WHAT IS OUR LIFE LIKE?
Three Generations of Hmong in America
By Yang Dao, PhD

Permission to re-publish by S. E. Asia Review. Posted on Neeg Magazine: September 1, 2002.

Hmong have lived in the United States long enough for a standard capsule history to have developed about them. Largely agricultural minority peoples in Laos play a critical role in a postcolonial war. Some end up on the losing side and after a shorter or longer time in refugee camps in Thailand are resettled in France and the United States, the two Western countries most heavily involved in the conflict. Time is compressed a thousand-fold as they move from their isolated mountains in Laos into the urban and industrialized West.

This thumbnail sketch is a useful start, but only a start. Hmong, like all peoples, are a complex society with a rich history; some parts shared with other, some unique to themselves. This article attempts to show some deeper aspects of Hmong culture and history as they are working themselves out in the families of American Hmong today.

Since Laos fell to the communist Pathet Lao in 1975, some 150,000 Hmong have resettled in the United States. Another 11,000 have found their way to France and about 3,000 to Australia and other Western countries, including Canada, French Guyana and Argentina. The emigration came about because Hmong participation on the side of the American-supported and eventually defeated Royal Lao government in the Second Indochinese War.

About two-third of the Laotian Hmong remained in the country, where the Hmong population has since regained its 975 level of approximately 300,000. Another 450,000 Hmong live in northern Vietnam, and 2.5 million remain in the Hmong homeland of southern China.

What is Our Life in America Like?

Most commonly stressed in writing about the American Hmong experience have been problems of assimilation: language barriers, economic difficulties, emotional suffering, intergenerational conflict, school problems, and youth delinquency. American Hmong have experienced all this and more. Some absolvers have even suggested that the Hmong are incapable of assimilation. But this is the standard stuff of any immigration story. Even the Irish, although they spoke English, were at one point considered unassailable.

"Some changes in Hmong immigrants' lives are mostly surface adaptations the change in work from"

Some absolvers have even suggested that the Hmong are incapable of assimilation. But this is the standard stuff of any immigration story. Switch farmer to computer operator, a standard of living in which the Toyota van has replace the Horse. Even the presence of Hmong doctors, lawyers and educators is the continuation of a pro process well underway in Laos as early as the 1940s.

There are, however, some deeper and more significant processes at work in the lives of the American Hmong, processes which impact our lives in many and unexpected ways, whose origins and workings are not immediately obvious, and whose results are not uniformly troublesome-as often implied but can also be tremendously positive and productive.

Many aspects of American Hmong lives are determined by outside circumstances, by their place, for example, in the socioeconomic spectrum. Many Hmong (as well as other minority and non-minority peoples) share the problems of being poor in America: inadequate housing, early childbearing, fracture of families driven by the requirement of the public assistance system, and explosion in juvenile delinquency and crime.

To examine the tremendous effect of the social service system on the lives

[Change Makes It Different]

Of the Hmong (and all citizens), one has simply to compare the Hmong living in American with those in France and in French Guyana.

In the United States new Hmong arrivals receive some language and employment assistance for a very short time. But most public assistance comes through income-qualified programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medical Assistance, food stamps, Social Security and state General Assistance. Hmong face the same eligibility requirements and receive the same services as all others in these programs. This public-assistance system, compounded by the lack of a national healthcare system, encourages dependency and discourages efforts at self-sufficiency. One result is that approximately 65 percent of Hmong families in the United States still receive some form of public assistance.

In France, on the other hand, with universal financial assistance for families with children, national health care, taxation that favors small enterprise and free education through the doctorate for all who pass national examinations, more than 90 percent of Hmong families support themselves through employment.

Different still are the Hmong in French Guyana. Settled largely through the efforts of the Revs. Ren Charier and Yves Bertrais, longtime Catholic missionaries, with intent to preserve their agricultural, village-based community and at the same time provide a means of economic self-sufficiency, where they raise shrimp and grew cash crops of fruits and vegetables. Though just 2.5 percent of the total population, the Hmong supply over 70 percent of Guyana's fresh fruits and vegetables and a significant proportion of those consumed in neighboring Surinam.

Retention of traditional culture is different for these three groups of Hmong. Extended-family households and close-kin villages, herbal and shamanistic medicine and full-up weddings and funerals still strive in concentrated agricultural Hmong Guyana. Sprees population and more nationalistic education mean that few French Hmong children speak Hmong fluently. But the small size of France and excellent transportation allow frequent visits to relatives. The entire national community can come together to celebrate Hmong New Year.

Ours, a much larger number, spread over a much larger nation exposing American Hmong to a much greater range of social conditions, resulting in a much more diverse community than in France or French Guyana. American Hmong run the gamut from concentrated urban communities numbering tens of thousands-as in the Twin Cities- to small, thriving enclaves in rural America. External circumstances have widened the range of Hmong experience and responses. It is no longer appropriate, if it ever was, to speak of "the Hmong People."

Internal cultural forces to provide a background and counterpoint to the working of the external environment. In contrast to European emigrants early in the century or late in the last (upon whom conventional ideas about immigration and assimilation are largely based), Hmong come from a patilineal rather than a bilateral organized society. Among the many implications of this difference is that the significance of immigration induced changes in the lives of women is much greater, since the social organization is being challenged at a much more fundamental level.

For Example, a woman's going to work outside the home, particularly in a mixed-gender workplace, can be expected to have a much greater impact on Hmong marital relations than on those of people from societies accustomed to weighing both partners or both sides of a family more equally.

Being part of the great snitch tradition, with its heavy Confucian influence, traditional Hmong society offers an almost complete contrast to Western society. It is group-based rather than individual-based. It is organized on a hierarchical rather than an egalitarian basis. Respect is valued rather than assertion. Role fulfillment and obligation are expected rather than personal development and achievement. A sharing rather than a zero-sum outlook foster cooperation instead of competition.

Of particular relevance to Hmong families are the patterns of child bearing produced by these social orientations, patterns very different from modern Western parenting practices, and at times seemingly self-contradictory. For example, despite a heavy emphasis on respect, even filial piety, a less formal approach to time and space gives American Hmong children considerable defecate contrail over household organization and rhythms.

Individual space is rare, let alone designated spaces and times for study. Definite bedtimes are unknown, a holdover from agricultural times, when manual work tired the body, and neither artificial high nor electronic words enlivened the night. Yesterday's Hmong work, unlike today's school, did not require a fresh, rested mind. Practical skills were taught by demonstration and learned by observation. Artistic and moral learning took place around the household fireplace, where children listened to elders recite proverbs, folk stories and rhyming chants for life's every occasion. Daylong poetry accompanied significant life events, telling stories of the creation of the world, the meaning of life, right thoughts and behaviors. Hardly any thing was taught by simple telling.

Merging the individual with the group meaning that the good or poor performance of one is taught amount to the good or poor performance of all. Though Hmong parents treasure children as precious fights from heaven, they seldom praise their children overly. Praising your child is like praising yourself-boasting, an embarrassing behavior. Praise should come from outside the group, never inside.

Poor performance or misbehavior, on the other hand, is roundly criticized by the group, and strong efforts are made to correct the eroding person, whether child or adult. Not grasping its place in a total social system, American teachers and social workers often conceive of the Hmong child's worked as full of disparaging messages and damaged self-esteem. Just as every American can interpret the comment, " I could have killed myself," spoken in the context of a minor social gaffe, so every Hmong did know how to gauge the meaning of his mother's chiding him as coming "from bad stock" after some minor laziness.

Imagine the mental gymnastics required of a Hmong grade-scholar who by day attends a school whose primary goal is to see better enhancement of children's self-esteem and at night returns to a home where praise is rare, and criticism-however loving its intern- is the norm.

There are now not but three generations of Hmong in the United States, all with significantly different life experiences. Grandparents now age 45 to 50 and older, grew up and became adults in the old country. They are fully trained and oriented to ward-traditional Hmong culture, modified in some cases by wartime experience. Patents, now age 25 to 45, were children or young adults at the time of the fall of Laos. Their traditional cultural training is incomplete, as they had not yet achieved full adult status. But many of them, both men and women have received education and gained reasonably good employment in the United States. Children age 25 and under, by and large were either born in the United States or came to this country at a very early age. Except for language, they are essentially American.

This generation model is complicated by the fact that until, recently, considerable numbers of people of all ages continued to arrive from Thailand, carrying with them the full age-appropriated complement of traditional culture, modified to some degree by refugee-camp experience. Patterns of interaction in the American Hmong community are thus a great deal, more complex than the straightforward generation immigration/as simulation model would predict. The interaction of naturally occurring life progress with the immigration experience shows itself in almost all aspects of American Hmong life.

Regardless of where Hmong live, the mantle of responsibility has passed from the grandparents to the parental generation. Traditional roles of elders continue largely intact. Whether in Laos or in the United States, grandfathers do some light farm work, hunt, trade, officiate at ceremonies, participate in community-management discussions and decisions, resolve disputes and decisions, resolve disputes and conflicts. Grandmother care for grandchildren, does some light housework, make and decorated clothes. A major difference here, and a severe problem, is physical isolation. Houses and people were close in the village. It was easy to get together for a ceremony, a discussion, or simply to sit and embroider while the grandchildren played nearby. In the United States, where households are separated by blocks, miles or state, where going anywhere requires a car, and where even going outside is dangerous in some areas, older people have become isolated, "prisoners in their own homes." Depression, psychosomatic and physical illnesses have been the result. This problem, essentially one of logistics, could easily be addressed by family and social service agencies providing regular frequent easy ways for older people to get together.

Today's Hmong parents received at least some of their education and value teaming in the traditional culture. Regardless of how successful they may be or how fluent their English, they are limited in the kinds of advice they can give their children about planning and living their lives American-style. Parents can give and demonstrate to their children general advice, such as the importance of education. Hard work, patience and respect; but their experience is not broad enough to enable them to offer much help with specific questions and choices.

Children thus must turn to other sources, such as teachers and friends, for information and role models. Parents and grandparents often interpret this as an abandonment of the fundamental system of respect and filial piety, leading to much greater stress than experienced by Western Hemisphere immigrants.

One change that will probably take place with much less stress than decried by people outside the Hmong community is the loss over time of traditional spiritual and medical practitioners in this country. Skilled practitioners are getting older; some have passed away; some are simply too tired to maintain the old traditions. The closing of the refugee camps in Thailand and the eventual cease of new immigration have destroyed their function as cultural reservoirs.

This loss of traditional practitioners could cause community stress in tow ways: through anxiety among those who feel the need for, but can no longer obtain there services easily or at all, and through the absolute loss of oral cultural traditions. Neither of these is likely to pose a major problem for the American Hmong community. The old traditions already play a limited part in the lives of young adult and parents, having been replaced with formal education, modern technology, Western medicine and Christianity. And the number of elderly who feel a personal need for traditional services is also declining.

Moreover, written documentation efforts have been going on since the Romanized Hmong writing system was developed in the mid- 1950s. Formal and informal videotape documentation communication, these ensure against an absolute loss of Hmong traditional practices.

Perhaps inevitably, the American Hmong community is fragmenting. Public provision of social services has reduced the need for community interdependence. The "system," rather than one's king, can be turned to for financial, legal, medical and educational help. American institutions, and by large, do not support traditional structures of social restraint and cohesion. "The law has become your new in-law." Instead, American society is geared toward dependence on oneself.

For Hmong in America freedom has become a double-edged sword-both a precious, powerful right and an interpersonal wedge. In its helpful form this freedom has produced much progress, especially for women. Hmong girls and women are pursuing higher education in unlearn-of number. The best Hmong students in the United States are generally women, including those at Harvard, Georgetown and the University of California at Berkeley. Younger women are taking more active in public roles.

However, greater freedom had also meant a much higher divorce rate and skyrocketing rates of juvenile delinquency. As Hmong people begin to listen to themselves more and to others less, the community continues to fracture along age, generational and political lines.

There have been only a few thoughts about the development of the American Hmong family and community over the past two decades. Much more remains to be absolved and analyzed. In general the American Hmong have made extraordinary progress in the short span of 20 years. Some older people even say it is fortunate that Hmong were on the losing side of the war, because it gave them and their children a chance to package fully of life in the 20th century.

Though the overall direction is clear, the details of future Hmong community development remain to be seen. Social changes will take place slowly, in sometimes-unexpected directions. Some results will be positive, others negative. Deeper understanding and analysis will help not only the Hmong community but also other newcomers as we all strive for a successful future for ourselves and our families in this nation of people.

There are now not two but three generations of Hmong in the United States, all with significantly different life experiences.

Source original permission reprint by COLOR Magazine and then S.E. Asia Review Newsmagazine.

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