Hmong Americans

�SENG ALEX VANG

ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES

FRESNO STATE UNIVERSITY

Caption this:

Hmong Story Cloth (paj ntaub)

• Often one of the most visible way Hmong people are identified
• Started in the 1970s when Hmong were in Refugee camps in Thailand
• Hmong oral tradition did not have writing system until 1952

Tell history and story of Hmong people through art, encouraged by many western aid workers to sell as means to make money.

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A new tradition from the refugee camps to America

• 1970-80s large story cloths can sell for thousands of dollars for art collectors, modern commercial story cloths today usually range from $30 to $100 each.

Fall of Saigon

Longcheng�CIA military base and airstrip

Who are Southeast Asian Refugees?

VIETNAMESE, LAO, HMONG, CAMBODIAN

Historical Background

• The Vietnam War

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• Refugee Camps

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• Resettlement to America

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• Assimilation / Becoming American

Southeast Asian Refugees

• History of the Vietnam War
• Refugee vs Immigrant Experience
• Vietnamese, Cambodian (Khmer), Lao, & Hmong

Refugees include ethnic “Han” Chinese and other ethnic minorities

• Resettlement policy: Dispersal (failure)
• Three phases of adaptation (cultural change)

Refugees, Transitional, & Becoming Americans

Conflicts in Southeast Asia

• French Colonialism 1897 – 1946

(Indo-China) Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos

Opium trade

• World War II: Japanese Occupation of SEA
• After Japan defeated French return 1946

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History of the Vietnam War

First Indo-China War

French defeated in 1954

Geneva Accords 1954

17^th Parallel North and South Vietnam

Laos and Cambodia (neutral countries)

• Americans replace the French (Cold War)
• Policy: “The Domino Effect” to contain the spread of communism

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The American War in Vietnam

• Vietnam War (1955-1975) or the American War

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• Fall of Saigon 1975
• Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia become communist countries

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• Several hundred thousand people had to flee their country by land or sea “boat people.” Became “stateless” in Thailand refugee camps.

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Fall of Saigon 1975

• The Vietnam War (1955-1975)
• More than 58,000 U.S. Soldiers killed

More than 3 million Vietnamese killed

• Cambodia Civil War

“Killing Fields” the communist Khmer Rogue killed 3 million of its own people

• Secret War of Laos (1962-1975)

CIA secretly recruited and trained ethnic minorities like the Hmong & Mien to fight communist, rescued U.S. pilots, protect U.S. radar installations (More than 30,000 killed)

Refugee Camps/Resettlement

• More than 1.2 million refugees from SEA resettled in the U.S.

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• New SEA refugees would double the Asian American population in the United States in the early 1980s

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How do “secret wars” end?

• America’s Promise to the Hmong?

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• Role and responsibility of the United States and other western nations to their allies?

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• Southeast Asian refugee humanitarian crisis in Thailand refugee camps

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• Role of Hmong as active players in history? Active participants and contributions to global conflicts and nation-building.

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Unintended Consequences

Secret War as part of the Vietnam war:

• Tragedy and displacement
• Child soldiers
• Opportunities: Education & schools set up

About 20 Hmong studied aboard during the war

• Military training: Soldiers, Pilots, Nurses

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• Refugee – legal status

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• Who really won and who lost? 40 years after the War ended? Hmong in America

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Keywords

Refugee vs. immigrant experience

1975 Indochina Immigration and Refugee Assistance Act

First wave (130,000)

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1980 Refugee Act (70,000 annual quota)

Dispersal policy (failure) to spread refugees apart to lesson economic burden and make them “assimilate” faster

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Keywords

Secondary Migration

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Third Migration

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Ethnic Enclave

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Three phases of adaptation: Refugee, Transitional, & becoming Americans

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