Hmong Americans in Michigan

A Brief Overview of Hmong History

1 ABriefOverviewofHmongHistory T he Hmong are a people who have no country of their own. For centuries, they have migrated thousands of miles and struggled as a minority to survive wherever they have lived. Not having a written language, they have relied on oral communications to maintain strong connections with family and friends in different countries across continents. While the Hmong traditionally lived far away from modern society with its conveniences of transportation and resources, they created a very strong “sense of kinship and community.”2 Each ethnic group of people in the world is unique. However, the Hmong are particularly special because of their extraordinary history of migration, loyalty to one another, prolonged abuse, trauma, suffering from those who dominated them, profound loss, independence, and amazing capacity to adapt and remain resilient over centuries. Who are these little-known people who number about seven million in the world? Where did they originate? Where and why have they traveled? Why do they have a special and unusual relationship with America? Where do they live now? What is their culture like? What work do they do? How and why did they come to America and specifically Michigan? What challenges have they had adapting to different cultures and environments? What are their lives like in the diaspora? 2 Martha Aladjem B loomfield Originating presumably in China, many Hmong escaped to the south of China because of extreme persecution, then to Laos and Thailand. Throughout their history, the Hmong fled for their survival from those who wanted to dominate or kill them individually and collectively and to destroy their culture and way of life. They have suffered from disease, starvation, torture, and separation from family and friends. Over hundreds and even thousands of years, they have constantly experienced major dramatic change in their lives—geographic, economic, religious, social, and political. They have sought safe havens in each of the new countries to which they fled to protect themselves so they could work and raise their families. When I asked one young woman, “Please forgive my ignorance, but how do you know when you first meet someone that that individual is of Hmong descent and not a member of another Asian ethnic group, before you ask them?” She said, “I can just feel it. I get goose bumps. I just know they are Hmong. And then we talk more and we put the pieces together.” As a minority culture, Hmong Americans in the past adapted to the larger, more dominant hostile communities with different customs, traditions, languages, religions, and political views. Despite the tremendous losses they have suffered for many years, they have remained strong and courageous with indomitable spirits, courage, and profound resilience. While the Hmong struggled for years to survive unimaginable challenges within China, European colonialism in Southeast Asia, and America’s “empire building,” they then came as refugees to the United States in the mid-1970s and have worked consistently “to maintain their ethnic identity.”3 Between 1975 and 2006, several waves of Hmong refugees came to the United States. At first, about 130,000 Hmong refugees came here. Increased Hmong birthrates account for a much higher American Hmong population.4 Beginning in the summer of 2004, the most recent group of 15,000 Hmong refugees came to resettle in the United States.5 The Hmong Americans’ status in the United States is as a “double minority—a minority within the Asian American community and in American society.”6 Today, the Hmong live on five continents throughout the world including Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. The majority of them—four to six million—still live in mainland China. According to the 2010 US Census, about 260,076 Hmong live throughout the United States. Most of them live in California (91,224), then Minnesota (66,181), Wisconsin HMONG AMERICANS IN MI CHI GAN 3 (49,240) and North Carolina (10,864). Michigan has the fifth largest population of Hmong (5,924).7 Before discussing how and why the Hmong came to America and specifically how they came and adapted to Michigan, I will first paint an overview of their past, complex journey, and origins, and highlight a few of the myriad of key historical events. In that way, readers can better understand Hmong American lives as individuals and a people and as part of a much larger picture of world history that relates to Southeast Asia and the United States. Hmong Americans are relatively new in the United States...