“Give me your tired, your poor / your huddled masses yearning to be free …” Such were the words of Emma Lazarus, written in 1883 and enshrined in American history in 1930, in the form of a bronze plaque affixed to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The implication of these words still evokes a sense of national pride and identity, even if their intended target – refugees – has become an unfortunately politicized group in recent history. The U.S. opened its arms to more than 207,000 souls in 1980, according to historic data tracked by the Refugee Processing Center, most of whom came here from Asia. At the time, the Soviet-Afghan War had begun along with the insurgency of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia that resulted in the mass genocide of nearly 2 million in the late 1970s.
