When Laymone Khambounleung was deported to Laos last August, relatives from his mother’s side met him at a holding facility. He did not know what they looked like.
The encounter reflected one of the many uncertainties he faced after being removed from the United States, the only country he had really known. His deportation followed convictions that included burglary and threatening a family member.
Khambounleung left Laos as a baby and grew up in Louisiana. Now 41, he is learning to manage everyday life in a country he left four decades ago. He speaks Lao but cannot read or write it, and has formed friendships with other men who also left their countries as children and later assimilated in the United States.
Like deportees in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere in Asia, Khambounleung is using social media to show what it is like to be sent to an unfamiliar home country, or to a third country with which there is no personal connection. Their posts highlight both the difficulties and the opportunities of rebuilding their lives. For some deportees, online content also provides an income.
Khambounleung’s videos feature his reactions to daily sights in Laos, narrated in his Louisiana accent. They have attracted millions of views.
“It’s all new to me too,” he said in an interview. “I wanted to let the whole world see the Lao culture also, experience it with me while I’m experiencing it.”
Sources: The New York Times World.