Hmong Americans

Immigration Patterns

The Hmong people are a stateless ethnic group whose origins go back at least 3,000 years in China. In Asia, Hmong live in southwestern China, Thailand, Burma, Laos, and northern Vietnam, where they moved during the 19th century following persecution in China. The first Hmong migration of notable size to the United States began with the fall of Saigon and Laos to communist forces in 1975. Many Hmong had worked with pro-American, anti-communist forces during the conflicts in Vietnam and Laos. As a result, they were subject to violence and retribution in Laos. Many Hmong escaped Laos to Thailand, where they were incarcerated in refugee camps.

From the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, large numbers of Hmong refugees were resettled in the United States. The peak was 1980, when 27,000 Hmong refugees were admitted. From 1981 to 1986, the number of Hmong refugees slowed to a few thousand per year, but admissions picked up again between 1987 and 1994, when approximately 56,000 Hmong refugees were accepted. After 1994, Hmong refugee admissions slowed to a trickle as most of the Thai camps were by now empty, with the remaining Hmong repatriated to Laos or moving to Wat Tham Krabok in Thailand, where thousands of Hmong were given shelter by Thai Buddhist monks beginning in the early to mid-1990s, prior to an official resettlement program of more than 15,000 Hmong from the Wat to the United States during the 2004–2006 period. Hmong immigration based on family reunification has remained low over the years, especially compared with that of other Southeast Asian ethnic groups.

Where did the Hmong settle? With the first wave that arrived during the late 1970s and early 1980s, voluntary resettlement agencies consciously tried to disperse the Hmong around the country in a number of locales. At that time, sizable Hmong populations could also be found in eastern cities such as Providence (Rhode Island) and Philadelphia; in mid-western cities such as Chicago, Des Moines (Iowa), and Kansas City; and in western cities such as Denver, Missoula (Montana), Tulsa (Oklahoma), and Salt Lake City (Utah).

[Page 634]This strategy, however, proved to be unsuccessful in many instances. For example, during the early 1980s, several thousand Hmong were settled in a poor, predominantly African American neighborhood in west Philadelphia, where they encountered considerable hostility and violence. Most of the Hmong moved out within a few years. Also, many wished to be reunited with family and clan members and to be near cultural ritualists (shamans and marriage and funeral ceremony facilitators) from the traditional Hmong religion. These factors led to a massive shift of the Hmong population during the mid- to late 1980s to central California cities such as Fresno, Stockton, and Merced and, to a lesser extent, to Minnesota and Wisconsin. By 1990, Fresno and Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, and Merced were the center of Hmong American community life. Census figures show that by far the largest Hmong population at this time was found in California, followed by Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Colorado. The 1990 census counted 94,439 Hmong Americans across the United States.

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