Hmong in American Political Power

Author:  Liz Ramos
Grades: 11-12

Suggested Amount of Time: 90 Minutes
Area of Study: Community Building, Home-making and Empowerment

Compelling Question

• How do Hmong people build and sustain community and belonging?

Lesson Questions

• How does Hmong civic engagement impact local politics?
• How were the Hmong critical in Wisconsin electoral politics in the 2020 election?
• How does the Hmong population impact the legislative work of Congressional representatives in their community?

Lesson Objective

After examining public opinion and demographics discussed in textbooks, students will examine data related to Hmong American communities by:

• Drawing inferences to ideological learnings and partisanship and connect this to US electoral politics. 
• Learning about the close margins in current electoral politics and the impact of the Hmong vote in a battleground state, such as Wisconsin.
• Examining how congressional district demographics impact constituent services by examining HR 8110

Lesson Background

Hmong Americans have one of the highest rates of US citizenship among Asian Americans. Hmong Americans have developed political power through participation in democratic processes such as voting, being elected government officials, and influencing local, state, and national laws and policies in the United States.

According to Xiong (2020) on AAPI Data:

Since the US Secret War in Laos in the early 1960s, Hmong have had an asymmetric relationship with the US government. Besides causing unimaginable loss of life, the Secret War caused more than two hundred thousand Laotians, including over 100,000 Hmong, to become displaced refugees outside of Laos. After their arrival to the US, Hmong’s asymmetric relationship with the US has fluctuated from time to time depending on changes in US bilateral and multilateral trade and political relations. As international political contexts changed over time, Hmong former refugees and their US-born children have, at times, been treated as US allies, but at other times, as aliens ineligible for public benefits, as second class citizens, as perpetual foreigners or, even worse, as terrorists. With the exception of providing eligible permanent legal residents with time-limited public benefits, the federal government has seldom actively supported Hmong Americans with the opportunities and economic resources they need to meaningfully participate in the political process. It was not until 2000-2001 that eligible Hmong veterans of the US Secret War—veterans who are still not recognized as veterans—were given limited accommodations to become naturalized US citizens. Hmong American-led organizations or associations that have the potential to develop Hmong’s political capacity to influence the political system are often under-funded or seriously under-funded, if they receive public funding at all. Anecdotal evidence suggests that well-qualified Hmong American political actors who seek meaningful involvement in the political process by, for example, participating in local electoral campaigns and seeking partisan support from one major party or another, have sometimes been disappointed by the exclusionary, if not also racist practices of some members of the inner circles of established political parties. That Hmong Americans have the burden of democratic integration carries forward a past injustice. 

Image Citation: Ramos, L. (2023). Hmong in American politics [Image].