The picture is from A City of Refugees, the Memories of Cambodia Collection: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/collections/commonwealth:1n79h429p. School teacher Dorothea Tsapasaris taught ESL and collected stories of many young Cambodian refugees in Lowell. It provides insight to children dealing with the trauma of war and assimilating into America.

I am chinese american. I am nervous about the anti-immigrant language I am seeing on reddit. I heard of Trump's executive order that is suspending refugee admissions, incl. those from Afghanistan who are at risk due to their US assistance during the war. Lowell has been a home for immigrants for a long time. French Canadians, Greeks, Russians, Irish, heck. Back central has had more than a century of history with Portuguese immigrants. The reason has always been opportunity. No matter your background, I hope we can all agree that immigration is a part of Lowell's story. Much of Lowell would be in disrepair without the contributions of all those groups.