This week our featured Fellow is Chia Youyee Vang. Professor Vang is on the History faculty at UWM, where she studies US-Asia relations during the Cold War, migration, Asian American history, and refugee communities. Her current work centers on the Hmong diaspora in North America following the Vietnam War, and recently she has expanded her research elsewhere, particularly in French Guiana.
Chia, thanks for taking a moment to talk with me. I got an exciting preview of your work last week at our Fellows meeting, and for those reading this in Intersections I can say we’re in for a real treat at the conference this April. Your overview of the Hmong diaspora was a remarkable look at a population I’d heard of, but knew very little about. I’d love it if you would share that summary with our readers, and tell us what every scholar should know about Hmong communities, and especially the people and places you’ve studied most closely.
I’ve focused much of my research on how Hmong refugees have reconstructed community in the U.S. since the mid-1970s. Refugee resettlement policies dispersed them all over the country, but like other immigrants throughout American history, most have practiced chain migration by moving from the initial locations to other cities and towns to be near family and/or other Hmong people. As refugees, Hmong typically arrived with not much more than the clothes on their backs. They certainly confronted many challenges, but as legal immigrants, they had to access the safety net programs available for the poor in American society. Thus, thriving communities have emerged in places like the Twin Cities (St. Paul and Minneapolis). The research I’ve conducted include large concentrations like this and many cities and small towns across the U.S. and other countries, such as Canada and France.
From what I know of your ongoing larger project, yours might be one of the first (if not the first) major comprehensive look at the history of the Hmong communities in French Guiana. I know this is a project that is in its early stages, but what parts of this might we get to see in April at the conference?
My larger book project is titled, “Exile, Identity Formation, and Placemaking: The Hmong Refugee Experiment in French Guiana, 1977-2015.” I have completed some archival research. In May 2015, I went to French Guiana to conduct oral history interviews with Hmong Guyanese, French government officials, and school administrators. I am in the process of transcribing and analyzing the 27 oral history interviews. Although this may change as I continue my data analysis, I expect to present on the placemaking processes that have occurred during the last four decades. In particular, I will explore how Hmong Guyanese see themselves in this French department that is principally Creole, but multi-ethnic. From the initial village at Cacao, the population has grown due to both natural increase and the movement of Hmong who initially resettled in France.
As I mentioned above, there may be no single comprehensive text (yet!) about the Hmong diaspora, but if you had to pick one introductory text to recommend to people who were interested in the topic and just beginning to learn about it, what text would that be?
For a scholarly piece, I recommend Patrick Clarkin’s 2005 article, “Hmong Resettlement in French Guiana” (Hmong Studies Journal, Vol. 6:1-27). There were several news articles in the early to mid-2000s. I suggest Simon Romero’s article, “From a Hinterland, Hmong Forge a New Home.” New York Times. December 21, 2008.
One thing (of the many things) that struck me about your work is its interdisciplinary implications. Hmong alliance in Laos during the Vietnam War, both to the French and the U.S., places Hmong identity in a unique position of loyalty to Western powers, and at the same time occupying—as individuals and communities, rather than as an abstract political force—a refugee sociopolitical landscape. There are interdisciplinary considerations at almost every turn: artistic and cultural transfer, social justice, agriculture, genetic preservation (which you touched on regarding marriage and community planning), and many others. Are there other scholars working on these topics right now that you’re aware of? Whose work intrigues you the most, and why?
Many scholars in the U.S. and abroad study the plight of refugees so I am inspired by a wide range of scholars. Yen Le Espiritu’s (UC-San Diego) seminal work on critical refugee studies has been instrumental to my own scholarship. With respect to those working on Hmong communities, senior scholars like Louisa Schein (Rutgers University) and Jeremy Hein (UW-Eau Claire) have been great mentors. I am also intrigued by a new generation of Hmong and other Southeast Asian American scholars engaged in innovative projects that will shift the historical study of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement further away from self-contained national histories, such as Ma Vang (UC-Merced) and Sam Vong (UT-Austin).
Thanks for taking the time to talk with us Chia, and as I said above, I’m particularly excited to see your presentation at the conference. As always, I’d also like to remind our readers keep an eye on Intersections in the near future for more interviews with our Global Studies Fellows, opportunities to see them present at our colloquia, and information about the CIE conference on Diversities, April 20-21sr.