Hmong Journey

mercury news | July 18, 2004 | Ben Stocking

[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.

[television is just wrong]

Polygamy, and killing animals to heal ones ills all for the sake of multiculturalism. Whose culture will bend?

[television is just wrong]

big help bump I think it is important

[television is just wrong]

read a little later?

[Kozak]

Sigh. another 800 or so scheduled to arrive in my area of Wisconsin. While they have no education, no skills, no written language, they do have an amazing ability to immediately gain access to every governmental program available to them. Local liberals are having orgasms over our soon to increase local "diversity".

[cyborg]

They should educate these people in english, basic cultural aspects and how to get around before dropping them off in a completely different place. It will help them better. I wish them luck though. USA is the land of opportunity.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Polygamy, and killing animals to heal ones ills all for the sake of multiculturalism. Whose culture will bend?

With the help of MTV, ours.

[Soliton]

If they enter leagaly, they are as ligitimate proto-Americans as your or my ancestors.

Their children will be winning all the spelling bees in the next ten years.

God bless them.

[exhaustedmomma]

Some Vietnamese in Port Arthur, Texas, were sacrificing (& eating) dogs a few years ago. Cultural difference met "the law" head-on.

[taxed2death]

Can you blame them? If someone shipped me off to another country, I'd be in the freebie line too. Blame the people (Libs) who make their livelyhood / money off handing out the freebies. Don't blame the Hmong, who we actually owe a debt of gratitude to. Remember, it takes two to tango.

[Kozak]

My family immigrated to the US after WW2. They didn't get or ASK for anything. They got a weeks help from a local church then were on their own. I THOUGHT when families "sponsored" their relatives they assumed responsibility for them when they got here. Silly me. No the rest of us get to pay.

[Kozak]

Their children will be winning all the spelling bees in the next ten years.

Really? someone should have told that to the last wave of Hmong immigrants. THEY have a large high school drop out rate.

[myheroesareDeadandRegistered]

"Polygamy, and killing animals to heal ones ills all for the sake of multiculturalism. Whose culture will bend?"

Jees, I don't know were to start. A little polygamy and animal sacrifice are not to large of a hurtle for me to look over.

The Hmong were some of the brave indigenous tribes that we trained to fight our communist enemies in SE Asia. Fierce and loyal. They were decimated for helping us after we left. Last I'd heard of them was that Clinton had cut off American support for their refugee camps. With the tide of millions illegal aliens flooding this country I can't see why a few thousand Hmong would be a problem. As hardy as they are, it would probably be a plus for us. Their blood ran with ours over there. It still runs.

[stainlessbanner]

This article has a different view of the Hmong: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/965890/posts

Many others about the Hmong on FR (search keyword)

[taxed2death]

It is....what it is. We can "blame" the enablers as much as the newcomers. That was my point.

[reformedliberal]

I saw Hmong in tribal dress at the Bush rally in May. Hmong are supporting W and AFAIK, many go on to become citizens as quickly as possible. If you go to the BC04 web site, Hmong is an interest group, just like women or small business.

While they start out on welfare and the old grannies stay on it and while I have no illusions about the gang problem, the majority of school-age Hmong do well, go on to university and a high number become doctors, lawyers, business people. From what I see of the community in La Crosse, they support each other, hire each other, start businesses and seem to become Americans faster than many other ethnic groups.

They also replace Mexicans as farm labor between here and Madison. I know people who have hired them in Crawford and Vernon counties.

There ARE tales of Hmong hunting practices: they 1st form a circle surrounding the deer.........

[skeeter]

I don't know which is more discouraging... the determination of our government to import as many different cultures here are possible without a thought to societal impact, or the apparent unconcern of many to the inevitable results.

Has everyone gone nuts?

[television is just wrong]

Our government runs to give the benefits to them.
they also practice polygamy so that they can produce big families to boot.

[television is just wrong]

They do believe in poligamy. Are you in favor of that?

[cyborg]

Seems that there are a number of different opinions on them. I am not at all familiar with the Hmong culture. However, my parents were given a crack at the American dream and succeeded. I am not going to begrudge the Hmong people the same. At the same time, before enacting such refugee programs, I hope they are educating the people in basic english reading and writing and some basic culture relevant to the area they are living in. Nothing deep and philosophical, just basic things like respecting property,etc.