Columbus enjoys the distinction of hosting over 20,000 Bhutanese-Nepali refugees, the largest such population of any US city. The majority of these refugees are members of a minority ethnic group, the Lhotshampa, that originated in Nepal. These people moved to Bhutan long ago, but in 1990 the Bhutanese government expelled the Lhotshampa people from Bhutan in retaliation for the participation of some of them in pro-democracy protests.