Hmong American
Encyclopedia : H : HM : HMO : Hmong American
A Hmong American is a resident of the United States who is of ethnic Hmong descent. Hmong Americans are one group of Asian Americans.
Many Laotian Hmong war refugees fled to America after the Vietnam War. Beginning in December 1975, the first Hmong refugees arrived in the U.S., mainly from refugee camps in Thailand; however, only 3,466 were granted asylum at this time under the Refugee Assistance Act of 1975. In May 1976, another 11,000 were allowed to enter the United States, and by 1978 some 30,000 Hmong had immigrated. This first wave was made up primarily of men directly associated with General Vang Pao's secret army. It was not until the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980 that families were able to immigrate to America, becoming the second-wave of Hmong immigration to the U.S.
Today, between 150,000 and 200,000 ethnic Hmong reside in the United States. Most Hmong Americans live in the states of California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. There are also significant communities in Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Fresno, California, Madison, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area have especially high concentrations of Hmong.
As with other immigrant groups, some cultural conflicts arose when the Hmong arrived in the U.S. after the Vietnam War. One of the better documented conflicts is in medicine. In Anne Fadiman's nonfiction book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down one such conflict regarding a young Hmong girl's health is documented. (The girl's parents saw her seizures as a divine gift, whereas Western medicine views them as a dangerous medical condition. The conflict was further exascerbated by communication issues and cultural reliance on alternative medicine.) The book is often used in studying cross-cultural medicine, although there are reservations about its contents [link].
See also
External links
- ["Acts of Betrayal"], by Michael Johns, National Review, October 23, 1995.
- [Foreign Born Population by Country], U.S. Census Bureau, 2000.
- [LearnAboutHmong.com] via the [Hmong Cultural Center], Saint Paul, Minnesota.
- [The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down], by Anne Fadiman.
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