Cambodia Town

Little Cambodia

Cambodian enclaves are made up mostly of refugees from the country of Cambodia since the 1980s.

The term Little Cambodia (or Cambodia Town) refers to an ethnic enclave of people from the country of Cambodia.

Cambodian presence in the West traces back to the French colonisation of Cambodia from the 1860s to mid-1950s, in which a number of Cambodians migrated to France as students or workers. This group formed the basis of the Cambodian population in France.

While some were able to flee to France shortly after the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, most Cambodians left their country after the regime in the 1980s, with most arriving in the United States (specifically to Long Beach, California; Lowell, Massachusetts and the New York City borough of the Bronx), as well as France (specifically to Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France region).

In the Bronx, Little Cambodia is known for its "... spicy Cambodian noodle soup made with beef, shrimp and fish balls." The Cambodian population was mainly concentrated in the neighbourhoods of Fordham, University Heights and Bronx Park East areas. The Cambodian population in the Bronx and New York City has declined since the 1980s, as many of the Cambodian immigrants moved to California, Massachusetts and Texas.

Cambodia Town, Long Beach, California "... is a neighborhood in Long Beach's East Side centered on Anaheim Street between Atlantic and Junipero." The community has been around since 1959 which was made up of students from the nearby universities such as the University of Southern California, UCLA, and California State University at Los Angeles, to name a few.