CULTURE PROFILE| << | CHAPTER |
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HMONG
AN INTRODUCTION TO THEIR HISTORY AND CULTURE
CULTURE PROFILE |
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CONTENTS | ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | INTRODUCTION | PEOPLE | HISTORY | LIFE IN LAOS | EXPERIENCE IN THAILAND | LITERACY | RESETTLEMENT | LANGUAGE | WORDS, PHRASES, SAYINGS | BIBLIOGRAPHY | ||||
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Resettlement in the United States The Hmong from Wat Tham Krabok will be joining well-established Hmong communities in the United States. The first groups of Hmong refugees began arriving in the United States in 1975, shortly after the communist takeover in Laos. In 1979, the U.S. resettlement of Hmong refugees increased significantly, and by the mid-1990s more than 100,000 Hmong had been admitted to the United States. Today, the 2000 Census reports that there are more than 186,000 Hmong Americans in the United States.6 While Hmong live throughout the country, the largest populations are clustered in five states: California (71,741), Minnesota (45,443), Wisconsin (36,809), North Carolina (7,982), and Michigan (5,998). Because the great majority of the Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok will be joining relatives in the United States, we can expect most new arrivals to resettle in the five states with the greatest concentrations of Hmong. Additionally, a small number will go to Arkansas, Colorado, and other states with smaller Hmong populations. While the refugees will be resettled by experienced resettlement agencies, most will also have family co-sponsors, who will need information about their roles and responsibilities and the ways to help their refugee relatives gain access to resources and services. The refugees will be joining Hmong communities in the United States that have achieved remarkable educational and professional successes over the past two decades, even as individual Hmong continue to struggle to adjust to a way of life that is very different from what they had previously experienced. In this section, we consider the resettlement prospects of the new arrivals in light of their background experiences and the experiences of previous groups of Hmong refugees resettled in the United States. 6 Includes those who report being Hmong alone and Hmong with one or more ethnic/racial designation. Hmong community leaders believe that this number is low and that the Hmong population in the United States numbers somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000. |
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Hmong residents of the temple have worked in a variety of Thai industries. |
EmploymentIn Thailand Past groups of Hmong refugees have arrived in the United States from refugee camps where opportunities for work were limited and where families depended on international humanitarian agencies for their basic survival. In contrast, at Wat Tham Krabok, international assistance was not available until recently, and many of the Hmong there have worked inside and outside the temple complex to support themselves and their families. Hmong residents of the temple have worked in a variety of Thai industries and in several positions within those industries. Many Hmong men and women have worked on nearby Thai farms, tilling, picking, and packaging. Others have worked for construction contractors and a local rock quarry. Some small, Hmong-run businesses—knife making, musical instrument making, sewing, and silversmithing—have operated in the temple complex. All of these working Hmong possess transferable skills and interests that should be recognized and built upon as much as possible in the United States. Because the Hmong were unable to obtain legal status in Thailand, however, they were treated as essentially undocumented workers and were frequently subject to exploitation and abuse by their employers in terms of pay, hours, and working conditions. They are likely to arrive with little understanding of the U.S. workplace or such concepts as job benefits, skills upgrading opportunities, and employee rights. In particular, they may be unaware of the time mandates that U.S. employers must follow. They also may not grasp the importance of obtaining a legal job in the United States as all their work to date in Thailand has been under the table. In the United States The new arrivals will be joining communities that have made significant economic progress over the past two decades, at the same time that many Hmong individuals remain on the economic margins. According to the 2000 Census, 10% of Hmong aged 16 years and older were not in the labor force, compared with 6% for the general population. While this rate is high, it is a marked improvement from the 1990 rate of 18%. The highest reported Hmong unemployment rates were found in Washington (22%), Alaska (16%), and California (14%). The lowest Hmong unemployment rates were observed in North Carolina (7%), Colorado (6%), Kansas (6%), Massachusetts (6%), Michigan (6%), Oregon (4%), South Carolina (3%), and Oklahoma (0%). In Minnesota and Wisconsin, which are home to nearly half of the Hmong in America, 9% of the Hmong were unemployed, which is significantly higher than the 3% exhibited by the overall population in those states. What kinds of jobs do Hmong hold? The 2000 Census shows that of the Hmong who are employed, 43% were clustered in manufacturing jobs, compared with 15% for the national population, followed by sales and office (21%) and services (16%). It should be noted that only a small percentage of U.S. Hmong are in farming, fishing, and forestry jobs—traditional areas of work for the Hmong. One sign of progress for the Hmong community is the growing number of men and women working in the better paying and socially more prestigious job sectors, such as medicine, science, teaching, engineering, law, management, and politics. The 2000 Census puts 7% of working Hmong men and 5% of Hmong women in these jobs, compared with 10% for men and 9% for women as a whole in the United States. This is a dramatic change. Only two decades ago, the Hmong had one of the lowest rates of literacy and formal education among refugee groups in the United States, and very few men, and almost no women, held professional jobs. Today, Hmong men and women are doctors, lawyers, engineers, business owners, and university professors. More than 100 community-based organizations staffed by Hmong professionals provide essential services to Hmong communities throughout the United States. Recently two Hmong Americans were elected to the Minnesota state legislature. While these gains are impressive, the resettlement history of past groups of Hmong speaks to the need for thorough, comprehensive job readiness training and world-of-work orientation. Arriving Hmong will need to learn the requirements and rights of the U.S. workplace, to understand the benefits of legal and early employment and to fully explore career options that build on skills and interest. Just as the Hmong from Wat Tham Krabok bring a work history far different from past groups of Hmong refugees, so is America a vastly different place from what it was a generation ago. When the first Hmong arrived in the mid-1970s, they were allowed 36 months of financial support under a federal government program called Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA). Today, they are expected to be working by the end of eight months. In the 1970s, services were usually sequential; job placement activities generally began only after a long first phase of English language training (ELT) followed by a vocational training phase. Today, refugee services are provided concurrently and swiftly; employable adults are expected to attend English language classes while in an active job search with an employment counselor. Finally, in most states the welfare system is far more restrictive, with far more stringent work requirements, than it was when the first Hmong arrived. Even older Hmong are not exempted from employment the way they were 25 years ago. And an arriving 55-year-old Hmong will not be entitled to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) at 65 years of age unless he or she becomes a citizen or works 40 quarters. Moreover, the new arrivals will be joining a host community that may not be aware of these changes in service mandates, welfare laws, and employment expectations. Well-meaning families, recalling their own resettlement experiences, may encourage their relatives to slow down, not rush into job placement, and extend English language training for as long as possible. With this family pressure, the newly arrived Hmong may feel deeply conflicted about pursuing a job and accepting early employment. Service providers will need to work closely with the host communities to prepare and educate them about the new realities of the resettlement system. With every immigrant and refugee population in the United States, cross-cultural issues invariably surface in the workplace. As with other groups, Hmong have their own set of norms in terms of employment that counselors will need to learn and respect. For example, the American tendency to encourage competition and reward individual success may run counter to the Hmong value of harmonious group relations, as the following case study illustrates.
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English
classes, taught by Hmong volunteers, |
HousingFrom their years of living in Thailand, the Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok will be much better prepared for modern-day housing than previous groups of Hmong refugees were. Those who could afford it have built wood-frame houses with concrete floors, and with support from their relatives in the United States, many families have purchased and installed ovens, stoves, rice cookers, and other modern conveniences. Outside the temple, residents have had easy access to the Internet through cyber cafes. It is likely that many of the newly arrived Hmong will live temporarily with relatives before moving into their own rental units. Once they are ready to move into their apartments and houses, finding adequate, affordable housing for large multigenerational families is expected to be the same challenge for the new arrivals as it was for previous groups of refugees. Renting an apartment or house, and all that that entails—signing a lease, paying rent on time, understanding tenant rights and responsibilities—will be an unfamiliar experience for most new arrivals. It can be expected that owning a house will be a priority for the new arrivals, as it has been for past groups of Hmong refugees. While the process of purchasing a house will be an unfamiliar one—in the mountains of Laos, Hmong simply built their own homes, with no need for credit or collateral—the desire for ownership should be keen, judging from the experience of Hmong in the United States. In just three decades, the rate of Hmong American home ownership is comparable to that of other immigrant groups. In Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, 50% of the Hmong own their own homes. In California, however, the rate of ownership remains a relatively low 16%. |
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With little English, parents are unable to communicate their concerns to teachers. |
EducationIn Thailand It is expected that most Hmong adults at Wat Tham Krabok, like previous Hmong refugees, will arrive in the United States with little formal education. Many adults will not be literate in any language. It is not known how many have learned the RPA, the most common of the various Hmong writing systems. An estimated 50% of Hmong adults in the United States are able to use this writing system to some extent. Since the announcement of the U.S. resettlement program, English classes, taught by Hmong volunteers, have become increasingly popular at Wat Tham Krabok. Hmong Mutual Assistance Associations (MAAs), local resettlement offices, and other organizations serving refugee should expect the new arrivals to show a keen interest in English language classes. As we have learned from past efforts to teach English to the Hmong, adult ESL classes are more successful when they focus on the practical English that people need during their first months in the United States. For nonliterate Hmong, successful approaches use a lot of visuals and take advantage of learners’ memorization skills. (In cultures that do not depend upon print to pass down knowledge and communicate information, the ability to remember large amounts of material appears better developed than it is in print-based cultures.) Initial registration of the Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok indicates that more than half of the refugees are under the age of 18. Of these, it is likely that many have had some schooling in Thai-medium elementary schools (and therefore speak Thai). However, because the Thai government did not allow Hmong children over the age of 12 to attend Thai school, it is expected that few Hmong children will have finished high school. Older teenagers arriving in the United States with just a few years of education will be in need of special services and support. It should be noted that while most children at Wat Tham Krabok have obtained some schooling, many have not because their parents needed them to work to help support the family or to take care of younger siblings while the adults in the family worked. Some children have earned money collecting metal to sell to blacksmiths; older children have sewn and worked as farm laborers. In the United States The new arrivals will be joining Hmong communities in the United States that have made tremendous educational strides over the past two decades yet still lag behind other groups in educational attainment. Academic achievement is the highest it has ever been in the history of the Hmong, with a growing number of Hmong youth entering institutions of higher education. However, only 3% of Hmong youth graduate from college, compared with 18% for Americans overall, and the high school dropout rate among Hmong youth remains disproportionately high. In a 2003 report prepared for Congress, entitled Southeast Asian Americans and Higher Education, the Southeast Asian Resource Center (SEARAC) examined the underlying causes of academic underachievement among Laotian (including Hmong), Vietnamese, and Cambodian students. Among the major obstacles it found were the following: • Limited proficiency in English. Limited proficiency in English seriously hampers the academic achievement of many Southeast Asian students. In one survey, only about 30% to 35% of Southeast Asian students considered themselves able to speak English “well or very well.” • Poor communication between students, parents, and teachers. As the result of language and cultural differences, communication between students and school personnel is often poor. With little or no formal education, parents are often unable to participate in their children’s education and provide their children with educational guidance. And with little English, parents are unable to communicate their concerns to teachers. In this situation, students often rely on guidance from friends who may share the same challenges and may not be in a position to provide needed support and responsible direction. • Discrimination. The SEARAC report notes that in a 1995 study of Southeast Asian students in Southern California and Southern Florida by Reuben Rumbaut, 70% of the student respondents reported discrimination. This discrimination can take the form of racial and ethnic slurs on the part of other students or lower academic expectations on the part of teachers. • Alienation from schools. Many Southeast Asian students feel that they do not belong in the school. This is partly because schools do not pay enough attention to Southeast Asian cultures in the curriculum and partly because there are not enough Southeast Asian teachers and staff in the schools. The report notes that in 1997 California had only 28 certified bilingual Hmong teachers for more than 31,000 Hmong students. This situation has improved since then, yet the ratio of Hmong staff to Hmong students remains poor and a source of academic underachievement.
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The residents at Wat Tham Krabok appear well aware of the benefits of Western medicine and look forward to having access to medical care in the United States. |
Health and Well-BeingFor years, the Hmong population at Wat Tham Krabok has survived on its own without the support of international assistance. Residents have relied on the small income they have been able to earn outside of the temple and on aid from their Hmong American relatives. For those who have not been able to work and do not have relatives in the United States, life has been very difficult indeed. For some, malnutrition has been an issue. While health problems commonly seen in acute refugee crises, such as measles, malaria, severe malnutrition, and acute war injuries, are not a major concern at Wat Tham Krabok, there appears to be a high incidence of acute respiratory illness and skin diseases. Until recently, medical care at the temple was minimal. One clinic, visited by a Thai doctor and nurse once a week, provided heath care that was free for those without income, although patients reported being pressured to pay for medications and services. The clinic had no laboratory facilities and no advanced medical equipment. There were no ambulance or emergency services available. While in the past medical authorities have conducted mass immunizations for adults and children, local experts feel immunizations are incomplete for those over the age of 2. Since the beginning of the U.S. resettlement program, medical care—and access to it—has improved considerably. A public health physician, hired by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and a contingent of Thai public health nurses, provided by the Thai government, provide care throughout the temple. Daily clinic visits have risen from about 30 per day to more than 100. Residents are no longer pressured to pay for medicines, and ambulance service is now available. According to the U.S. State Department, age-appropriate immunizations will be administered to refugees before they depart. Visitors to Wat Tham Krabok have noted that unlike previous groups of Hmong refugees, the residents at Wat Tham Krabok appear well aware of the benefits of Western medicine and look forward to having access to medical care in the United States. Mental health among the residents at Wat Tham Krabok is an issue of considerable concern. In early 2004, a medical delegation from St. Paul, Minnesota, visited the temple and found evidence of major depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly in older women. The extent of these disorders is unclear. Traditional Health Practices Despite the daily presence of stress in their lives, by all accounts the Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok appear to have survived the challenges of life there with characteristic resilience. They have also depended on support from traditional healers. Though they have lived at the temple for the last decade, most of the residents are not Buddhists but animists, who believe that the natural universe is inhabited by powerful spiritual beings and forces. Most believe that people have multiple souls and that illness occurs when a person loses a soul. When this happens, the sick person often seeks a txiv neeb, or shaman, to perform healing ceremonies to call the soul back into the body. It should be expected that many refugees, upon arriving in the United States, will want to perform these soul-calling ceremonies in order to call their souls to America. This ritual should be supported as part of the healing process that will enable refugees to move on with their lives in America. In addition to relying on shamans, the Hmong in Wat Tham Krabok, as well as in the United States, use herbal medicine to treat ailments. Today, many Hmong in the United States use Western medicine in conjunction with herbal medicine and shamans, a practice we can expect to see among the new arrivals from Wat Tham Krabok. What U.S. Health Professionals Can Do U.S. service providers and health professionals need to understand the differences between traditional Hmong health care and Western medicine, since these differences can lead to cross-cultural conflict and even tragedy, as poignantly illustrated in Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. For example, many Hmong believe that people have a finite amount of blood and frequent samples taken by health professional will drain a person of it all. Unlike Western physicians, shamans generally do not ask patients to disrobe or to talk about their personal lives, and they will often spend hours with an ill patient. As much as possible, health professionals in the United States should work with patients to understand their feelings about the cause of their conditions, ask if they are seeking other forms of treatment, and try to accommodate their beliefs. To address the mental health care needs of the Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok, the Refugee Mental Health Program at the Center for Mental Health Services in Rockville, Maryland, recommends a culturally sensitive, patient-based approach to health care. While focusing on mental health care, the approach is equally relevant to physical health care. Among the recommendations to Western health professionals are the following: • When assessing a client, take into consideration the family and clan structure: What is the patient’s clan? Who are the recognized clan leaders? Who is the identified family head? Who are the important people in the patient’s life and how might these people relate to his or her complaints and presenting symptoms? • Incorporate into assessment and treatment plans ideas and suggestions from family members and other people who are important to the patient. • With the help of a culture broker, provide education on Western notions of disease and distress and relate these to traditional notions. • Be prepared to use a Hmong leader or someone else the patient trusts and respects to help bridge the gap between Western and traditional approaches to health and well-being.
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Hmong traditionally view social roles, in terms of family, age, and gender, as fixed. |
Special Group IssuesAs Hmong create new lives for themselves in the United States, they will face complex issues rooted in cross-cultural differences. The traditional values and attitudes that underlie Hmong behavior are often different from and at odds with those of many Americans. Perhaps the single biggest difference is that while Americans stress the importance of individual freedom, Hmong generally place the interests of the group—whether it is the family, the clan, or the community—before the interests of the individual. A second critical difference is that Hmong traditionally view social roles, in terms of family, age, and gender, as fixed; in America, these roles are constantly being negotiated and challenged. The following discusses a few of the key issues that women, men, youth, and the elderly can be expected to face as they grapple with changing roles and new identities. Women Hmong women and girls at Wat Tham Krabok will encounter many changes in the United States, as they face a future that is dramatically different from the one their mothers were prepared for while growing up in the mountains of Laos. There, marriage marked the greatest change in the life of a woman, as she left her birth family to enter her husband’s home. As a wife and daughter-in-law, she obeyed the wishes of her husband and his family. In the United States, Hmong women and girls will have unprecedented opportunities to seek education and work in a profession outside the home. To succeed at home, at work, and at school will require a new and complex set of skills and the ability to balance old and new roles. Men Hmong men also face a new and very different future. In Laos, men were the sole and undisputed leaders in their families. Life in the refugee camp may have already begun to erode traditional leadership roles, and in America men will face further challenges to their authority in a society that believes in an equal voice for women and greater freedom of choice for children. This change will be a matter of considerable concern to Hmong men. Men, like women, will need to find a balance between new and traditional roles. Youth Like other refugee and immigrant youth, Hmong children often feel caught between two opposing worlds—that of the traditional culture and that of America. Just as parents expect their children to be “more Hmong,” Hmong children often expect their parents to be more “American,” which means, among other things, to endorse their children’s individuality and give them greater freedom of choice. How a young Hmong resolves the conflict between two contradictory sets of expectations is often the central issue in his or her life. It determines, for example, whether a bright young Hmong woman decides to get married at 17, as is often expected by her community, or goes to college, as expected by the society at large. Those who arrive in the United States as teenagers can face special challenges. Dubbed generation 1.5, they are part of neither the first generation of their parents nor the second generation of children born in the United States. More so than their parents or younger siblings, they live in two worlds, with two sets of languages, rules, and customs. And they are required to negotiate these two worlds at the same time that they are making the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood. For those who are educationally behind when they arrive in the United States, the situation is further complicated by the lack of appropriate school programs for them. As a result, many withdraw from what seems to them the impossible task of simultaneously learning high school material while learning English. Aware that students need more than just a few hours of ESL a day if they are to enter the academic mainstream, some schools have designed entire curricula around the special needs of these students. These programs indicate that when teaching and materials have been adapted to the students’ levels of language and background knowledge, they, too, can experience academic success.
Elders Older Hmong refugees at Wat Tham Krabok represent a small but very vulnerable population. They have long suffered the rigors of involuntary displacement, and the move to America may prove most difficult of all. Given the hardships older refugees in the United States face, it is not surprising that many report psychosomatic illnesses, such as headaches and stomach pains. Traditionally regarded as the source of wisdom in the Hmong community, many elders experience a dramatic loss of status and self-esteem in America, where social position depends on education, professional achievement, and financial success. Their knowledge of the traditional culture, while publicly praised by the community, is often seen as irrelevant in the new setting. Further, they do not learn English at the same rate as their children and grandchildren do, and this only serves to exacerbate feelings of isolation and worthlessness. No research suggests that older adults cannot succeed in learning another language. Attitude, not age, is the most decisive factor in language learning. Physical ailments, depression, and stress interfere significantly with concentration and the commitment to learn English. For refugees who arrive after the age of 45, workforce entry rates are considerably lower than they are for those of younger refugees. Moreover, service providers may screen them out of job placement efforts, focusing instead on the family’s primary wage earner. Yet older Hmong arrivals from Wat Tham Krabok will encounter pressures to work that previous groups of older Hmong did not face. Under rules recently revised by the U.S. Department of State, older refugees are considered employable until the age of 65 years. This means that, unlike the Hmong who arrived a generation ago, a newly arrived refugee in his or her 50s is expected to go to work. And, as noted in the section on employment, they will need to work 40 quarters to become eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) at age 65, unless they become naturalized citizens in the intervening years. The great majority of older Hmong live with their families. In the United States, many devote their time to the upbringing of their grandchildren, which can compensate for the isolation felt in other realms of their lives. In addition, support groups for older refugees have proven very successful in preventing illness, providing practical information, and easing isolation. It is expected that many elderly refugees will spend hours talking on the phone with friends who have been placed at other resettlement site; this will offer them a vital link to the past as well as a way to cope with the present and future. |
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The Cultural Orientation Project--http://www.culturalorientation.net,
for more information contact sanja@cal.org |