While some Hmong people returned to Laos voluntarily, with development assistance from UNHCR, allegations of forced repatriation surfaced. In 1989, the UNHCR, with the support of the United States government, instituted the Comprehensive Plan of Action, a program to stem the tide of Indochinese refugees from Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Thousands more Hmong people, mainly former soldiers and their families, escaped to remote mountain regions, particularly Phou Bia, the highest (and thus least accessible) mountain peak in Laos, where they remained in hiding to avoid military retaliation and persecution.
- In 2003, following threats of forced removal by the Thai government, the U.S., in a significant victory for the Hmong, agreed to accept 15,000 of the refugees.
- It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide
- Republicans called several Congressional hearings on alleged persecution of the Hmong in Laos, in an apparent attempt to generate further support for their opposition to the Hmong’s repatriation to Laos.
- Such realignments of identity, while largely the concern of economically elite community leaders, reflect a trend towards the interchangeability of the terms “Hmong” and “Miao.”
Laos
Of those Hmong who did not flee Laos, somewhere between two and three thousand were sent to re-education camps where political prisoners served terms of three to five years. While some Hmong people returned to their villages and attempted to resume life under the new regime, thousands more made the trek to and across the Mekong River into Thailand, often under attack. Following the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, the Lao kingdom was overthrown by the communists, and the Hmong people became targets of retaliation and persecution. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began to recruit the indigenous Hmong people in Laos to join fighting the Vietnam War, designating them as a Special Guerrilla Unit, led by General Vang Pao. Within the United States, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Carolina mong have the highest concentrations of Hmong people.
One of the most obvious differences is the use of the aspirated /m/ in White Hmong (indicated by the letter “h”) not found in the Green Mong dialect. Traditionally, the Hmong practice subsistence agriculture and the harvesting of timber. Guarantee millisecond response times at scale with a flexible document data model and rich query capabilities—including secondary indexing, joins, multi-document ACID transactions and more. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide I cannot search for synonyms yet, but I’m ready to help with other advanced searches. If you are interested in looking up a particular word, the best way to do that is to use the search box at the top of every OED page.
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And in a comprehensive report which includes summaries of claims made by the refugees and was submitted to the U.N. Recognized asylum seekers were to be given resettlement opportunities, while the remaining refugees were to be repatriated under guarantee of safety. Under the plan, the status of the refugees was to be evaluated through a screening process. Faced with continuing military operations against them by the government and a scarcity of food, some groups have begun coming out of hiding, while others have sought asylum in Thailand and other countries. The Laotian Civil War began around the time that the U.S. became officially involved in the Vietnam War. Initially they were ignored by the government, but in the early 1950s, initiatives were taken to establish political connections with them.
It was not until the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980 that families were able to come in the U.S., becoming the second-wave of Hmong/Mong immigrants. For the time being, countries willing to resettle the refugees are hindered from proceeding with immigration and settlement procedures because the Thai administration does not grant them access to the refugees. The refugees claim that have continued almost unabated since the war officially ended in 1975, and have become more intense in recent years. In 2004 and 2005, thousands of Hmong fled from the jungles of Laos to a temporary refugee camp in the Thai province of Phetchabun. Republicans called several Congressional hearings on alleged persecution of the Hmong in Laos, in an apparent attempt to generate further support for their opposition to the Hmong’s repatriation to Laos. House of Representatives both appropriated funds to resettle the remaining Thailand-based Hmong in the U.S.; Clinton, however, responded by promising a veto of the legislation.
Hmong and Mong
(As noted above, this term is considered to be highly derogatory by many Hmong/Mong people.) In the middle of the twentieth century, a concerted effort was made to refer to Hmong/Mong by their own ethnonyms in scholarly literature. To counter this, the Hmong/Mong community has set up associations and media that encourage people to maintain language and culture, such as the The Hmong Times newspaper. Even though most Hmong/Mong families speak a language other than English at home, many Hmong/Mong Americans are rapidly blending into mainstream American society, and young people are losing aspects of their cultural identity at a fast pace. Beginning in December 1975, the first Hmong/Mong refugees arrived in the U.S., mainly from refugee camps in Thailand; however, only 3,466 were granted asylum at this time under the Refugee Assistance Act of 1975.
How ‘Namaste’ Entered The English Language
The presence of the Hmiong in Viet Nam has been attested since the early eighteenth century. Conflict between Miao groups and newly arrived Han Chinese settlers increased during the eighteenth-century under repressive economic and cultural reforms imposed by the Qing Dynasty. They claim that the word “Miao” is a derogatory term, with connotations of barbarism, that probably should not be used at all.
- More than 40,000 Hmong were killed in the frontline, countless men were missing in action, and thousands more were injured and disabled.
- It was not until the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980 that families were able to come in the U.S., becoming the second-wave of Hmong/Mong immigrants.
- Many Hmong died in these camps, after being subjected to hard physical labor and harsh conditions.
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Nearly twenty years later, in the 1990s, a major international debate ensued over whether the Hmong should be returned to Laos, where opponents of their return argued they were being subjected to persecution, or afforded the right to immigrate to the U.S. and other Western nations. More than 40,000 Hmong were killed in the frontline, countless men were missing in action, and thousands more were injured and disabled. According to the 1990 census, of the 7.4 million Miao people, 5.4 million were recorded as speaking a Miao language. Recent efforts have been made to sedentarize the mountain population and introduce national education and viable agricultural techniques, in order to integrate the Hmong into the national identity. From 1967 to 1982, the Hmong tried to remain uninvolved in the armed conflicts taking place in northern Thailand. After the communist victory in 1975, it is estimated that 30 percent of the Hmong living in Laos crossed the border, although this number is difficult to substantiate.
When Western authors came in contact with Hmong and Mong people, beginning in the eighteenth century, they referred to them in writing by ethnonyms assigned by the Chinese (that is, Miao, or variants). By the mid-eighteenth century, classifications had become more specific and it is easier to identify references to Hmong/Mong people. The Miao nationality includes Hmong/Mong people as well as other culturally- and linguistically-related ethnic groups who do not call themselves either Hmong or Mong. White Hmong and Green Mong people speak mutually intelligible dialects of the Hmong language, with some differences in pronunciation and vocabulary.
Hmong people have their own term for the subcultural divisions among themselves; two of the largest are White Hmong (Hmong Der) and Green or Blue Mong (Mong Leng). When the Pathet Lao took over the government in 1975, Hmong people were singled out for retribution, and a large number fled to Thailand. Paul, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee, and Wausau, Wisconsin have especially high concentrations of Hmong/Mong people. Today, approximately 270,000 Hmong/Mong people reside in the United States, the majority of whom live in California (65,095 according to the 2000 U.S. census), Minnesota (41,800), and Wisconsin (33,791).
In May of 1976, another 11,000 were allowed to enter the United States, and by 1978 some 30,000 Hmong/Mong people had immigrated. The Thai foreign ministry has said that it will halt deportation of Hmong refugees held in Detention Centers Nong Khai, while talks are underway to resettle them in the Australia, Canada, Netherlands, and the United States. These Hmong refugees, many of whom are descendants of the former-CIA Secret Army and their relatives, claim that they have been attacked by both the Lao and Vietnamese military forces operating inside Laos as recently as June 2006. In 1996, as the deadline for the closure of Thai refugee camps approached, and under mounting political pressure, the U.S. agreed to resettle Hmong refugees who passed a new screening process. Although some accusations of forced repatriation were eventually disproved, thousands of Hmong people refused to return to Laos.
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While China has the largest population of Hmong people, an exact figure is hard to determine. This led to armed confrontation and large-scale migrations continuing into the late nineteenth century, the period during which most Hmong people emigrated to Southeast Asia. Throughout the written history of China, it was applied to a variety of peoples considered to be marginal to Han society, including many who are unrelated to contemporary Hmong/Mong people. Such realignments of identity, while largely the concern of economically elite community leaders, reflect a trend towards the interchangeability of the terms “Hmong” and “Miao.” The term “Miao” was later adapted by Tai-speaking groups in Southeast Asia, where it took on offensive associations for Hmong people, despite its official status. Research proliferated, much of it being directed toward the American Hmong Der community.
In the Romanized Popular Alphabet, developed in the 1950s, in Laos, these terms are written Hmoob Dawb (White Hmong) and Moob Leeg (Green Mong). Many Hmong people in Laos fought against the communist-nationalist Pathet Lao during the Secret War. During the last century, the Hmong have been caught up in the political instability which affected Southeast Asian nations. As a result, Hmong currently live in several countries in Southeast Asia, including northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar.
Several thousand Hmong participated in the conflict but many also attempted to avoid involvement. In 1992, the two major agricultural activities of the Hmong in Viet Nam, the cultivation of poppies and the coffin wood trade with China, were made illegal, and cash cropping is now their main economic activity. After the Viet Minh victory, pro-French Hmong had to migrate to Laos and South Viet Nam.
Beginning in the eighteenth century, conflict with Han Chinese settlers migrating to the south caused Hmong groups began a gradual mass migration to Southeast Asia. Hear “mong” pronounced Contraction of mongoloid. There is also a small community of several thousand Hmong who migrated to French Guyana in the late 1970s and early 1980s.