The community
as a whole
has achieved remarkable progress.

Introduction

In December 2003, the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok announced that a large group of Lao Hmong living at Wat Tham Krabok, a temple complex 80 miles north of Bangkok, would be considered for resettlement in the United States. The decision to resettle the Hmong was applauded by U.S. refugee advocacy groups, who had become concerned about conditions at the temple and the possibility that the Thai government would send the Hmong back to Laos.

The Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok are the last large group of Vietnam War-era refugees remaining in Southeast Asia. Their resettlement represents the final phase of a relief and resettlement program that began in 1975, when hundreds of thousands of refugees fled Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia after the fall of U.S.-supported governments there.

The Hmong from Wat Tham Krabok will be joining large and well-established Hmong communities in the United States. More than 186,000 Hmong men, women, and children live in the United States, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.1 While Hmong live throughout the United States, the majority are clustered in communities in three states: California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

To start life over in a new and unfamiliar society is never easy. For the Hmong, there have been added challenges. In the United States, they have encountered a society that is very different, sometimes fundamentally so, from their own. Many Hmong adults have arrived with little or no formal education and with skills as farmers, soldiers, and artisans that have not proven useful in the U.S. job market. Yet, while life continues to be a struggle for many, the community as a whole has achieved remarkable economic and educational progress in the 30 years since the first arrivals. Welfare rates have dropped, employment rates have risen, and Hmong students are graduating from high school and attending college in increasing numbers. The characteristic Hmong spirit of mutual assistance is evident in the more than 100 Hmong-run community-based organizations. In other ways, too, Hmong are contributing to their communities, and to the country as a whole, as doctors, lawyers, teachers, business people, police officers, and college professors.

We can expect that the refugees from Wat Tham Krabok will face many of the resettlement challenges that previous groups encountered. Yet if past experience is a guide, we can also expect that with help from their families, friends, and service providers, the new arrivals will survive the hardships of resettlement and go on to rebuild their lives and contribute to their communities.

This profile provides information about the Hmong in general—their history, culture, language, and resettlement experiences—as well as information about the new arrivals in particular. It is intended primarily for service providers who will be assisting the refugees in their communities in the United States. But others may find it useful, too. Teachers may use it to educate students about a people whose modern history is closely intertwined with America's. Local government agencies—the courts, the police, the housing and health departments—may use it to help their staff better understand, and thus better serve, the new arrivals. A profile by its nature oversimplifies its subject, although we have tried in this one to challenge some of the common stereotypes about the Hmong. For readers who wish to learn more about the Hmong, we provide a bibliography at the end of this profile. Ultimately, however, the best source of information about the Hmong is the Hmong themselves, and readers who find this profile interesting should consider taking the next step—getting to know those whose history and way of life are described on these pages. Readers who do will discover a people who are eager to share their stories and culture.

1 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.

The Cultural Orientation Project--http://www.culturalorientation.net, for more information contact sanja@cal.org
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