Posted on 07/19/2004 11:25:42 AM PDT by television is just wrong
Posted on Sun, Jul. 18, 2004
Hmong journey
By Ben Stocking
Mercury News Vietnam Bureau
WAT THAM KRABOK, Thailand - Teng Yang and his family live on the other side of the earth from the home they will soon make in California. But in many ways, they inhabit another universe.
If they get sick, they slaughter a pig and two chickens as offerings to the spirits. A 13-year-old bride, a man with two wives -- these are accepted social arrangements in the dusty squatters' colony where they have spent the past 11 years of their drifters' lives.
Teng and his family -- a Hmong clan of 27 people from the jungles of Laos -- are moving to Fresno, a middle-class, Central Valley town whose social mores will be as baffling to them as the drive-through line at McDonald's.
Over the next several months, 15,000 other Laotian Hmong who live at this makeshift refugee camp will follow them, most settling in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, the three U.S. states with the largest established Hmong populations.
Teng's younger brother Tong and his wife arrived in Fresno last week, and the rest of the family will follow over the summer and fall.
Nicely put!
"America for the Americans."
LOL, *That's* rich.
You might notice that in both cases I waited for the other person to make a personal slur or insult before responding . I did not originate it. You in fact did. With a cowardly personal insult followed by a " don't bother to respond to me". But then logic, detail and coherent thought aren't your strong suit.
Really? you just threw out another insult at me without my having initiated it.
If resulting to personal attacks is a sign of cowardness, then I guess you are continuing to show your true colors.
By the way, I've yet to see you refute the facts put out by 'Chummy'.
The truth does hurt doesn't it?
Factual comments on your inability to debate is not a slur. Calling someone names as you initiated is.
Nor do I have anything against these people. However, their polygamist beliefs are inconsistent with our culture. How can you allow that to co-exist. (?)sic
CONSIDER ACQUIRING A SECOND MOTHER-IN-LAW.
Debate? Is that what you call your lame attempt to provide outdated data that in order to support your claim?
I've listed facts but you have not provided accurate and up-to-date figures.
The fact remains that these people supported our country during war. They now face persecution and that is the reason they are being brought here.
They are coming legally and I don't have a problem with that.
Like I said, why don't you use your energy to fight bigger problems such as illegal immigration and the crime that it brings with it.
I have served my country and I don't forget those who have stood by me and my fellow soldiers in times of need. Obviously though, that is of little worth to you. So you go ahead and continue to throw out your little insults...
From US 2000 census data.
There has been progress made. Thats great. Still a long long way to go.
The U.S. Census has released long-awaited national level socioeconomic and educational 2000 census data for Hmong in the United States (Summary File 4). This is the first new national-level data that has been available related to these variables in a decade. The following are highlights from this data set. The comparable 1990 figure is in parentheses. Data used are for “Hmong alone” responses on the census form.
U.S. Hmong Median Family Income 2000 - $32,076 ($14,300)
% U.S. Hmong with Public Assistance Income in 2000 – 30.3% (67%)
% U.S. Hmong Families Below the Poverty Level in 2000 – 34.8% (62%)
% U.S. Hmong Population in Owner Occupied Housing in 2000 – 40.0% (13.0)
Industry Distribution by Percent of U.S. Hmong Population (2000 Figures only)
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining – 0.8
Construction – 1.5
Manufacturing – 38.9
Wholesale trade – 2.9
Retail trade – 9.7
Transportation and warehousing, and utilities – 2.3
Information – 2.2
Finance, insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing – 4.0
Professional, scientific, management, administrative, waste management services – 5.7
Educational, health and social services – 14.6
Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services – 10.7
Other services (except public administration) – 4.6
Public administration – 2.3
Occupational Distribution by Percent of U.S. Hmong Population (2000 Figures only)
Management, professional, and related occupations – 17.1
Service occupations – 15.6
Sales and office occupations – 20.6
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations - 0.4
Construction, extraction, and maintenance occupations – 4.5
Production, transportation, and material moving occupations – 41.7
Educational Attainment of U.S. Hmong Population 25 Years and Over by Percent (2000 Figures only)
Less than 9th grade – 50.7
9th to 12th grade, no diploma – 8.9
High school graduate (includes equivalency) – 16.1
Some college, no degree – 11.0
Associate degree – 5.8
Bachelor's degree – 5.9
Graduate or professional degree – 1.5
Percent high school graduate or higher – 40.4
Percent bachelor's degree or higher – 7.5
From Minnesota 2000 statistics HMONG AMERICAN MUTUAL ASSISTANCE ASSOCIATION, HAMAA.ORG
New World Pressures on the Family
Hmong people were always known as hard-workers in their home country. However, after being uprooted, spending years in the “suspended life” of the refugee camps in Thailand, and finding themselves in a place so very different -- culturally, socially, and economically -- many are experiencing great difficulty in becoming self-sufficient. Despite the Community strengths and cultural values we as refugees brought from Laos, cultural and linguistic barriers, racism, and a lack of formal education have made the transition to this country difficult. These difficulties are evident from the statistics about the reality of life in the United States at this time:
? Seventy percent of Hmong families in Hennepin County live at or below the poverty level;
? More than two-thirds of adults are not in the permanent labor force and the recent September 11 Tragedy and impact on the marketplace has reinforced the precarious nature of employment;
? Almost half of Hmong adults speak little or no English, and more than 40 percent have no formal education at all in spite of 20 years resettlement in America; and;
? More than half of all Hmong adults are illiterate in their own language.
Consequently, over 70 percent of Hmong households receive some form of public assistance.
This is the highest rate among all Southeast Asian refugee groups in the Twin Cities area. 1990 Census data also indicates that only one-third (29.9 percent) of the Hmong people over age 17 years are employed. This is a vital statistic for our Hmong Community given the traditionally young ages at which Hmong unions are made. Yet we can find no more current numbers nor can we build a case for greater employment of young Hmong based on Community meetings during the past two years where the term “dropout” has taken on a new and greater meaning as one would define “dropping out of the life” patterns. And even when the young Hmong are employed, most of the jobs are in low-paying positions that cannot adequately support a family.
With the implementation of Welfare Reform, which is placing serious pressure on the Hmong adults to seek economic self-sufficiency, many in the Hmong-Minnesota Community are facing a drastic reduction in public assistance and sanctions for failure to secure employment for which they are poorly prepared. Yet most of the Hmong possess native job skills that are not highly valued in this country, and find themselves in low-paying positions that cannot adequately support a family. Although compiled for all welfare recipients, the documentation available to date as presented by the Institute for Research on Poverty demonstrates that “…entry level jobs available to workers without a college degree…required credentials (high school diploma, work experience, references) that many recipients did not have. For example, about half of all welfare recipients are high school dropouts, and about 40 percent have had no experience prior to their first welfare spell.” We concur as a result of our Employment section canvas of the City of Minneapolis business base during the latter half of 2001. In our effort out of 1,512 firms, 315 of all manufacturing and service categories (the highest probability for near term employment of Hmong and Laotian clients) were queried at length concerning hiring policies, personnel needs and hiring plans for the 2001/2002 timeframe. The results were dismal: 55 firms had recently laid off personnel, 31 companies were on furlough, 45 companies agreed to receive an application but with hiring freeze in place, and 184 firms refused either to receive applications or hire under any circumstances.
To this problem is added a large majority of our Hmong working age population that suffers from extremely limited education and very low English proficiency, making initial job location and retention, let alone on-the-job advancement opportunities extremely limited as well. The State of Minnesota report on the December 2000 Characteristics of Racial/Ethnic and Immigrant Groups in the Minnesota Family Investment Program relates that only 20 percent of Asian families participating had achieved high school graduation, while 56 percent reported no education at all. A year 2001 HAMAA initiative to establish a coordination activity for the recruitment and training, on site or in concert with post secondary educational institutes of Hmong high school graduates pursuing a health service career resulted in virtually no qualified candidates. Notably, the diplomas or GEDs possessed by the applicants belied a reading and writing ability below that of a typical ninth grade student per the Minnesota Basic Standards Tests. We concur with the Hennepin County assessment “Many families remaining on MFIP have barriers to achieving self-sufficiency, such as physical and/or mental health problems, learning disabilities, little or no education or work experience, or lack English proficiency.” Nowhere is this truer than for our Hmong Community.
To this is added the difficulties of the present economic downturn initiated through the implosion of the “dot-coms” and their high-technology-based industrial partners (including such firms as Advanced Circuits, Honeywell, 3M and ADC Telecommunications in the Twin Cities area) in February of this year, then greatly accelerated by the 9-11 disaster at the World Trade Towers in the summer of 2001. Again, in looking at general trends, we find in Employer Demand for Welfare Recipients and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Recent Employer Surveys the basic status of our Hmong employees when we observe “…the cycle for other disadvantaged groups might differ considerably from what welfare recipients will experience. For any given cyclical downturn, the magnitude of the decline in labor demand faced by recipients might be greater or lesser than for other groups that have comparable levels of education but perhaps different levels of cognitive ability and work experience.” And indeed, this downturn suggests that our Hmong Community will suffer severely. At the period October 2000 our HAMAA holding accounts for job applicants numbered no more than 100 files. For the same period in 2001, we number over 525 applicants with more arriving every day. This in spite of monumental efforts to place over 200 applicants in new employment positions within the reporting period.
Continuing our look at the typical Hmong family on public assistance, we find State figures again that build a fair composite for Hennepin County. Of 1,810 Hmong families on MFIP assistance, some 86 percent (c.1,556) of families maintained eligible participants, with 1,320 families represented showing 27 percent with two eligible caregivers (one of whom was often on SSI) and nearly 60 percent of the families possessing two caregivers. By extension, nearly 400 of these Hmong families reside in Hennepin County. Fortunately, the number of Hmong employed has grown substantially from the 1990 Census recorded low of 34 percent to a rough calculation of 73 percent employed by June 2001.
Naturally, these figures reflect employment as a net result of not seeking public financial assistance and include a fair portion of young Hmong (ages 20-25 years) who by our evaluation have simply dropped out of all economic sector activity just as they have abandoned the schools. Thus, while the draw on public funds has noticeably dropped in the past several years, the actual income of Hmong families has grown only marginally. According to the Urban Institute, in Minneapolis 55.2 percent of Asian Pacific American households have clustered in the central city, which in turn describes 87.6 percent of those residents by income measures as “very poor.” Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, in the report series Health Disparities in Minneapolis Update, relates that 80 percent of students of color qualify for reduced price student lunches.
This nonsequitur between rising employment and apparent continued poverty may be explained as a matter of the majority of our Hmong employees of all ages continuing to seek employment through “temporary jobs” with the potential advancement to a simple, though permanent “assembly” job. These positions often require limited English and technical skills, excluding the coveted medical assembly positions which offer higher wages but at the entrance price of a true diploma-based English ability. The reality then is that the entry-level positions available to those with limited language and job skills seldom pay more than Twin Cities minimum wage, averaging $6.50 per hour. Yet through planning and career counseling, our HAMAA Employment Counselors have located hundreds of positions based on qualifications, with the net result that average employment entry positions (especially for MFIP limited qualified clients) are charged at $8.50 per hour and the average wage for all clients placed in 2001 stands at $9.62 per hour as long as education agreements are adhered to by the clients.
According to Hennepin County figures, the low end of income for county residents primarily employed within the agriculture and services industries should average $24,000. Yet at our average annual wage, our families derive $20,000 full-time employment per adult. Southeast Asian immigrants, particularly our Hmong, are often married with an average of six or more children. With both heads of the household working in entry level positions (with additionally middle-aged females often possessing very limited English skills and no education earning at the minimum level), and most recent home purchases with hefty monthly mortgage payments, their combined salaries do not lift the family out of their need for some form of public assistance. Often an eldest child must also work to ensure that the family can make ends meet at the cost of the college or trade school education and most disturbingly even at cost to high school diplomas. Even when the families elect this terrible path, they struggle. This is particularly alarming since the current welfare reform rules require assistance to expire in five-year time limits.
In sum, we must state that the employment and family income problem for our Hmong is really much more than just the lack of skills and knowledge; it is the lack of hope, and the gradual acceptance of poor or self-limiting choices, such as public assistance. This perspective is permeating all levels of the Hmong society in Minnesota.
This is the highest rate among all Southeast Asian refugee groups in the Twin Cities area. 1990 Census data also indicates that only one-third (29.9 percent) of the Hmong people over age 17 years are employed. This is a vital statistic for our Hmong Community given the traditionally young ages at which Hmong unions are made. Yet we can find no more current numbers nor can we build a case for greater employment of young Hmong based on Community meetings during the past two years where the term “dropout” has taken on a new and greater meaning as one would define “dropping out of the life” patterns. And even when the young Hmong are employed, most of the jobs are in low-paying positions that cannot adequately support a family.
With the implementation of Welfare Reform, which is placing serious pressure on the Hmong adults to seek economic self-sufficiency, many in the Hmong-Minnesota Community are facing a drastic reduction in public assistance and sanctions for failure to secure employment for which they are poorly prepared. Yet most of the Hmong possess native job skills that are not highly valued in this country, and find themselves in low-paying positions that cannot adequately support a family. Although compiled for all welfare recipients, the documentation available to date as presented by the Institute for Research on Poverty demonstrates that “…entry level jobs available to workers without a college degree…required credentials (high school diploma, work experience, references) that many recipients did not have. For example, about half of all welfare recipients are high school dropouts, and about 40 percent have had no experience prior to their first welfare spell.” We concur as a result of our Employment section canvas of the City of Minneapolis business base during the latter half of 2001. In our effort out of 1,512 firms, 315 of all manufacturing and service categories (the highest probability for near term employment of Hmong and Laotian clients) were queried at length concerning hiring policies, personnel needs and hiring plans for the 2001/2002 timeframe. The results were dismal: 55 firms had recently laid off personnel, 31 companies were on furlough, 45 companies agreed to receive an application but with hiring freeze in place, and 184 firms refused either to receive applications or hire under any circumstances.
To this problem is added a large majority of our Hmong working age population that suffers from extremely limited education and very low English proficiency, making initial job location and retention, let alone on-the-job advancement opportunities extremely limited as well. The State of Minnesota report on the December 2000 Characteristics of Racial/Ethnic and Immigrant Groups in the Minnesota Family Investment Program relates that only 20 percent of Asian families participating had achieved high school graduation, while 56 percent reported no education at all. A year 2001 HAMAA initiative to establish a coordination activity for the recruitment and training, on site or in concert with post secondary educational institutes of Hmong high school graduates pursuing a health service career resulted in virtually no qualified candidates. Notably, the diplomas or GEDs possessed by the applicants belied a reading and writing ability below that of a typical ninth grade student per the Minnesota Basic Standards Tests. We concur with the Hennepin County assessment “Many families remaining on MFIP have barriers to achieving self-sufficiency, such as physical and/or mental health problems, learning disabilities, little or no education or work experience, or lack English proficiency.” Nowhere is this truer than for our Hmong Community.
To this is added the difficulties of the present economic downturn initiated through the implosion of the “dot-coms” and their high-technology-based industrial partners (including such firms as Advanced Circuits, Honeywell, 3M and ADC Telecommunications in the Twin Cities area) in February of this year, then greatly accelerated by the 9-11 disaster at the World Trade Towers in the summer of 2001. Again, in looking at general trends, we find in Employer Demand for Welfare Recipients and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Recent Employer Surveys the basic status of our Hmong employees when we observe “…the cycle for other disadvantaged groups might differ considerably from what welfare recipients will experience. For any given cyclical downturn, the magnitude of the decline in labor demand faced by recipients might be greater or lesser than for other groups that have comparable levels of education but perhaps different levels of cognitive ability and work experience.” And indeed, this downturn suggests that our Hmong Community will suffer severely. At the period October 2000 our HAMAA holding accounts for job applicants numbered no more than 100 files. For the same period in 2001, we number over 525 applicants with more arriving every day. This in spite of monumental efforts to place over 200 applicants in new employment positions within the reporting period.
Continuing our look at the typical Hmong family on public assistance, we find State figures again that build a fair composite for Hennepin County. Of 1,810 Hmong families on MFIP assistance, some 86 percent (c.1,556) of families maintained eligible participants, with 1,320 families represented showing 27 percent with two eligible caregivers (one of whom was often on SSI) and nearly 60 percent of the families possessing two caregivers. By extension, nearly 400 of these Hmong families reside in Hennepin County. Fortunately, the number of Hmong employed has grown substantially from the 1990 Census recorded low of 34 percent to a rough calculation of 73 percent employed by June 2001.
Naturally, these figures reflect employment as a net result of not seeking public financial assistance and include a fair portion of young Hmong (ages 20-25 years) who by our evaluation have simply dropped out of all economic sector activity just as they have abandoned the schools. Thus, while the draw on public funds has noticeably dropped in the past several years, the actual income of Hmong families has grown only marginally. According to the Urban Institute, in Minneapolis 55.2 percent of Asian Pacific American households have clustered in the central city, which in turn describes 87.6 percent of those residents by income measures as “very poor.” Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, in the report series Health Disparities in Minneapolis Update, relates that 80 percent of students of color qualify for reduced price student lunches.
This nonsequitur between rising employment and apparent continued poverty may be explained as a matter of the majority of our Hmong employees of all ages continuing to seek employment through “temporary jobs” with the potential advancement to a simple, though permanent “assembly” job. These positions often require limited English and technical skills, excluding the coveted medical assembly positions which offer higher wages but at the entrance price of a true diploma-based English ability. The reality then is that the entry level positions available to those with limited language and job skills seldom pay more than Twin Cities minimum wage, averaging $6.50 per hour. Yet through planning and career counseling, our HAMAA Employment Counselors have located hundreds of positions based on qualifications, with the net result that average employment entry positions (especially for MFIP limited qualified clients) are charged at $8.50 per hour and the average wage for all clients placed in 2001 stands at $9.62 per hour as long as education agreements are adhered to by the clients.
According to Hennepin County figures, the low end of income for county residents primarily employed within the agriculture and services industries should average $24,000. Yet at our average annual wage, our families derive $20,000 full-time employment per adult. Southeast Asian immigrants, particularly our Hmong, are often married with an average of six or more children. With both heads of the household working in entry level positions (with additionally middle-aged females often possessing very limited English skills and no education earning at the minimum level), and most recent home purchases with hefty monthly mortgage payments, their combined salaries do not lift the family out of their need for some form of public assistance. Often an eldest child must also work to ensure that the family can make ends meet at the cost of the college or trade school education and most disturbingly even at cost to high school diplomas. Even when the families elect this terrible path, they struggle. This is particularly alarming since the current welfare reform rules require assistance to expire in five year time limits.
In sum, we must state that the employment and family income problem for our Hmong is really much more than just the lack of skills and knowledge; it is the lack of hope, and the gradual acceptance of poor or self-limiting choices, such as public assistance. This perspective is permeating all levels of the Hmong society in Minnesota.
iii. Concerns for Hmong Youth
Added to the external social and economic barriers from the broader community is the difficulties families face internally. The ability of youth to acculturate more quickly than parents tend to create a reversal in roles – the parents become “the children” learning their lessons all over again. This often leads to a breakdown in traditional family structure. Many parents are unable to control their children in a country in which they do not understand the language, traditions, or justice system.
Furthermore, some American practices, often pummeling the family through endless television commercials, conflict with the traditional parenting methods of Hmong culture leading to family conflict and the alienation of youth from a traditional source of support. This lack of connection to family is a strong predictor of delinquent behavior in youth, including truancy and dropping out of school. This breakdown in traditional family communication and authority has direct consequences for the young people. In most cases, we see that youths are acting out the struggles of their whole family. Truancy, crime, unwanted pregnancies, drug and gang involvement, and low academic achievement stem from a breakdown in communication between the generations.
The impact of cultural stress and economic limitations in our Hmong Community is particularly acute among Hmong youth in 2001. This impact is clear from school and crime statistics for Hmong youth, assembled by the State of Minnesota Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans and Minneapolis Public Schools described herein:
? In the Minneapolis Public Schools, of the projected 49,309 students enrolled in 2001-2002 at least 7,396 are Asian Pacific (15%) according to “first language in home” (while by our estimate some 12,000 of Hmong heritage between ages 5-21 years should be in school according to family counts);
? At least 3,686 Hmong students in MPS (30%) are in English Language Learners in grades K-12 (although statistics provided are incomplete and suggest 5,002 at the 41% traditional rate);
? During 1991-92 through 1993-94 school years, Asian Pacific American drop out rates increased from 9.5 percent to 14.6 percent, since falling to 6.3 percent among the Hmong Minneapolis Community in 2000, leaving thousands of young Hmong behind without solid basic education skills and uncounted for school activity;
? In the 2001 Minnesota Basic Standard Test for 8th grade only 43 percent of Asian Pacific American students passed the reading test and only 50 percent passed the math test;
? Only 23.4 percent of Hmong students passed the reading test in 1998, reflecting new immigrant challenges;
? Only 31.6 percent of Hmong students passed the math test in 1998, reflecting new immigrant challenges.
Both the school attendance rates and academic achievement levels of Hmong youth are a major concern for our community. The growing Hmong population is reflected in the public schools systems, since more than 60 percent of the Hmong Community living in the Metro Area is under the age of 18. In the city of Minneapolis, 13 percent of public school students are estimated to be Hmong, with individual schools reporting more than 50 percent Hmong students, including Folwell Junior High School and Edison and Roosevelt High Schools.
By the early 1990s, ninth grade Southeast Asian students in Minneapolis (primarily Hmong) were universally scoring the lowest of all ethnic groups in city wide benchmark exams. Although scores have risen in recent years, there is a clear dichotomy between those students who are recent Hmong immigrants and those born into American-Hmong families. While many young Hmong now score favorably with their white classmates (the highest scoring cultural group), an equal number of Hmong adolescents were among the group with the lowest high school graduation rate: nearly 50 percent of Hmong students who started ninth grade did not graduate from high school. Of course, much of this failure rate may be attributed to the late start forced upon many of the youth arriving from Thailand -- but not all. Schools report a high rate of truancy and school dropouts for Hmong students, which often begins in junior high school and includes both those new immigrants and American-born Hmong youth. Between 1981 and 1991, the high school dropout rate for Southeast Asians, the majority of whom were Hmong, tripled. Truancy from school is often a direct response to the severe restrictions placed on the social life of these youth by their parents as well as by falling through the cracks of the school system. We concur with Co-Chair George Latimer in the remarks carried in the report by the Citizens League, A Failing Grade for School Completion: We Must Increase School Completion in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, that “The traditional notion of high school should be restructured for greater flexibility…. Charter schools and other alternatives should be expanded to connect large numbers of at-risk students with the ‘real world’ of work through career exposure and technical education options.”
In addition to truancy, dropouts and low academic achievement, Hmong youth involvement in crime has skyrocketed since 1990. Delinquent – and criminal -- activity are now endemic among Hmong youth, a direct result of the combined factors of poverty, racism, frustration and difficult and traumatic transition to a new country and life. In Minneapolis, the number of Asian juvenile arrests increased more than 1300 percent between 1982 and 1991 (from five arrests to 255), and has continued to climb. The latest statistics available from Hennepin County Community Corrections show more than 100 Hmong youth currently on probation. The Minneapolis Police Department indicates that more than 200 Hmong youth (43 “hard core”) are currently involved in five gangs, with an additional 800 Hmong youth, primarily teenage boys and girls, at risk for gang involvement. These gangs focus their turf and activity around low-income housing areas, generally recognized in Minneapolis as among the Northside and Phillips-Whittier neighborhoods.
Many of our youth are considered to be “at-risk” because they face multiple “traditional” risk factors for juvenile delinquency, including:
? Living in severely disadvantaged economic conditions;
? Experiencing discrimination and prejudice;
? Living in a community surrounded by violence, gang activity, and pressure for gang involvement;
? Experiencing high rates of physical abuse in the home;
? High rates of school truancy, school in-completion, and poor academic performance;
? Social and cultural barriers that lead to a lack of nurturing and support for the young people’s social and academic development by parents or other adults in their lives;
? Lack of opportunity for participation in structured/supervised recreational and social activities, and;
? In a number of cases, the negative impact of a depressed parent.
Hmong youth are exposed to organized criminal activities in their neighborhoods, and are having difficult time finding success in the traditional social structure. They are struggling to assimilate new cultural information; to make the difficult transition into adulthood; to determine the boundaries of their personal and cultural identities; to find the tools they’ll need to thrive as individuals and as members of two cultures. Hmong youth need to develop rapidly the skills and self-reliance to function in local systems and to make a positive contribution to the community at large.
The impact of cultural stress and economic limitations in our Hmong Community is particularly acute among Hmong youth in 2001. This impact is clear from school and crime statistics for Hmong youth, assembled by the State of Minnesota Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans and Minneapolis Public Schools described herein (266,181,182):
• In the Minneapolis Public Schools, of the projected 49,309 students enrolled in 2001-2002 at least 7,396 are Asian Pacific (15%) according to “first language in home” (while by our estimate some 12,000 of Hmong heritage between ages 5-21 years should be in school according to family counts);
• At least 3,686 Hmong students in MPS (30%) are in English Language Learners in grades K 12 (although statistics provided are incomplete and suggest 5,002 at the 41% traditional rate);
• During 1991 92 through 1993 94 school years, Asian Pacific American drop out rates increased from 9.5 percent to 14.6 percent, since falling to 6.3 percent among the Hmong Minneapolis Community in 2000, leaving thousands of young Hmong behind without solid basic education skills and uncounted for school activity;
• In the 2001 Minnesota Basic Standard Test for 8th grade only 43 percent of Asian Pacific American students passed the reading test and only 50 percent passed the math test;
• Only 23.4 percent of Hmong students passed the reading test in 1998, reflecting new immigrant challenges;
• Only 31.6 percent of Hmong students passed the math test in 1998, reflecting new immigrant challenges.
Both the school attendance rates and academic achievement levels of Hmong youth are a major concern for our community. The growing Hmong population is reflected in the public schools systems, since more than 60 percent of the Hmong Community living in the Metro Area is under the age of 18. In the city of Minneapolis, 13 percent of public school students are estimated to be Hmong, with individual schools reporting more than 50 percent Hmong students, including Folwell Junior High School and Edison and Roosevelt High Schools.
By the early 1990s, ninth grade Southeast Asian students in Minneapolis (primarily Hmong) were universally scoring the lowest of all ethnic groups in city wide benchmark exams. Although scores have risen in recent years, there is a clear dichotomy between those students who are recent Hmong immigrants and those born into American-Hmong families. While many young Hmong now score favorably with their white classmates (the highest scoring cultural group), an equal number of Hmong adolescents were among the group with the lowest high school graduation rate: nearly 50 percent of Hmong students who started ninth grade did not graduate from high school. Of course, much of this failure rate may be attributed to the late start forced upon many of the youth arriving from Thailand -- but not all. Schools report a high rate of truancy and school dropouts for Hmong students, which often begins in junior high school and includes both those new immigrants and American-born Hmong youth. Between 1981 and 1991, the high school dropout rate for Southeast Asians, the majority of whom were Hmong, tripled (265). Truancy from school is often a direct response to the severe restrictions placed on the social life of these youth by their parents as well as by falling through the cracks of the school system. We concur with Co-Chair George Latimer in the remarks carried in the report by the Citizens League, A Failing Grade for School Completion: We Must Increase School Completion in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, that “The traditional notion of high school should be restructured for greater flexibility…. Charter schools and other alternatives should be expanded to connect large numbers of at-risk students with the ‘real world’ of work through career exposure and technical education options.”(16)
In addition to truancy, dropouts and low academic achievement, Hmong youth involvement in crime has skyrocketed since 1990. Delinquent – and criminal -- activity are now endemic among Hmong youth, a direct result of the combined factors of poverty, racism, frustration and difficult and traumatic transition to a new country and life. In Minneapolis, the number of Asian juvenile arrests increased more than 1300 percent between 1982 and 1991 (from five arrests to 255), and has continued to climb. The latest statistics available from Hennepin County Community Corrections show more than 100 Hmong youth currently on probation. The Minneapolis Police Department indicates that more than 200 Hmong youth (43 “hard core”) are currently involved in five gangs, with an additional 800 Hmong youth, primarily teenage boys and girls, at risk for gang involvement. These gangs focus their turf and activity around low-income housing areas, generally recognized in Minneapolis as among the Northside and Phillips-Whittier neighborhoods.
Many of our youth are considered to be “at-risk” because they face multiple “traditional” risk factors for juvenile delinquency, including:
• Living in severely disadvantaged economic conditions;
• Experiencing discrimination and prejudice;
• Living in a community surrounded by violence, gang activity, and pressure for gang involvement;
• Experiencing high rates of physical abuse in the home;
• High rates of school truancy, school in-completion, and poor academic performance;
• Social and cultural barriers that lead to a lack of nurturing and support for the young people’s social and academic development by parents or other adults in their lives;
• Lack of opportunity for participation in structured/supervised recreational and social activities, and;
• In a number of cases, the negative impact of a depressed parent.
Hmong youth are exposed to organized criminal activities in their neighborhoods, and are having difficult time finding success in the traditional social structure. They are struggling to assimilate new cultural information; to make the difficult transition into adulthood; to determine the boundaries of their personal and cultural identities; to find the tools they’ll need to thrive as individuals and as members of two cultures. Hmong youth need to develop rapidly the skills and self-reliance to function in local systems and to make a positive contribution to the community at large.
iv. Basic Education for Young and Old
Among Asian Pacific people, 73.3 percent speak a language other than English, compared with 13.8 percent of the total U.S. population. Due to the relative flood of Southeast Asian immigrant children, schools lack sufficient resources in teachers, materials, and second language acquisition (ESL course work support) to make the promise of educational access real for non-English-speaking students. Although most students are conversant in English, it often takes three to five years for students – of any age -- to comprehend the language and use it as a medium of academic learning. Most Asian Pacific students are receiving only a limited amount of bilingual education as they are pulled out of regular class for an hour or two at a time for bilingual education specifically driven to improve English vocabulary. Even this isn’t enough and still this takes them away from their class and the learning that is occurring there. Bilingual education needs to be fully implemented in a concentrated effort both in schools and in work place settings designed to enhance adult language skills.
This is a difficult problem with limited ready solutions. Although minority students make up 13.5 percent of the total student population for Minnesota, only three percent of public school teachers are from the minority community who truly speak the immigrant language correctly. In the Minneapolis Public Schools, 17 percent of the teachers are recognized as minority community participants, and only 3.0 percent are Asian American. In the St. Paul Public School District 57.3 percent of the students are from minority communities yet only 13.2 percent of teachers are from minority communities. To teach and provide needed support services, Asian Pacific immigrant youth require professionals who speak their language and who understand their culture and the challenges faced in the transition to a new land. Without well-trained, culturally competent, bilingual Asian Pacific American teachers, administrators, counselors, and other professionals strong language programs cannot be delivered. Students in need of mental health or health services to support their involvement in school are neither identified nor served, and Asian immigrants become increasingly at risk for educational difficulties.
Textbooks in the school system, if they are available, are often outdated and lag behind the needs of a diverse community while study materials for adults is extremely limited at or through work sites. Teachers are faced with the responsibility to find and create curricula that are most often time dependent on students' personal experiences through oral presentations and writing exercises. The students become the expert, but in most cases, few students know about the historical and contemporary realities of Asian Pacific communities. In schools where multicultural curriculum exists, it is sometimes reduced to "honoring" Asian Pacific people through International Day or Asian Pacific Heritage Day where students are encouraged to wear their native clothing and share their native food. Such approaches perpetuate stereotypes and are irrelevant to some Asian Pacific students, especially, if they are third or fourth generation and or are not knowledgeable about their culture and history.
v. Broken Families, Battered Spouses – Violence on the Rise
Too often the pressures of day-to-day living lead to anger, exhaustion and fraying of the family. The husband is generally the major bread-winner in the family, but current Hmong education levels restrict the men to hourly wages insufficient to support the typical Hmong family of six to eight children. The wife must work -– often a 40 hour per week “temp job” -– to help make ends meet (even with financial assistance from the state). The problems of raising children fall heavily on both parents, who often lack sophistication in U.S. law and struggle with differences in culture and customs. Any one of a number of “escape routes” may come into play as the spouses seek a pressure release.
Domestic violence, sexual assault, and gang/youth violence is an issue that is of a great and growing concern in the Asian Pacific communities, particularly the Hmong. Recently, a number of violent events and tragedies occurred in our community that clearly were the results of domestic violence, sexual assault, and youth gang violence. Six children were senselessly murdered and their mother, Khoua Her, is in prison as the perpetrator. Friends and neighbors as well as police and court documents indicate that this family had a history of family discord and violence. Shortly after this tragic episode, a murder-suicide took the parents of 13 children. Yet another mother killed two of her children.
Another tragedy involved Bao Lor, a young mother of seven children long missing and considered killed by her husband who later took his own life. A lesser known incident occurred in Highland Park in September 1998, where a Hmong man in his 50's held his wife hostage using a gun, ending in an all night confrontation with the police. Fortunately, this woman's life was spared due to police intervention.
Sexual crimes are on the rise as well. In the past few years, a number of young Hmong girls in their early teens were the victims of gang-related sexual assaults. A thirteen-year-old Hmong girl in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who was recently charged with killing her newborn baby, was a victim of rape. Because of the lack of culturally appropriate services for victims of sexual assaults in the Asian Pacific community, these victims and their families were left on their own to cope with an incomprehensible evil. Not only were they not given support by their families, they were being shunned as "tainted" persons by the community following the old world value system in a new land.
To these horror stories must be added the unfortunate increase in everyday family strife caused by infidelity, generation and cultural conflict, and financial jealousies. At the least, if the husband “runs around” with another woman (or the wife enters into an adulterous affair at work, etc., change the following genders), the wife may seek assistance from a women’s support group. But this in turn creates the problem of “loss of face” within the Community as word travels that Mr. X cannot control Mrs. Y. These discords turn ugly, and the family shatters, with the children suffering the ultimate loss through dislocation, unstable home life and lost dreams.
The problem of youth gang violent activities remains a growing threat in the Asian Pacific community, including the traditionally pastoral Hmong. Being an immigrant community, there is a great generation gap between parents and children. Parents desperately try to maintain their culture and language at the same time they are trying to function in the new culture. Their children effortlessly adopt the American culture and language as their own, creating great misunderstandings and miscommunication between parents and children. Many children have run away from home and joined some of the gangs for support and acceptance. Never forgotten and always a fear, a runaway thirteen-year-old Hmong girl was brutally raped and killed in Brooklyn Park in October 1998.
vi. Hmong Seniors Left Behind
To all of the foregoing depressing notes must be added the new phenomenon – to the Lao/Hmong – of the grandparents being left behind. In a country and a culture that idolizes youth and banishes from view the elderly and the infirm, the Hmong senior citizen is often reduced to an afterthought. This simple act is shattering to the psyche of people born and raised in a culture and tradition of respect for elders and the fully integrated pattern of family/communal life that was theirs in Laos. Families struggling to meet housing and food costs and meet state-mandated guidelines for MFIP assistance work multiple jobs, are left with little time for the grandparents. If there is a connection, it is as a family “instant daycare” source, to be called upon to watch the infants during the workday.
This has resulted in the well-recognized systemic response afflicting much of Minnesota’s other elderly, in that seniors become more isolated and their movements restricted to the availability of family cars and drivers. The dangers of disease and medical crisis are compounded, as immediate response is not available during the day. Household dangers, including gas fumes, electrical fires, heating exhaust in winter, etc., may go unnoticed until too late. And with the increasingly greater distances between Community families, especially inflicted by the destruction of the Minneapolis Public Housing Community in Near Northside Minneapolis as a result of the Hollman Consent Decree, walkout and check-in visits are less frequent. Crime, “youth gangs” and other evils simply pile on to the elderly situation to compound the problems.
In a most disturbing trend, we are finding that increasing numbers of our Hmong seniors are joining in the treks to the casinos courtesy of the free buses stopping at nearby corners. Based on the statements of family members, at issue is the lack of involvement of the seniors in daily affairs and their attempt to brighten a dull day. While we will not demonize the casinos, we are very wary of this development and believe that if even one social security check is at risk it is too much. We already have too many examples of younger family members losing their child care benefits, making demands on the elder children to drop school or homework to take care of younger siblings. Before this goes much further something too must be done to bring our Hmong seniors back to the center of life in our Community.
It is still illegal.
Porous borders are still a huge problem with this country. You cannot run a successful sovereign nation, and continue to have people from all over pouring in.
You also do not go fight a war and let the enemy into your territory to destroy it.
What facts have you brought to the table? That the Hmong helped us in Vietnam. Conceded.
I've addressed the Hmong here, because thats what the thread is about. I've also mentioned that I would like to see a moratorium on ALL immigration, legal and illegal to allow us to pause, catch our breath and decide whats in OUR interst as a Nation.
You call my info outdated by supply none of your own. I've gotten data from the last 3-4 years, what to you want a house to house canvas this week?
And the "outdated" stuff proves my point that the adjustment of the Hmong has been long, difficult and costly. It also showed that the do gooder groups that started the process in Wasusau caused a major problem and promptly walked away. What makes you think this new group will be any different? My God they have less education and skills then the prior group.
You keep personalizing this " I don't have a problem", "they stood by me" etc. Why can't you see that those of us who will have to pay for this, and deal with the headaches might want some say in whats happening?
Yeah the Hmong helped us out in Vietnam. The Vietnam war was a tragedy of bad decisions and missed opportunities. Lots of Vietnamese got screwed for helping us, do we bring them all over now? The Shia's and the Kurds rose up at our bidding after the
gulf War and got screwed. Do they get a ticket?
Poles and Hungarians rebelled against the Soviets at our bidding, do they get a ticket? There are people all over the world who have been our allies at one point or another and have gotten a raw deal, do all of them get a ticket?
At what point will you be satisfied that our debt is payed? When every last hmong is here in the US? Wasn't any of the 50,000 dead and thousands wounded, billions spent fighting FOR THEIR freedom count for nothing towards that debt?
And you lost your right to whine about insults when you threw out the term "bigot". Don't dish it if you can't take it.
Bump to read later.
just out of curiousity...have you served this country?
You sir, are an idiot. I will not stoop to your level so do not expect any further replies.
I spent 8 years on active duty USAF. 1982 to 1990, reserve duty from 78 to 82. 3 of those I was in a flying assignment and have about 100 missions in the back seat of an F4 E Phantom.
Your turn.
So. You ask me a question. Then you call me an idiot and want no further responce. Previously you whined about insults. You sir are are a craven coward.
And this is your idea of "debate"?
Clearly in a battle of wits you take the field unarmed.
How does this Minnesota-based reference apply to the Wisconsin experience? Is there a reason you choose to rely on outdated or irrelevant statistics and anecdotal data to attempt to shore your already fast position on this issue?
Have you explored further the role of the Hmong during the tragic years of Vietnam? Any thoughts on moral obligations the United States may have in this regard?
Ironically, and an aside, today's "Founder's Quote of the Day" from The Federalist is that of Patrick Henry, "I am not a Virginian, but rather an American."
That was 30-40 years ago. Give it up already. We already have 300,000 of these polygamous parasites. We have been honorable and done our part. The debt has been discharged. Or maybe they're your favorite little brown people. For others it's Mexicans or Chinese depending on their favorite ethnic restaurant. I prefer to bring in educated refugees and immigrants. Not fresh out of the jungle tribalists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.