Abstract

Hmong is one of the many races of the world. They belonged to Southern China, Laos and Vietnam etc. 1975 and succeeding years saw a large exodus of Hmong People to USA. Currently their population is nearly quarter of a million in USA. This work is aimed at taking a view of the Hmong traditions and culture and how Hmong traditions affect the lives of Hmong Americans especially Hmong American women. The paper also takes a view of different reasons why Hmong have been reluctant to assimilate in the US society and the challenges which Hmong women face in getting higher educations. Some recommendations for the empowerment of the Hmong Americans in general and Hmong American women in particular have been made as well.

Introduction:

This chapter represents background of Hmong people. They are basically people of Laos. Anthropologists trace their origins to Southern China (Yang 2001; Vang 2010). After the war of Vietnam, some Hmongs were offered refuge in the United States. As refugees, the Hmong made their new living styles in refugee camps; they have been arriving in the United States since 1975.

The Hmong are from different culture minority group with exodus history. Now the people of Hmong are scattered all over the world with great concentrations in China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and United States. In the short time the patriarchal, traditional Hmong culture is being challenged by life in America. The big problem they have to face is lack of necessary knowledge, education and cultural preparation to acquire American culture. They are trying to adjust to live a good life in America, to get their children educated and to assimilate in American society.

The contribution of Hmong community in U.S population was much less back in 1990 as it is today. In 1990, the Hmong population in USA was about 94,000 and in 2010 it was more than 260,000. It means that the population has seen a rapid increase among the Hmong Americans. Males are 50.7% of the Hmong community as per the census of 2010, whereas the contribution of males in the total population of USA is 49.2%. Probably, this tells us that the boys are still dominant and preferred over the girls among the Hmong American, to a very little extent though.

According to USAs census of 2010, about 43% of the total Hmong population is up to 24 years old and the percentage of those whose ages are between 5-17 is almost 31%. This means that almost 15% of the Hmong American girls belong to that age group where they should be going to school or college to get education. This proportion is something really big and it matters a lot. If all of them get enrolled, they can not only bring forward a moderate and enlightened view of their community and hence make their families and parents proud, but can improve their own financial circumstances as well as those of the U.S nation.

This is the fact that Hmong American women are pursuing higher education and it is a really big challenge for the girls whose parents have traditional Hmong culture in their blood. The Hmong girls experience too much obstacles to shape their identities with two different cultures, they realize that it is more difficult to fulfill expectation of both cultures, as both of them are incompatible. After coming United States Hmong women have found great opportunity to educate their selves as well as their children and after educate their self they got the opportunity to seek employment. The only reason why some of Hmong women have been able to get education and to contribute towards the prosperity and progress of USA, is the law and constitution of USA which ensures equal rights for women and ensures that males do not wrong the women.

Literature Review:

The availability of reports, research and literatures on Hmong culture, the role of women and children in their culture, the importance which they give to education and on their

passion to emerge as professionals in different trades is limited but many researchers are now showing interest on this topic. And many universities are also doing work on these topics. It is critical to get to know all about their culture, struggle and the process of their becoming professional. Research gives the positive result and after it they are trying to get higher education and relate their self in professional fields and gives good feed back as compare to other nations.

Hmong Culture:

For analyzing how the women of Hmong are becoming professional in United States we have to take a look on their cultures. It is important to analyze the factors that affect the Hmong womens life.

Hmong girls learn their traditions since their childhood. These include giving respect to their parents as well as elders of the clan. They are not supposed to raise their voice in front of their elders rather they are expected to serve them by completing their traditional physical tasks, without uttering a word of complaint. They are supposed to spend their time by doing home chores. They are not permitted to go out for getting education or for doing any work professionally, rather they are instructed to just stay at home and stay silent (Vang, 1994).

Until the late 1950 they do not have written language so they have to face many obstacles even in their daily schedule, to educate their children women memorize the poem and also teach them their folk song.

Hmong Community has the tradition to marry women at early ages. Women are married in young age so that they may take care of her husband and their family. Because of this they have to face pregnancy issues in very young age. They have to cook the food for the whole family, clean the home, understand family issues and take care of their children. Hmong community, like many other communities of the world is a male dominated community. If a girl does not agree to get married the boy kidnaps the girl in her house and pressurizes her to get marry and he makes the girl marry him by force, this way.

Even after immigrating to United States early marriages have been seen in their community which is the crucial obstacle for the women of Hmong in the educational attainment, they have been forced by their parents to get marry with their relatives. After immigration to United States they have big plat form to educate their self as well as their children but in the year 1980 many Hmong females dropped out from the schools because of early pregnancy. Because of not getting as high education as the women related to different cultures were getting, they could not be able to prove their abilities as professionals in the society of America. But we have to take a look on why the families of Hmong wanted their child to get marry at a young age? If any family wanted to educate their daughter, when she was attending their college their relatives raised the voice why the girl does not want to get married? What is the issue? Whats wrong with her? Their relatives advised and warned the parents about the difficulty of late marriages. So the parents wanted to safe their reputation in the clan and married their girls at young age to protect the familys reputation.

Lee (11997) founded that Hmong children and girls wanted to get education and complete their studies, even some Hmong girls marry at their college time but return early to get higher education.

Education

Due to cultural, traditional and economic reason girls were not sent to school or colleges because their families believe that there is no benefit of getting them educated. They believe a girl's education does not give any benefit to her (Vang, 1994). When they used to live in Laos, they bore education expenses for few Hmong boys. Hmong girls of Laos had very rare chance to get the education (Dricks, 1999).

(DuongTran et aI., 1996) stated that there is a dissimilarity between the culture of U.S. and Hmong, U.S women teach their children to be positive, to raise their voice speak up for themselves, do whatever they wanted to do in their lives, whereas as mentioned earlier Hmong girls and women are expected to keep their tongues silent and follow the instructions of their parents before the marriage and serve their husband without complaining for anything, after the marriage. The difference is quite apparent. Both cultures have dissimilarities and are incompatible.

Education for Hmong people in America plays an important role for reshaping of culture. Revail (1996) acknowledged that Hmong girls get mixed reaction in the high school from their families and relatives. However the girls parents are so worried about their

daughters, they think school is a dangerous place to which their daughters are going in the state of pregnancy. Boys are encouraged in the society to get higher education so they can support their family very well, by serving somewhere after getting a professional degree.

According to the statement of Lee (1997). Hmong American community supports both their daughter and sons to get higher education to get better economic security in future. (Revail, 1996) stated that one of the most important asset of Hmong women is they have the courage and stamina to work hard and they have the potential of growing professionally. Hmong communitys perception of a hard worker is of a physical laborer. The hard work of study in the college and study well is not considered a difficult task. Keeping their origin and the background in view, this seems somewhat justified. Since their parents consider getting education is an easy task, a Hmong girl has to face the music if she fails in any course during her studies. Their parents think of education being an easy task because they dont seem to be doing physical exertion, which is the only definition of hard work according to their parents. Therefore, in such conditions, the value of their education is often comes under the question.

Mysee Chang, a Hmong who has pursued higher education says that if he has succeeded to get higher education, the credit goes to his parents who were immigrants to U.S.A. His parents hadnt got the opportunity to go to the school. But her mother used to say her something in native language which meant something like this in English, Education

is a key; A key that opens the door. However Chang herself feels that although she has been able to get higher education, she has left her family far behind and that she has made herself distant from them. She has some sort of regret that he shouldnt have left the values, her family believes in and had she stuck to those values, she wont have been able to get higher education. So you see another reason of the hostile attitude towards the education from this case. Some Hmong consider the traditions, customs and cultural values more important than the opportunity to get education and to excel in the society.

Hmong American women maintain that high education is one of the basic means to become socially mobile as well as a major way to the economic betterment and security. They think that the greatest advantage and the plus point of their life in US is linked with the education, as compared to Laos where they had to be sort of slave and had no ways and means to get education. They believe that there is a link between education and financial security; all the women of Hmong American community raise their voice for getting education and freedom from male dominating society. The women believe that after getting higher education they will be able to get gender equality in their society which their families' female did not get (Lee,1997).

Also, the trends and thinking of Hmong American parents are changing as well. They have now started adopting their American identity by assimilating into U.S society and its culture. A good number of Hmong parents now prefer to get their girls educated

before marrying them (Ngo 2006). This is a positive and healthy trend among the community. U.S govt. should appreciate it and adopt all the measures to support and increase this trend, not only Hmong but other communities and races as well.

Although the Hmong have been facilitated by USA and being given the facilities, yet Hmong face racial discrimination, especially in educational institutes. This has discouraged them morally and confused them about their identity. They want to figure out that whether keeping their old cultural values, customs and traditions is beneficial for them or should they quit their Hmong Identity and assimilate into USAs culture and start calling themselves mere Americans instead of Hmong Ameicans.

According to the Lee 1997 statement the women wanted to get higher education because they wanted to get good jobs, lead good jobs in return they will get equal financial partners after marriages. The women wanted to get personal security and independence, and getting higher education ensures them that they are independent. This untraditional and bold step (at least according to their parents and culture) not only changed their lives but made them able to change the perception of Hmong society and alter their culture.

According to the statement of Tabrizis (2011) on traditional and cultural factors enabling the completion of college degree of the girls of Hmong students establish that four out of six students pursued education and the reason was they didnt want to be traditional. They didnt want to stick to the traditions of the clan any more.

Hmong American women are not eager to take part in activities of traditional clan and instead of this they are interested to contribute their efforts towards the betterment of the perception of Hmong Community as well as the land of dreams, USA. Although these four participants were eager to smash from folklore, they also wanted to support their family as the top factor in their completion of degree.

According to famous anthropologist Patricia Symonds (2003), the Hmong cosmology like many other cosmologies and wisdom systems, believes that men and women are the compliments and counter-parts of each other. They can perform only well when they go ahead with perfect alignment and in harmony. However, there is another question that whether the complimentary roles constitute gender equity in the Hmong culture or not? Symons (2003) says that this has not been decided up till now and this scholarly debate is still going on.

Lena Moua (2011) interviewed nine Hmong American women for her studies. This study included the former U.S senator Mee Moua as well. Lena mentions that these women sought education as a way to liberate themselves from their experiences of a poverty based life as well as from the traditional sexist Hmong Society. Some of these women mentioned that they had got education not only for themselves but for the sake of their parents as well. This clearly indicates that the trends among the Hmong American are definitely changing.

According to (Symonds 2003) the women of Hmong need security to tackle their economic issues, for their independence, opportunities of leadership, self-development, and elevation in status. These are the main reasons why they want to complete the degree of higher education. While the women leader of American-Hmong search for to liberate their self from what they recognize as the sexist ideologies of the community of Hmong, after the completion of their education, they discover themselves persistent and more suitable to for their society. This study shows that the difficult lives that the Hmong American women live.

One may question that what kind of liberation the Hmong American women enjoy if they are to return to support their community after completing their education? The question seems a valid and legitimate one but such questions are raised because those raising questions ignore the facts which lead the Hmong women to return to their community. No one on the earth can deny that racialism still exists in USA, and like many other Asian races, Hmong American also face the racial discrimination. This makes them feel endangered and they are left with no choice but to return to their community and to work for their betterment and empowerment.

Another answer to this question lies in the fact that the definition of different phenomenon may be different to different groups of people. West sees the liberty as the dominant movement of the women in a society and their separation from a group (either their family or their society or both) to pursue their goals, their ambitions. Since,

Hmong community despite the facilitation by USA, feels itself endangered and oppressed by the White men, it is quite possible that Hmong women may liberation in a broader perspective. The definition of liberation to Hmong women may be not only their personal liberation from the oppression of the White men, but the collective liberation of their community as well. Apparently, this makes sense.

Work:

In Laos, Hmong women's value is considered only if they take care of their family and resolve their family matters i.e. cooking, cleaning the home, washing the clothes etc. After marriage, they have to take care of the family of their husbands. They are considered successful when they keep their husbands and children happy. Majority of Hmong women are taught by their family since child hood some essential skills for operating their family, by taking good care of their family, by farming and maintaining farm animals. The Hmong woman deeply depends on farming for their survival and success.

According to the research of (Hollandsworth, 1977) the expected traditional role of women is less probable to be positive in comparison of others. In a research on differences in positive performance, it is found that Hmong women often state that they are more positive in expressing their ideas in love and compliments, whereas men supposed to be more positive in becoming boss. In one more research it is found that when Hmong women voice sounded prevailing, raters automatically rate the women as

addressing than Hmong man in an arrogant approach (1981, Hall).These two above studies gives the concept that Hmong women are not supposed to raise their voice in business matters and making decisions. Doing so is considered a bad attitude, a bad manner traditionally. The study further more reveals that a Hmong woman shows more reflexive behavior; they normally let men take all the decisions (Mayer, 1991). But after getting high education this perception, is changing with the passage of time. Lena Moua did a study on Hmong American women. She published her study in 2011. She interviewed nine Hmong women for her studies. And as a result of her study, she found that the limited opportunities given to Hmong women, to lead Hmong society, motivated them to seek leadership roles in Hmong American society.

Annette Lynch (1999) has examined about different aspects of the life of Hmong women. He focused on style dress of Hmong. He examined that in many young girls of Hmong use Hmong style dress in different events such as New Year celebration to negotiate gender expectations and get ideas of success. The Hmong women try to give their best to become professional in U.S. they make their cultural things as their profession to get success and they do so. In New YearHmong style dress worn for the celebrations it is a collection of several clothe pieces and jewelry which are extremely full with embroidery, appliqu work and also the work of reverse appliqu. According to the statement of Masami suga (1992) Hmong women earned higher name in needle work in America. Hmong women sewed different kinds of style dress.

Hmong women made their cultural art as profession and they earn highly on different events. Hmong women use couple of baby carriers used at many events. Hmong women focused high on different events, different people optedfor a western baby carrying style device that is stroller. Through a discussionwith a Saint Paul business women of Hmong, women said to me that when they use their baby carriers in open, they trust that they draw a lot of attention (S. Xiong, 2007). These attention makes them to feel proud and successful.

According to the research of ( Cubbs, 1986) like Hmong baby carriers, Hmong style dress are embellished with the work of embroidery, appliqu and reverse appliqu work. The Hmongs Calls this embellishment flower cloth.

According to the statement of Donnelly (1994) usually, Hmong women works were manufactured cloth, threads, finished textile goods, by sewing clothes and doing needle work.

The needle work and design of Hmong is bold and colorful that is the reason it becomes the attraction for all. Hmong women pay high attention to sale it. Due to beauty and its prominence and visibility of Hmong styles of dresses, Hmong needle work now has been become the topic of academic and general literature. That is the big role of Hmong women professionally to manufacture clothing and work of needle for the people of their society and for other people who lives in America.

In the work of textile there were divisions of labor separated by gender, in which men provide them raw material and women gave them finished goods of cloth, and both the men and women produced things combined (Donnelly, 1994).

Reavill (1996) states the conversion of cultural division of gendered labor from Laos to U.S. assigned women of Hmong work within the home. American socio realities for the women of Hmong made it difficult to contribute for their familys wellbeing through work in their residence to the similar amount that they were contributed in Laos. Then women of Hmong realize to get out from their home for work and this was the very first time that Hmong women try to contribute in entrepreneur wage-labor financial system wherein household labor is divided from and subordinate to the labor wanted for their survival.

The Hmong women give their best to become professional in America. Some of them have even established their traditional work professionally and got a positive response in market and become more popular than some other nations living in America. According to the statement of (Tapps 2003; Quincy1995) Hmong culture is really rich in different cultural art and craft, hand embroidery, silver jewelry making, and cut paper all are the asset of Hmong women after getting education and swearing their self they make their asset as a profession. The motifs and designs of handicraft are entrenched in their folkloristic images. Among all the cultural groups even in china costumes, the costume of Hmong is considered top and impressive; credit goes to their handicraft,

now it is consider foremost attraction in America, still they keep on changing to grow their professional life.

(Wolf 2001: 257) stated that they still learning new strategies to become better than others, they try to produce different costumes because they want themselves and want to reduce their dependency in the market of America, for obtaining money, try to experiment mix and new strategies that will yield additional money. In this field they have a much skills of a good manager.

Foreigners adore this type of stuff so any moment they are always ready to pay a lot for the authenticity. The girls so motivated and taking keen interest in making their traditional business into international business by selling their handicraft work internationally.

Yang (2008b) gives the statement that concept of equality In Hmong American family is removing rapidly. Now a days powerful leader are as on top position, and now women have newly come out into management roles even with the generational conflict. Here is an example that would be the beginning of the involvement for the development of the women of Hmong In the community management in Minnesota in 1981 noticeable that the beginning of the variety of Hmong society management, because the association was arrange and lead by the women of Hmong. One more happenings in the year 1990s of seven Hmong women were the political achievements.

According to Yang (2008b) also stated that the women of Hmong signify approximately three-fourth of all Hmong American, three of the five Hmong women lawyers are in California, from 1999, almost there are 120 Hmong American persons who already have completed their doctoral studies; and between them one-third of the individual are women.

This is a reality that according to the survey data of 2009 of American society, there are 24.8% Hmong women in the field of management, professional and correlated to other professions. Now in various field Hmong women is better than their men as well as other society and community Yang (2008b).

According to Montez (1998) stated that in the Americans history of 150 years, Hmong women have been altered them to the model minority from uneducable heathens. Hmong women have to bear more difficulties to defeat more pressure and the reason behind this, their own society gives them additional stress. Montez (1998) more stated that Hmong women who search for professional designation and reveal theirselfmotivated will eventually viewed while having unwanted Asian female behavior.

(Toren, 1973) stated that, for centuries Hmong women have maintained their position in many fields such as homemaker, school teachers and other acquiescent roles consider to be inherently accessible in Hmong genetic makeup.

Many Hmong women have exposed that to be bicultural is not a weak point (Moua, 2011). They showed that being bicultural women they improved their management skills and broadened the perspectives of variety in the society (Moua, 2011).

In the reaserch of (Moua, 2011), Hmong society criticize Hmong women they doubted on Hmong girls abilities of study and efficiency as management. Even intolerance cannot be a explanation in Hmong society because the participants came from the similar conditions, it can be supposed that all of the participants are skilled some form of disapproval from their own society of Hmong (Moua, 2011). This happened on almost often basis than from macro society. In spite of all these problems, the women of Hmong surpassed them and become successful (Moua, 2011).

The style of management of Hmong women is different from American traditional management (Rapaido, 2011). Hmong women have more jointand combined management styles, and if the Hmong women are successful, their success is an indication of whole society (Rapaido, 2011).

It may be too difficult for Hmong women to prove themselves as leader when there is higher importance on gender. According to (Almandrez, 2010). Statement Hmong women school leaders dont want public appreciation because the joint management styles take place the importance on public achievements, not an individual one.

Sykes (2008) stated that Hmong women have the expertise in womens studies. From 1960s Hmong women are entering with the high rate in the labor force, and try to create changes in the field of social and economic. Sykes (2008) additionally states that the women of Hmong, even they are bicultural or not, now they have been showed and prove their self-qualified and can work professionally and also can be effective leaders as like men or as like different women can be.

Assimilation

Assimilation means absorption. This term is generally used for referring to the refugees who have been settled in the different parts of world. Assimilation when used for the immigrants or refugees means that they adopt the culture and values of the host country in which they are residing. It means their tendency to absorb in the society and integrate themselves as an essential part of the society and eventually contribute towards the progress of the prosperity of that society.

When we look at the tendencies and behaviors of Hmong Americans, we can easily figure out that although the views of Hmong have been changing since quite some time yet we cant claim that they have successfully assimilated into USAs culture and society. They still maintain their values to some extent. They feel themselves endangered by the laws and culture of USA and hence they are not willing to assimilate fully because they dont want to lose their cultural identity. They dont want their values, traditions and culture to be extinct.

Assimilation is necessary for the progress and the prosperity of the refugees in a state. There are many theories on assimilation available to date. Classical assimilation theory, which is also known as straight line assimilation theory states that the only way for the immigrants or refugees to integrate into the society is quit their own traditional cultures, norms and practices and start practicing those practices and traditions which are in conformity with their new destination where they intend to get settled for long. The metaphor of melting pot is often used for this theory. As different ingredients melt to form one single integrated pot, so should do different cultures, races and ethnicities i.e. they should lose their individual identities to integrate into one national identity. However, if the refugees fail to do so, they shouldnt be blamed solely beca use it takes two hands to clap. (Milton Gordon 1964)

Some scholars opposed the straight line assimilation theory. They argued that there are several factors which stop non-European races to assimilate completely and successfully into White, middle-class and mainstream culture. They gave the examples of race, ethnicity, religion etc. in this regard. (Portes, Fernandez-Kelly, and Haller 2005). This argument against the assimilation theory is quite a valid one and applies to Hmong Americans as well.

Rumbaut and Portes (2001) conducted a study on Hmong children and established a new assimilation theory. They called this theory Segment Assimilation theory. Segment Assimilation theory was purposed to explicate the experiences of the immigrants. This

theory views the assimilation process in USA as a segmented process rather than a process which was based on linear path, according to linear path assimilation theory. To cut a long story short, this theory suggested that Children of immigrants of different races and ethnicities were integrated into American identity into three ways.

Those children whose parents had some sort of skills as well as capital when they came to USA, they succeeded in getting higher education. Such children maintained the middle-class status of their parents successfully as well. These children had no problem in integrating themselves completely into the American identity i.e. Assimilation into American society.

The integration of the children whose parents lacked human capital (i.e. skills) told a very interesting story. Their integration process relied on their relationship with the family and co-ethnic structure. If they had a successful and strong relationship with the family and the ethnic community, these children would succeed in getting higher education. After getting higher education, they would achieve the middle class status with some struggle and then integrate into the American society.

The last segment is of those children whose parents belonged to the working class of immigrants and these children after their growth had not been able to improve the status of their family i.e. parents. They had retained the status of their parents working class or had moved downwards socially. Rumbaut and Portes consider their weak

relationship with the family and co-ethnic community responsible for this downwards mobility.

Apparently, we can conclude that assimilation theorists dont have a consensus on what aggravates or impedes the process of assimilation. But they all agree that the education is the door to social progress and success. Assimilation theorists make use of quantitative methodologies. Quantitative methodologies have been proved good to make generalizations. They are also helpful in understanding assimilation patterns.

But the limitation of these quantitative methodologies is that they dont portray the whole picture correctly. They often overlook several important factors which carry weight in determining the correct assimilation theories. Quantitative methodologies arent of much use when one wishes to understand the circumstances experienced by second-generation of Americans.

For example, Portes theory focuses solely on the difference of human capital while discussing the process of assimilation whereas race, ethnicity and gender are also important factors to form a potential assimilation theory. These factors affect the assimilation of second-class of immigrants in particular.

Stacy Lees work (2005) which is ethnographic in nature, demonstrates this. Lees work is primarily concerned with the subjective experiences of Hmong American students. This study of Stacy Lee is quite interesting and it has got a lot of revelations. For

example, one shocking revelation is that the Hmong Americans undergo racialization in schools. Lees theory illustrates quite effectively how race plays an important role in the process of assimilation.

According to Lee, Hmong American children learn that what is the value of being from some other race, in the society of White? Although race isnt a matter of choice to human beings, yet Hmong have to pay the price of being in contrast with the White race sine White is the dominant race in USA. Whiteness dominates the educational system of USA through the curriculum formally and through the social structure informally.

These children of Hmong American are not treated fairly and the message which is conveyed to them is that they have to act like White men if they want to survive and flourish in this country of white. Students who accept the message and comply with the system, ideology and authorities are recognized as good students by the educators and their fellows whereas those who refuse to follow or are reluctant to accept, are termed as bad-students.

Bad-students are treated badly. They are bullied by their fellow students sometimes. The worst thing about this thing is that they have to bear all this in order to continue their education and they cant report such attitude anywhere. They have to take th is burden, these scars with them in order. Seeing this behavior by the educators and the fellow students, many Hmong Americans prefer not to send their children to schools, especially their daughters because daughters are generally considered a symbol of

honor and pride among those races which have Eastern origin and wrong doing with daughters by others is considered intolerable in such societies and races.

Agency

Agency is a very interesting term which is often used in the perspective of sociology. It is used in the studies of women more specifically. It means the ability of individuals to resist the change. Agency doesnt require the large groups to get demonstrated . Agency isnt a mass rebellion, as the definition may suggest. Individual acts of resisting the change in the daily life of an individual are also categorized agency.

Many Hmong American women when interviewed about their experiences in the real life revealed that they had agency in their minds. They depicted agencies through the ways by which they expressed their identities and their desire to remain connected to their community. Many women who went to the schools which had the dominance of White students revealed that the experience had been an unpleasant one and hindered their process of learning. They had to face the racial discrimination by the students and the teachers. The White treated them others and not the part of the ir community. Even this sort of attitude didnt let these women feel powerless and helpless. This is the expression of agency.

These women have to face the questions about their identity every second day. People are mostly keen to know about their place of origin. They are interested to know

whether they were born in USA or outside USA, as if it was the only and solely criteria to judge the loyalties of refugees.

All of these women had one thing common. All of them talked about the importance of staying connected to their community, their clan. Adopting this stance despite all the subtle form of oppression from their own clan, their own community clearly expresses that they feel themselves more oppressed by the White than by their own people, their own community. If this isnt agency, what it is then?

Recommendations

In order to help the Hmong women assimilate in the American Society completely and successfully, USA itself should take many steps. USAs policy makers and intellectuals should think that what are the reasons which are impeding the assimilation of Hmong women into USAs society? What are the factors which are ref raining them from being the part of the dream land?

It is usually acknowledged that Asians have better mental skills than other races. Why it is then that USA doesnt take sheer steps to absorb Hmong people in their society? It is not like USA impedes Hmong women from excelling in the society nor does discrimination when it comes to recruitments or other walks of life.

Several Hmong American women have emerged as leaders in the past two decades. Some of these names include:

Mee Moua, former senator of MN and current executive director of Asian American Centre.

Doualy Saykaothao, journalist with National Public Radio. Mao J. Vang, Director of Assessment and Evaluation, Sacramento Unified School District (CA)

And the list doesnt stop here, rather keeps on going. Many of Hmong American women are serving as editors, singers and actors in the society as well. But the point is that they make up a very small fraction of total Hmong American population. That is an alarming situation and should be tackled wisely by the US government. If USA wants to pursue the American Dream, it should take steps to engage minorities and refugees actively in their society.

It is estimated that by 2050, minorities in America will become the majority by statistical figures. That is why USA should start making efforts to engage the ethnic minorities in their own society. USA should make the efforts to integrate the ethnic minorities in their culture and society and to remove their complaints and concerns.

Although a lot needs to be done for this purpose, and a lot can be done, in the following lines well try to reveal briefly that what should be done on the priority basis to empower the Hmong women in the USA society.

First of all, USA law needs to be improved. USA should seriously consider the law which ensures the racial discrimination. Although USA claims to be a country free of racial discrimination in papers, the fact is that it is not the reality. Racial discrimination still exists and has deep roots in the US society. USA needs serious legislation to counter the racial discrimination faced by the minorities. If USA has facilitated the other races, it is their duty to protect them from being targeted their own native citizens as well.

There have been cases, where Hmong American women were not only left prone to the White men, but US officials did discrimination as well. US law enforcing agencies have been showing discrimination to Hmong men and women. There were cases where Police arrested Hmong men in the cities of Wisconsin for having sex with the minor girls, whereas it had been ignoring the native White residents.

In my opinion, Police should have had shown some leniency in these cases because Hmong Americans come from a different cultural background and it is only their second generation in USA. So it is not easy for them to shake off their cultural identity at once. US legislators should pay attention to address such issues as well. Special laws should be made for minorities, for short purpose, if not for the sake of long run or if they are to stop the people from having sex with the minors, or from marrying them, they should be fair in the implementation.

Although I think that the later is better since doing so will give a clear message to Hmong Americans that all are actually equal before the American law and that American institutions or law enforcing agencies dont consider that the Hmong Americans are different from White

Americans since they are different by race. An equal and unbiased implementation will ensure that the sentiments of agency wont rise among the Hmong men. This will eventually lead Hmong women to more freedom to get education and shape their destinies.

The above mentioned fact is just one aspect of the discrimination done by US institutions, not illegal though but morally wrong. Seeing the above example, it isnt difficult to assess that what circumstances Hmong American women face in USA. USAs institutions should assess that too and do practical measures to tackle that since women are nearly half of the Hmong Americans population.

Religion is a dominating factor and weighs very much in the most of the cultures and societies especially among Eastern people. You can assess the importance of religion from this fact that the most of Eastern nations prefer the religion over the worldly matters. Same is the case of Hmong people. Their culture is not something different from their religion. They are interconnected.

Recently, some cases were reported where some Hmong people were converted to Christians by force. This is not only ethically and morally condemnable, but religiously and legally as well. Such practices shatter the confidence of minorities. The same can be thought of Hmong Americans who have to face the ethnic discrimination in the daily life and now this matter of religious conversions may make them feel more endangered and oppressed by the White, giving rise to the sentiments of agency and rebellion. Such incidences must be countered if USA is to maintain its repute of caring for the provision of basic human rights and freedom in all

fields of life including religion. Forced conversions if kept going on for a long time, without being noticed may lead a reduction in the number of Hmong people attending the schools and colleges, especially among Hmong women since their parents are already doing something against the norms of the community by sending their daughters to schools and colleges.

Having discussed the matter of laws, now let us briefly discuss other improvements which US government can make. On the top of the list is the allocation of more budgets, specifically for the purpose of improving the state of ethnic minorities group. Currently, the ethnic minorities in USA primarily depend upon the funds given by UNO for the rehabilitation and integration of the refugees, as is the case of several other countries.

Other than the aid given by UNO, Hmong people make their both ends meet by the support from a few well-placed people of their own community. But off course both of these sources cant meet the requirements of a community, which has the population strength of nearly quarter a million. So USA should make some development plans and allocate funds for the integration of Hmong men and women into USAs society.

For example, University of Wisconsin has started a program to educate some Hmong women. The plan is to send these women back to their communities after the completion of their education, so that they may educate the rest of the members of their community. This is a good plan which is underway currently.

The reason why I consider it good enough is that it is like killing two birds with one stone. This plan will not increase the rate of literacy among the Hmong Americans but will empower the Hmong American women as well. This will lead the Hmong American women to their inherent desire of liberation and will help the Hmong American community to assimilate and integrate into US society and culture without having concerns in their mind.

However, I must maintain that only one such program isnt enough. Government should take interest in such programs and play the role of patron to such ongoing programs across the whole US. Only then, this trend will gain popularity and will be practiced on a scale large enough to produce its effects on the Hmong American community.

Hmong Americans live a life of poverty. What is more saddening is the fact that no one cares about them except for a few NGOs or the people of their own community. Neither the media bothers to portray the life style they are bound to have in USA nor do many of human rights activists raise their problems on the concerned forums.

Another reason for the poverty lies in an interesting statistical fact. The fact is that the working majority of Hmong Americans is concentrated in some selected industries and fields. For example, according to census of 2010, 29% of the total population of Hmong Americans has been working in the manufacturing industry. The world has seen a global trend of recession in the recent years. These two periods of recessions have hit the manufacturing industry hardest of all. The purchasing power of people has decreased very much and thus a reduction in the

demand of various goods has been observed. Consequently, the industries and companies have gone towards downsizing. This has rendered the Hmong people jobless

US government should accept this reality that quarter a million Hmong people are now in the land of dreams and USA cant make them leave USA sooner or later. To make their financial circumstances better, US government may announce to allocate a small reserved quota for them in the government jobs. Since there is a chance that the noise will be made that it is the violation of the fundamental concept of welfare state, where opportunities are equal for every segment of the life.

Census of year 2010 mentions that the poverty among Hmong American community has decreased from 40% to 25% during 2000-2010. Apparently this sounds good and it indicates that the Hmong American have been doing quite well presently than the past decades. Yet, it would be short sightedness to give a verdict based on just this figure because the issue of income still exists for the Hmong community. Many of Hmong men and women are still unable to earn enough according to the standards of USA. For example, Hmong women have been earning 3000 $ less than Hmong men in America and Hmong men in America earn 16000 $ less than an average US man. 16000 $ is quite a big figure and indicates towards the potential probability that many of Hmong men might be earning less than the minimum wages set by US government. If this is the case, why doesnt government take notice on this, whereas it seems quite legitimate in this case to relieve Hmong American community by protecting them from exploitation.

To improve the financial state of Hmong American community, US government can start urging the Hmong Americans to start their own businesses i.e. entrepreneurship. As it has been mentioned earlier, that Hmong American women have been sewing clothes and stitching them in their traditional way, and that there is quite a fair demand of their clothes, government may urge more Hmong American women to start their businesses and support their community.

Hmong Americans face miserable conditions of healthcare. They dont have enough funds to go to hospitals in the most of the cases. Among Hmong Americans, the condition of their women is particularly miserable. They face complications in pregnancies and deliveries since they have not enough resources for health care available.

According to the census of year 2010, 14.9% of total population of Hmong American community had no health insurance. The same census revealed that government wasnt allocating enough funds to Hmong Americans for their health care. More than 41% of Hmong American population was reported to be relying on public sources for health care in the census which is a quite high ratio as compared with the percentages of US Asians population and USAs population. Almost 19% population of US-Asians and 28.5% of USAs population had no insurance and relied on public sources for healthcare.

What US government can do is to convince some of Hmong American women, who are willing to get education with the consent of their parents, to get the education related to healthcare and nursing etc. US government may then employ them and may benefit from their services to educate the Hmong Americans to leave the old ways and methods of health care. US

government should urge those Hmong Americans who are somewhat strong financially, to get themselves and their family members a health insurance policy.

This thing will be quite effective in my opinion, since Hmong will trust the women of their own community more easily than the White women. As the condition of Hmong American women will start improving, they will be able to concentrate on their education in a better way and the trust building between White men and Hmong men will also take place. USA will earn a good rating in WHOs list as well.

Last but not the least of the recommendations is that US government should change the trend of moving to big cities in groups, which is quite popular among Hmong Americans. Currently, there population is mainly concentrated in a few territories i.e. Wisconsin and California etc. Government should stop the Hmong men from concentrating in big cities by fair means since they may create a threat to the administration of the concerned state if not stopped from being centralized in a few territories. If the government succeeds in doing so, the decentralization of their community will lead them to a weaker clan, a weaker community with weaker connections with each other and hence their chances of assimilation and integration into US society will become larger than ever. This will ensure the administrative relief to authorities of the concerned states of USA as well.

So, above mentioned recommendations are a few, following which can ensure the betterment of Hmong Americans on a collective level as well as the empowerment of Hmong American women.

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