CONTINUING THEMES IN U.S. EDUCATIONAL POLICY FOR IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES: THE HMONG EXPERIENCE (UNITED STATES)
Author(s):
Strouse, Joan
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1985.
Pages:
211
Language:
English
Abstract:
The Hmong, formerly a Laotian hill tribe, were uprooted from their traditional homeland during the Vietnam war. Because many Hmong had served as CIA-trained mercenaries, the U.S. government airlifted a large number to the United States for resettlement. This dissertation reports a study of the governmental effort to settle the Hmong and to assist their adjustment through education in the public schools. The contemporary experience of the Hmong is studied in light of the history of American assimilationist educational policy. This history is surveyed both for an account of its theory and for an understanding of its effects on the newcomers and on the rest of the public. Research on the origins of the policies governing the Hmong resettlement demonstrate that the policy choices made by present-day officials were in line with, and descended from, a consistent pattern of attempting to enforce conformity to "mainstream" culture through education and resocialization in the schools. The Hmong are shown to face a number of serious problems in adjustment to their radically new surroundings. For example, the attempt to prevent the Hmong from "clustering" (e.g. forming Hmong enclaves) led to isolation but not to adjustment; to take another example, attempts to teach English to all generations made headway only with the children and pitted generation against generation. The failure of the Hmong to thrive demonstrates the inadequacies of the government's resettlement policies, which in turn can be traced to historical failings in the effort of American educational institutions in their effort to "Americanize" refugees and other immigrants. The experience of the Hmong points to a number of needed reforms in American educational policy regarding immigrants and to the need for an acceptance of a pluralistic social fabric.