In Lowell, migrants’ arrival strikes a sympathetic chord
City’s Cambodians recall their journeys, offer help, compassion
LOWELL — Vanna Howard watched as Khmer Rouge militants captured her father in the late 1970s during the group’s reign of terror in Cambodia. She watched as three of her younger siblings and her grandparents were lost to sickness and starvation in a genocide that killed more than 1.7 million people.
Now Howard, a state representative, and other Cambodians in Lowell are watching with empathetic eyes as dozens of new migrant families trickle into Lowell — the latest stop on a harrowing journey that took some through multiple countries in search of opportunity. She said she sees reflections of her experience in the newest wave of migrants arriving in Massachusetts.
When Howard fled Cambodia, making her way to a refugee camp in Thailand, she walked for “weeks and weeks, similar to the folks who have been coming to our border” in the United States.
“We need to treat this matter with empathy, with compassion,” Howard said, her voice cracking with emotion. “Nobody wants to leave their home country. The decision to leave their home country — it has to be so bad that you are willing to risk your life to flee.”
The state announced last week that it would move nearly 70 migrant and homeless families from Bedford to the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center. Many of those being relocated are Haitian migrants who fled a country consumed by gang violence.
Throughout the Commonwealth, local responses to influxes of sheltering migrants have been mixed. But Howard, a Democrat who represents the 17th Middlesex District, which includes parts of Lowell, said feedback from her constituents about the new arrivals “has been positive, especially from my fellow Cambodian folks.”
Lowell City Councilor Paul Ratha Yem, who also fled Cambodia decades ago, said Lowell is a “city of immigrants,” and its Cambodian community is especially quick to offer sympathy and support to newcomers.
“Most Cambodians are sympathetic
to the plight of these migrants. They escaped the turmoil in their countries,” Yem said. “They see themselves coming to the United States.”
Yem, who on a recent afternoon greeted locals and business owners at a grocery store in Lowell’s Cambodia Town neighborhood, said the Haitian migrants appear to be guided by the same goals as he and other Cambodians when they made it to Lowell decades ago.
“They want opportunities to make a living,” he said. “And once they’ve got the permit to stay and work in the United States, they’ll be going to start a job and buying homes to start a new life.”
Nearly 30 percent of Lowell residents were born outside the United States, and more than 40 percent speak a language other than English in their homes, according to census data.
There are about 20,000 Cambodians in Lowell, or around 17 percent of the total population, according to the city’s Cambodia Town Neighborhood Plan. Lowell has the second-largest Cambodian population of any US city after Long Beach, Calif.
Across the street from the grocery store at Roberto Clemente Park, Rye Man watched as more than two dozen men played volleyball and bocce. He said they come out almost daily, whenever the weather allows. Though the crowd appeared mostly Cambodian, Man said that “everybody’s welcome” to play.
Man, 42, said he has lived in Lowell for 38 years, after moving from Cambodia as a young child. He said Lowell has remained a welcoming landing-pad for newcomers as long as he’s known it.
“Everybody’s welcome here in Lowell. Any nationality,” he said.
Families could be seen walking into and out of the shelter site, pushing strollers and speaking Spanish and Haitian Creole. Some appeared to be exploring their new neighborhood on foot.
One of the newcomers, Markenson Xavier, said he moved into the Lowell Inn on April 17, after spending months in Bedford. The 35-year-old said he arrived in the United States in July 2023 after fleeing Haiti.
Xavier, who works at an Amazon warehouse to the west, said he had not gotten a chance to explore Lowell, but the handful of his new neighbors he had run into so far seemed welcoming.
A few blocks away, at the Simply Khmer Cambodian restaurant, general manager Xavier Eang Lee said he was happy to see Lowell welcoming the new migrants but is concerned about what sorts of jobs and opportunities are available in the mill city, where housing prices have gone up in recent years and migrant workers may face challenges communicating with English or Khmer-speaking employers.
“Historically, Lowell housing has been very inexpensive, which is why Lowell is a hotspot for immigrant communities,” said Eang Lee, 27. “And yet now it feels like you can’t even afford anything anymore.”
He said the Cambodian community tends to be more focused on helping Cambodian immigrants than those from other countries, though they are welcoming to all.
He added that the new migrants could find opportunities for jobs in the service industry, since fewer and fewer locals seem drawn to that kind of work.
“Overall, I think it’s a good thing for the community, [but] only if we have support,” Eang Lee said. He suggested that small businesses employing the migrants should get a tax credit, for example.
Eang Lee said perhaps the new migrants might build up a community of their own in Lowell, like the Cambodians did upon their arrival, and that growth could help stimulate the rest of the city.
Howard, the state representative, said she is confident Lowell has the resources to support the newcomers. Over the last few decades, local nonprofits and state partners have begun offering resettlement assistance and English-language classes, leaving the latest wave of migrants in a better place than many Cambodians were in the 1980s.
”Lowell can handle it,” she said.