Characteristics of Hmong immigrant students: The response of a university/elementary school collaboration

Childhood Education, 2001 by Watson, Dwight C

The primary focus of this article is to explore traditional migratory and family characteristics of Hmong culture and one elementary school's response to these characteristics.

Think of your sense of geographical place-your country, your state, your city, your neighborhood. This place is a part of your cultural identity. Your sense of place helps define you, giving you a sense of ownership, alignment, and harmony. Imagine if you were displaced-that is, removed from your place. You would feel lost, aimless, homeless.

Forceful displacement is what happened to the mountain people of Laos known as the Hmong. Since the early 1970s, towards the end of the Vietnam War, the Hmong have been forced to leave their homeland (Timm, Chiang, & Finn, 1998). The primary focus of this article is to explore traditional migratory and family characteristics of Hmong culture and one elementary school's response to these characteristics. The article will describe programs uniquely tailored for immigrant populations, and specifically designed to attract Hmong students to Hancock/Hamline University Collaborative Magnet School, an urban elementary school in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Characteristics of Hmong Transitions:

Agrarian Internal Migration to Urban International Relocation

The Hmong are traditionally a nomadic, agrarian people who lived for centuries in the highland regions of Laos. They survived as slash-and-burn farmers, moving away from their villages when they had depleted the fertility of the soil. "Entire families, or even clans, would pull up stakes and establish a new village some distance away, slashing and burning a new section of the jungle for cultivation" (Chan, 1994, p. xxiv). This constant movement made the Hmong culture one of minimalism. Their homes consisted only of what they could create from indigenous materials, and their crops were those that could be cultivated easily in the highland region.

During the Vietnam War, the Hmong fought secretly with the United States against the Lao Communists and the North Vietnamese. Heavy bombing and guerrilla fighting ravaged the Hmong's homeland. Many Hmong fled in search of safety. The elder Hmong speak of "the promise" made by the United States to Hmong military leaders, assuring them that they would be granted asylum by the U.S. government (Chan, 1994). Nevertheless, many Hmong were left to their own devices to survive in the milieu of a war-torn land.

Once the war was over, the Pathet Lao, communist officials, took their vengeance out on the Hmong for their allegiance to the United States. The United States assisted in relocating many Hmong to Thailand, but thousands more were left in dangerous, communist-occupied Laos. "Stunned by the failure of the Americans to keep their promise, those who were left behind either fled into the jungles or started a long trek on foot westward toward Thailand" (Chan, 1994, p. 45). In order to reach Thailand, the Hmong had to cross the Mekong River, on the southwestern border of Laos. "Many people lost their lives in that river. They were either shot by communist troops or the Thai shore patrol, or [they] drowned when trying to swim across when the current was too strong" (Chan, 1994, p. 220).

In 1975, the U.S. government passed the Immigration and Refugee Assistance Act, and in 1980, the Refugee Act, which increased the number of Hmong refugees entering the United States. In May 1976, 11,000 Laotians were granted entry under parole. Then in August 1977, Congress paroled 8,000 people from Laos. By the early 1980s, some 50,000 Hmong had settled in the United States. The 1990 census found that the Hmong population in the United States had almost reached 100,000 (Chan, 1994).

The two refugee relief acts enabled government officials to subcontract the resettlement of refugees to volunteer agencies. The agencies' responsibility was to find U.S. communities in which the Hmong could live. In order to avoid overly taxing the resources of any one community, the agencies scattered the Hmong people in different areas throughout the United States. Although the agencies believed that this approach would encourage more rapid acculturation (Trueba, Jacobs, & Kirton (1990); Miyares, 1994), it had the effect of separating extended families, and devastating the clan structure. Even so, the Hmong quickly regrouped with their clan leaders. As they did so, the Hmong became proactive in seeking compatible communities. They demanded neighborhoods with an ethnic composition and socioeconomic status that made them comfortable, and they pressed for federal, state, and local government resources (Chan, 1994).

By the 1990s, the main clusters of Hmong were in Fresno and Merced, California, and in St. Paul, Minnesota. Due to recent changes in California state laws, support services for immigrant and refugee populations there have been restricted. This has caused a mass exodus of Hmong from California to St. Paul.

Response to Transition Characteristics:

Provide a Permanent School Home