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The Second Generation Story of Hmong Americans by Bao Lo A

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The Second Generation Story of Hmong Americans by Bao Lo A The Second Generation Story of Hmong Americans By Bao Lo A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor David Montejano, Chair Professor Irene Bloemraad Professor Michael Omi Fall 2013 Abstract The Second Generation Story of Hmong Americans By Bao Lo Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor David Montejano, Chair Research on the second generation of post 1965 immigrants has largely explained the integration of these youth into American society as an issue of human capital and ethnicity. The emphasis on ethnicity as strategy for upward mobility, such as maintaining ethnic attachment, employing “the best of both worlds”, or assimilating into a multicultural mainstream, downplays the tension girls experience within the immigrant culture, and simplifies the forces of racialization that make the boys susceptible to downward assimilation. Based on surveys and interviews with Hmong youth (ages 13-18) from Sacramento, California, my study of second generation Hmong Americans extends this research to show how gender and ethnicity matter for incorporation. My findings point to different integration pathways for boys and girls, with the girls having a more promising pathway with higher levels of academic achievement and lower levels of involvement with risky behaviors than the boys. The girls experience unpleasant and difficult experiences within the ethnic culture despite having positive outcomes; whereas, the boys face more overt discrimination and hostility in mainstream society that make them susceptible to downward assimilation despite their attachment to the ethnic culture and community. This study contributes knowledge about second generation Hmong Americans, who constitute the growing population of Southeast Asian refugee children in the United States. 1 Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Introduction: Gender and Ethnicity among the Second Generation Chapter 2 The Hmong in the United States: Migration, Resettlement, and Integration Chapter 3 Hmong Youth Assimilation Chapter 4 Hmong Girls: Upward Assimilation at a Cost Chapter 5 Hmong Boys: Downward Assimilation despite Ethnic Attachment Chapter 6 Conclusion: Reconsidering the Second Generation Story i Preface Since age 12, Melinda has been waking up at five am everyday to cook for her family. She goes to school during the day but has to be home by five pm to do her chores. As a Hmong girl, she is expected to cook, clean the house, baby-sit, help her parents, get an education, marry well, and never bring shame on her parents. However, Melinda wants to be a regular American teenager as well. She wants to go out with her friends, wear stylish clothes like platform shoes and bell-bottom pants, and have an American name like her friends. She changed her Hmong name to Melinda in the eighth grade. Melinda struggles with being Hmong and her desire to be the average American teenager. Her parents give her many responsibilities and have high expectations of her, especially to protect their family’s reputation. However, Melinda longs to be independent. Melinda argues with her parents about dating, clothes and friends. Her parents do not like her clothes or short hair because they think those things make her look like a gangster. Tired of her responsibilities and the expectations of her parents, she began ditching high school twice a month and hung out with her friends at their houses or at the mall. Her grades slipped from A’s to F’s. She explained, “I was just so determined to live my own life. It’s so hard to live the life my parents want me to. I feel like if I get in trouble, then it’s worth it.” Her arguments with her parents escalated, her grades were failing, and she had boy troubles. She was very stressed and became depressed about her troubles. During her junior year, she cut her arms with a razor blade, making small cuts until they bled. She never intended to kill herself: “I did it whenever I stressed out. I just like to cut myself to get attention from friends.” Her troubles worsened in the middle of her junior year, pushing her to overdose on Tylenol pain relievers. Again, she said she did not intend to kill herself, “I knew it could kill me, but I was so angry so I just took it to see what would happen. I really just wanted attention. A lot of times I wanted to die. Well, not really to die but to hurt myself.” Melinda explained that her depression and stress came from struggling to be an average teenager as a Hmong girl with many responsibilities and expectations from her parents. She said, “I just feel like I missed out on so much. I feel like I’m still trying to catch up.” She expressed herself in a poem she wrote in her senior year: I burnt my arm today And cut my skin But no one cares to know I’ll do it again I hate my life I have no fate Angry at the world Myself I truly hate. ii Melinda’s story was part of a series of news articles published by the Fresno Bee entitled “Lost in America” regarding Hmong teen suicides during August 2002. The articles documented the lives of the eight Hmong teens from Fresno County who had committed suicide since late 1998. The string of suicides accounted for nearly half of Fresno County's teen suicides in the last four years, though the Hmong are just 3% of the region's population. The newspaper reports attempted to comprehend and explain the string of teen suicides among a small, unknown immigrant group in Fresno, California (Fresno Bee, 11-27 August 2002). The Fresno Bee newspaper articles in 2002 suggested that the Hmong teens who committed suicide struggled with being Hmong-American. Being Hmong-American meant they were Hmong and continued to hold onto the traditions and values of the culture but they also longed to be part of American society. Melinda Lee’s story showed how she embraced Hmong culture by wearing traditional Hmong clothing at New Year, but she wanted to belong or have a sense of belonging to her American identity. She changed her Hmong name, See, into an American one, Melinda. She also wanted to cut her hair and wear clothes to be more stylish and accepting to her friends. Her parents objected because they believed those things made her look more like a “gangster”. Her story showed how she constantly conflicted with her parents over her preference of American tastes and interests in clothing and dating. Melinda’s story is an example of some of the struggles second generation Hmong youth experience within their home life, particularly among the girls, as they adjust to American society. In March 2005, a Sacramento Bee news article documented that a dozen members of the Hmong community have been shot and nine have died in gang violence since November 2004. The news article explained that Hmong youth who got involved in gangs usually came from two parent homes. Even when their parents provided them with guidance, they chose not to listen to their parents because it was their individual choice to join a gang. The newspaper article also discussed the problem of gang violence in the Hmong community as largely a male phenomenon. Problems of teen suicide and gang violence were previously documented in local newspapers in the two largest Hmong communities in Fresno and Sacramento, California. The newspapers’ depictions of these problems suggest there is a growing phenomenon among this segment of the Hmong population and call attention to addressing the needs and concerns of second generation Hmong youth. My research focuses specifically on the second generation Hmong in Sacramento to shed some light and understanding of these issues. My study on second generation Hmong Americans contributes knowledge about this growing segment of the U.S. Hmong population. A study of second generation Hmong Americans contributes to our understanding of post 1965 immigrants. Similar to other Southeast Asian refugees, the Hmong migrated to the U.S. as political refugees due to the Vietnam War. Due to their involvement in the War as U.S. allies, the Hmong were resettled mainly in this country and began arriving in the United States in the mid 1970s. Like other Southeast Asian refugees, the Hmong were widely dispersed throughout the country during resettlement efforts. Today, the Hmong are concentrated in cities such as Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota and Fresno and Sacramento, California, making these groups important in these places. The Hmong American experience in academic scholarship has been focused mainly on the first generation, such as their refugee experience and resettlement in the United States. Studies on second generation Hmong Americans have been relatively few. The number of iii Hmong being born in the United States is increasing and suggests that the refugee model is no longer sufficient in understanding issues in the community. Hmong teen suicide and gang involvement that were documented by local newspapers in the Sacramento and Fresno regions of California attest to some of the issues the second generation may be experiencing that are different from first generation Hmong Americans. My study of Hmong youth in Sacramento, California shows that gender is important to their story. Hmong boys and girls follow different assimilation pathways. The girls have a more promising pathway toward middle-class status and educational attainment while the boys are heading toward a pathway of downward assimilation with other poor, minority youth. Furthermore, the different experiences of the boys and girls within their home life and mainstream society challenges some of the existing explanations and use of ethnicity or immigrant culture as helping outcomes of the second generation.
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