son pays par l’industrialisation d’extraversion : les industries exportatrices sont privilégiées. Deux types d’avantages sont mis en place au Cambodge : Les avantages « hors coût » : Facilité de l’accès aux marchés internationaux (surtout le marché américain, européen et canadien), bénéfice du label social de leurs produits et aussi les effets des accords préférentiels commerciaux sont considérées comme un des éléments très attractif des investisseurs étrangers. Le deuxième est les avantages « coût » à caractère naturel (l’abondance d’offre de main d’œuvre à bon marché) et artificiel (meilleure mesure d’incitations, politique d’attractivité). Fondé sur ces avantages, les ZES cambodgiennes peuvent être développées en trois phases : Phase initiale : Usine d’assemblages, Phase intermédiaire : Usine de production, Phase finale : Usine totalement intégrée. Dans ce sens, les ZES cambodgiennes, étant en complémentarité avec les zones franches de la région asiatique du Sud-Est, semblent être un lieu privilégié de l’implantation des firmes à activité intensive en travail : le textile, l’habillement et l’électronique. / Free zones are a striking illustration of the opening of the world to the international trade. In the last four decades, tremendously increased, Free zones are not static phenomenon, but dynamic ones. The dynamic is in the sense of which their industrial activities are started from labor intensive industry to the most sophisticated activities. We propose a classification of free zones into four generations: 1st generation (free trade zones), 2nd generation (export processing zones and special economic zones), 3rd generation (services based zones) and 4th generation (science-based zones). Based on performance criteria in term of exportation and employment, four groups of countries were classified to design the level of development of free zones. The first two groups of countries, such as the Est and the South-Est Asian countries and Latin American countries, are considered as the most dynamic countries in term of free zones’ development. In fact, the most important zone is located in the countries where there are a strong industrial dynamics with participating actively to the international trade and to foreign firms’ strategy. Having invested in free zones, enterprises are totally foreign firms or Joint- venture. In this regard, firms installed in free zones could be: assembled factory, production factory, totally integrated factory. These firms aimed to supply the product to parent company or to sell the product to another enterprises or distribution companies as they are outsourcing. In this case, the firm’s strategic behaviors are considered as “verticals” or “global”. It’s not surprising that the free zones of 2nd generation are established in Cambodia at the stage of industrial development. The objective of the Royal Government of Cambodia is to exploit efficiently its comparative advantages (natural and artificial ones) and to catch its opportunities to the regional and global trade. Thus, the establishment of special economic zones (SEZ) shows the commitment of the government in the process of the export-led industrialization in Cambodia. The Cambodian SEZ provides two kinds of advantages : The non Cost advantages includes international market privileged access (to American and European market), the benefit of social label of Cambodian manufactured products and others Cambodian preferential trade agreements, which are considered as the most attractive factors of foreign direct investment to Cambodian SEZ. The Cost Advantages has a natural caracteristic (the abundance of labor forces at low cost) and artificial (better incentive measures and attractive policy). Based on theses advantages, the Cambodian SEZ could be developed in three phases: initial phase (assembly factory), second phase (production factory) and finally the third phase (totally integrated factory). In this context, the Cambodian SEZ could, at a complementary position with free zones of the South-East Asian region, be a privileged location of the labor intensive industries- textile, garments and electronic industry.