History of HRTF
On December 2003, the Department of State made the decision to allow the 15,000 plus Hmong residents of Wat Tham Krabok (WTK) an opportunity to resettle in the United States. Because of the decision, the director of Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Dr. Van Hanh contacted Fresno Center for New Americans (FCNA) to assist with setting up a community meeting with Hmong leaders in California. On December 29, 2003, a meeting was held with Hmong community leaders from Yuba down to Fresno with Dr. Van Hanh.
With the initial meeting, Dr. Van Hanh wanted to know if the community was preparing for the incoming Hmong refugees, and what type of resources or assets did the community have. The four areas that were discussed were health, education, employment, and housing. Since there were too many questions and uncertainty about the process, there was not a clear resolution that the group could agree upon. Dr. Van Hanh requested that this group meet again and write a draft for the preparations or availabilities of resources for those four discussed area.
On January 30, 2004, the meeting was again convened at FCNA with community leaders to try to answer Dr. Van Hanh’s request. From this meeting a draft was put together by the group and sent to ORR. In addition, the group believed that it needed to form a task force to look further at this issue about the incoming Hmong from WTK. There were still too many unanswered questions that included;
Again, these are just some of the questions that needed to be answer, and in a quickly fashion in order for this group to assist with the incoming Hmong refugees. Because of these issues, the Hmong Resettlement Task Force was formed. It was hoped that this task force would bring together the many CBOs and FBOs that was serving the Hmong community and share its resources. Lue N. Yang, Executive Director of FCNA, was elected Chair of the HRTF. Pheng Lo, Executive Director of Lao Family of Stockton and Doua Vu, Title III Resource Specialist, were elected Co-Chairs of the HRTF. This task force included many Hmong community leaders from the many different CBOs and FBOs, in addition to members of mainstream service providers from County of Fresno, City of Fresno, State of California, Fresno Unified School District, and private agencies as well.
California
Connection
The task force felt that it was important that California have a delegation to go to WTK, Thailand, and perform its own assessments in the areas of health, education, employment, and housing. The information gleaned from this trip would be extremely helpful to the many organizations that will be providing services to the incoming Hmong refugees. According to the US Census, there are approximately 65,000 Hmong currently living in the state of California, making it the state with the largest Hmong population in the United States. California will receive close to one third (32%) of the Wat residents that will choose to resettle in the United States. California, specifically in the Central Valley also has numerous Community Base Organizations (CBOs) that are operated by Hmong Americans that can assist with the resettlement process. In addition, there are strong Hmong communities through out the Central Valley that are preparing to support these incoming Hmong refugees. Further more, the Hmong refugees that are coming to California will have different issues that will face the Hmong refugees that chooses to resettle elsewhere in the United States. Because of these and other issues, the HRTF decided that a delegation was necessary and appropriate.
In early March 2004, the delegation was formed. Members of the general task were selected to join the delegation team. In addition to the general task force members, members from County of Fresno, City of Fresno, Fresno Unified School District, State of California, CBOs and FBOs, and community members were also selected to participate in the delegation. In total, there were 23 members, which included two media personnel from Channel 47. The tasks of the HRTF and the delegation team are expressed by group’s mission and goals/objectives below;
MISSION
To learn about, advocate for, and be a resource to the newly arriving Hmong refugees and the community, and to assist in the necessary planning and coordination of the various agencies in receiving the community.
Goals/Objectives
v To reduce the impact of secondary migration-by informing the Wat residents of the importance of their decision in choosing a final destination for their family.
v To welcome Wat residents who choose to come to California-specifically the Central Valley Region; Fresno, Merced, Stockton, and Sacramento.
v To assess the health and well being of Hmong living in Wat Tham Krabok by creating four sub-committees in four key areas: Health, Education, Housing, and Employment. Each sub-committee developed specific objectives to assist the HRTF in meeting its stated goals.
History of Wat Tham
Krabok, Thailand
This Hmong history at Wat Tham Krabok can not be discussed without a short formal introduction into the Hmong history in Southeast Asia. The history of the Hmong dates back to some 5000 years ago from China. From there the community immigrated into the countries of Southeast Asia; Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. This community moved into the mountainous regions of these countries and farmed and raised animals. The Hmong are an ethnic group who value freedom and independence highly, and tries to live peacefully where ever they are. They have traditionally been a self-sufficient agrarian society.
The Hmong are skillful in handicrafts such as embroidery, silverwork, carpentry, and basket weaving. To keeps its own history, the community has rely on oral stories passed down from one generation to the next generation. The Hmong written language was not really developed until the French missionaries introduced it during the French Indo-China War in the 40s. Even today the Hmong language continues to change and adapt to its new environment.
Some of the major values held by the Hmong include;
But the Hmong’s best known connection to the United States is their involvement in the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1975. The CIA recruited the Hmong to fight for the United States. The Hmong and the Royal Lao Government, at the time, were allies and had a close relationship with the United States. The Hmong served as Special Guerilla Units and were involved with;
At the heights of the Vietnam conflict, there were as many as 40,000 Hmong that were employed by the CIA that fought in the Secret War. The Hmong were excellent fighters that knew the terrain extremely well. They were extremely loyal, once they gave their words. Because of these and other attributes that the Hmong were able to bring, they were highly recruited and counted on by CIA during the Vietnam War. As many as 35,000 Hmong lost their lives and about another 10,000 are still missing in actions. During this conflict, the United States promised the Hmong that they would never abandoned them and would protect the Hmong community that fought along side its American brothers. But in 1973, the Paris Peace Accord was signed, and the United States had to pull out of Southeast Asian, leaving the Hmongs that fought along side the U.S. to the unforgiving mercy of the North Vietnamese Communist and Pathet Lao Government.
Although Hmong represented only 10% of the total population of Laos, they accounted for 30% of all displaced population in Laos during the earl 70’s. After the war, many became refugees and fled abroad. Many ended up in refugee camps in Thailand. These camps included Ban Vinai, Ban Napho, Nam Yao, Chiang Kham, and Nong Khai. Many of the first refugees from these camps ended in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, and other countries. During this first wave of Hmong refugees, there were approximately 35 countries that accepted them.
As the Thai Government began closing the camps in the mid 1990s, and approved sanction repatriation supervised by UNHCR, the Hmong in the refugee camps were being forced out. Because of fear of repatriation and many sought refugee elsewhere in Thailand. Many Hmongs went to Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand, where they found refuge. The Wat was originally a Buddhist monastery that assisted with the rehabilitation of those individuals that were addicted to drugs. The Wat is about 90 miles north from Bangkok. The abbot at the Wat initially received several families that eventually grew to over 15,000 plus Hmong. At one point, there were approximately 30,000 to 40,000 Hmong living at the Wat. This number has been reduced to its current number when the Thai military came and took over the Wat and began the registration process.
Because the Wat was not recognized as a refugee camp by the National Governing Organization (NGO), the Wat did not receive many of the basics necessities that a refugee camp would have received. These included a medical facility for the residents of the Wat. In addition, there was limited supervision from international organization to oversee the conditions of the camp. The Hmong residents at the Wat, considered as “illegal aliens”, have been living in horrid conditions at the camp for over a decade. The community is not allow full or partial participation in Thai community, and have been surviving because of families in the United States, working as farm laborers in Thai farms, or performing odd jobs that was available.
Then the State Department made the decision in December 2003, to allow this group an opportunity to reunify with their families in the United States. Some of the factors that may have contributed to the State Department’s decision included political change between the Laotian and Thai government, political advocacy from Hmong Americans in the United States, increase attention from international organizations, and the request of the Thai Government to the United States to resettle the Hmong at the Wat to the U.S. Whatever other factors that contributed to the making of this decision, this decision has been made and now has put Wat Tham Krabok on the map. The decision is no longer if this community will come to the United States, but when will they come and what can we do to prepare for the newly arriving Hmong refugees. This will probably be the last great wave of Hmong refugees allowed into the United States. The camp at Wat Tham Krabok will be closed down after this resettlement process, and the Thai government will have removed a “political inconvenience” from its country. The challenge will fall to the United States government and the local communities in which these new incoming refugees to assist with this family reunification/resettlement process. The challenge will fall on the receiving communities to assist with the transition process of these new incoming Hmong refugees. But ultimately, the challenge will also fall on the Hmong Americans that have been in the United States for close to 30 years to assist these family members in becoming self-sufficient and contributing members of their new community.