MIGRATION, IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEES:

THE HMONG OF ST. PAUL


This lesson is drawn from many different experiences. It is meant to illustrate the key concepts and principles of immigration, refugees and migration, using the some of the experiences of the Hmong. Some of the ideas for this lesson are adapted from statistical uses that I first observed at Macalester College in St. Paul. The heart of the lesson has been used by me for four years in my Asian American History class at Como Park Senior High in St. Paul. This version is for the Advanced Placement Geography 1997 Summer Institute. I plan on using this version in my classes and hopefully, working out the kinks and resubmitting it in a 'new and improved' version later in 97 or 98.

KEY OBJECTIVES:

students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the ways that immigration, migration, and refugees are used in Human Geography. While this lesson uses the experience of the Hmong as its organizing base, effort is made to include ways that this lesson can be taught using other regional specific events.

GEOGRAPHIC SKILLS:

students will use Census Tract data as a means of comparing, contrasting and ultimately increasing their understanding of immigrant/refugee communities. The degree of map creation, data gathering, style of maps or graphs to utilize may vary by instructor and class. Related areas of Human Geography that this lesson touches on include; urbanization (housing patterns, CBD, diffusion), political boundaries, and issues of minority groups in sovereign states.

EVALUATION:

the style of evaluation can vary by instructor. I will use the student produced maps and essays. Students will also be aware that the ability to use Census Tract data as a source of information and conclusions will be a feature of future tests. Key concepts and vocabulary are also to be considered fair game for future tests/assignments.

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS:

MOBILITY
MIGRATION
EMIGRATION
IMMIGRATION
PUSH FACTORS
PULL FACTORS
REFUGEES
INTERVENING OBSTACLES
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
INTERNAL MIGRATION
VOLUNTARY MIGRATION
FORCED MIGRATION
CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS (LOW CLASS, MIDDLE CLASS, HIGH CLASS)
DIFFUSION
ASSIMILIATION
HMONG
VIETNAM WAR
LAOS


INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND:


A basic background of the conflict in Southeast Asia of the 50's, 60's and 70's is needed to introduce this lesson. There are many sources that deal with the so-called "Secret War," (Tragic Mountains , by Jane Hamilton Merritt is one). There have been a number of bills introduced in 1995-7 in Washington DC that deal with current issues of Hmong refugees so I will give only a cursory piece of background here.

The Hmong live(d) in the highlands and mountains of Laos. They are an ethnic minority in Laos and lived in the mountains as a means of maintaining cultural independence and integrity. They practice(d) a form of slash and burn agriculture that caused them to be somewhat mobile. (links to Agricultural Geography also). The location of Laos, especially its proximity to Vietnam is crucial to the Hmong story.

The efforts of the Hmong were important for a number of reasons; cutting off supply lines of the Ho Chi Minh trail, rescuing pilots who were shot down as American bombers overflew Laos from aircraft carriers and bases in Thailand, to directly engaging North Vietnamese troops in and around the Plain of Jars in Laos, the Hmong were of value to the U.S. effort in SE Asia. Working against the Hmong in the years after the war were many factors; primary amongst them the fact that the involvement of the Hmong was a CIA operation and kept secret from the U.S. public.

While the Hmong were a primitive culture in terms of schools, written language and wealth, they turned out to be ferocious fighters. They were led by Vang Pao (later General Vang Pao) who was the primary contact with the United States government. The Hmong were paid by the CIA and were promised that if the U.S . lost the war, they would be taken care of and allowed to come to the United States.

Shortly after the collapse of South Vietnam in April, 1975, the Hmong began to fear retribution from the Pathet Lao (communist regime in Laos). By 1976 Hmong who had been allies of the U.S. were being severely persecuted and many began to cross the Mekong River into Thailand (borders).

Eventually, the American government began to accept Hmong as refugees and many began coming to the U.S. St. Paul was an open and willing city that chose to accept Hmong refugees. Many individual churches as well as the Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and others sponsored families. Soon, family reunification began to occur and St. Paul was growing into the second largest settlement group of Hmong in America (behind Fresno, CA. in the 1990 census). This brief history brings us to the lesson.

LESSON MATERIALS:

(for this format)
SAINT PAUL BY CENSUS TRACT OUTLINE MAP. This map shows the borders of St. Paul, subdivided by census tract and numbers the tracts. NOTE - This map (actually most of the maps provided here) has some map making flaws. It does not have a scale, one inch is close to one mile. North is to the top. There are others, but this will do for now.

A-4: CENSUS TRACTS IN ST. PAUL, 1990. This map includes some major streets and the Mississippi River for identification purposes.

ST. PAUL PUBLIC LIBRARY LOCATIONS: This map is included because it puts in the main freeways and shows the location of the downtown area (CBD, indicated by the crosshatches by the Central branch of the libraries).

TRACT TABLES NUMBERED FROM 301 TO 428. NOTE - The first time I saw this concept was a map produced by Macalester student Matt Jackson. Matt's map was for Ramsey County, of which St. Paul is a part of. For the map part, when I produced my own, I shifted to St. Paul only as my area of focus. It was easier to download Ramsey County when I made the statistical tables component, so I just did the county for the by racial/ethnic composition portion. Thanks for the concept, Matt, wherever you now are.
These tables contain population distributions from the 1990 census, the statistics are organized by census tract, and ethnicity along with total population. The columns are consistent with the first page all of the way through.

A SERIES OF MAPS/ ST. PAUL BY CENSUS TRACT 1990. These maps use a one dot equals one person format to represent the distribution of the various ethnic groups in St. Paul in 1990. NOTE - the distribution of dots in each census tract is randomly distributed, a fact not noted on the map (another map making error). This is most significant in tracts where there are only six to sixteen (or so) dots. They may be only two families, but when randomly scattered they appear to represent more houses than is probably the case, (yes, it is possible that there are sixteen single occupancy residences in a tract). YOU WILL WANT TO MAKE TRANSPARANCIES OF THESE MAPS TO SHOW ON AN OVERHEAD PROJECTOR SO THAT ALL OF THE CLASS CAN SEE THE MAPS.

TEACHING THE LESSON:

Background: use a wall map of overhead map of SE Asia to show the geographic significance of Laos during the conflict in SE Asia. Briefly discuss the actions of the Hmong as allies of the U.S. during this time and the troubles that they faced after the U.S. had pulled out and left them on their own in Laos and the communist regimes began seeking revenge. (this is a time to indicate that while most of the Hmong were anti-Communist, not all were, and the Hmong who had allied with the Pathet Lao did not face the same persecution).

This leads to a discussion of push/pull factors, migration, immigration, emigration, refugees, intervening obstacles (example of the Vietnamese boat people fits in here also- as does a brief discussion of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian events). I have had good luck using diagrams with plusses and minuses for push and pull factors, but these terms are easily handled by each teacher in their own way.

USING THE CENSUS MAPS FOR DISCUSSION/QUESTION AND ANSWER NOTE - this style of technique, showing a map with part of the legend concealed to promote thinking and questioning by students as they search for answers has its roots with David Lanegran at Macalester College in St. Paul.

I start with by having a discussion about the census process in general. One hopes that the obvious details are present from previous learning - the U.S. does a census every ten years in order to reapportion the House of Representatives. Lots of other Human Geography connections can be added here. Usually I make a connection to the Judeo/Christian/Islamic influence in America and segue into the reason that Joseph and Mary were heading into Bethlehem, the census for Roman taxation purposes.

Then I start with the transparencies of St. Paul. NOTE ** Make transparencies of the maps to show on an overhead projector. ** Showing the census tracts and the maps that show the streets, highways and Mississippi River give the students a sense of where things are. NOTE - For the vast majority of people, a bit more of St. Paul and city development here will make the examples make more sense. Specifically, St. Paul's Asian population prior to 1977 was extremely small. The influx of Southeast Asians in the aftermath of the conflict in Southeast Asia impacts St. Paul significantly by dramatically changing the racial/ethnic makeup of the city. This is a phenomena that is not unique to St. Paul and provides other regions with links for regional specific lessons. While this lesson focuses on the Hmong, the maps include other Asian ethnic groups for purposes of comparison and discussion. A map of the dispersion of African Americans is also included.

I usually show the Vietnamese population map first. I COVER UP THE LEGEND THAT INDICATES THAT ONE DOT EQUALS ONE PERSON AND THAT THE ETHNIC GROUP REPRESENTED IS VIETNAMESE. The reason for this is that I want to see if the class can figure out on their own, through asking questions, or through my hints and prompts that the dots represent people. When they do that I uncover the legend and they see what the dots mean.
I recommend showing the Hmong, Asian American and African American maps as the last three, (the more knowledge of immigration and city patterns of housing a class has, the easier it is to draw out conclusions as to why people live where they do. NOTE - WHEN YOU SHOW THE HMONG TRANSPARANCY, TWO VERY HEAVILY POPULATED AREAS WILL JUMP OUT. THESE ARE PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECTS.

Insights to be drawn from the maps : Be aware of the concentration of immigrants in public housing. Be aware of the concentration of immigrants and African Americans in the neighborhoods near the CBD. Here is your link to another Human Geography model. A few St. Paul specific facts. Tract no. 301 in the NW corner of the city contains the married student housing section for the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota, also known as the Agricultural campus. Many of the Asian residents there are not refugees but students, either currently or originally (or children thereof). You will see that there are no Hmong in this tract. 329 and 305 are the main public housing tracts. Downtown (CBD) is 342. Be aware that the Mississippi River forms much of the western and southern boundary and separates downtown from four census tracts. Census tract 374 that appears uninhabited contains the waste treatment plant, industry, railroad tracks heading from downtown to points south (ultimately, Chicago) and open space. Homeless people inhabit this space quite regularly, but nobody surfaced on the census; a possible branching out point. Much, but not all by any means, of the Korean population is adopted children. There is some distribution in census tracts that reflect middle and upper income housing. 307.02 and 318.02 border the 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) complex. Employment there may be a reason for residence in some cases.

NEXT STEPS: The discussion/transparency segment is one to two one hour class periods. There are many choices for follow up activities. Students may use the statistical data and the maps to create a hand shaded, chloropleth map. This is an excellent introduction for the concepts of making this style of map, that is less threatening to the student because the data and the map are provided. I would recommend that the students take one of the more represented populations, divide the number represented into five shade areas, going from light for lowest representation to darker for heavier representation. Students would be responsible for the legend and other map data that has been omitted in these maps

Students also can use this as a kickoff to making there own chloropleth maps from their own census track data research. Here is where this concept can be easily personalized to any area of the U.S.

EVALUATION:
  1. Students individual maps.
  2. Student explanation for choices that they made to determine the compostition of their maps.
  3. Student independent data gathering and mapping on census tracts of their choice.
  4. Students do a compare and contrast map and essay using their home census tract and one that is located elsewhere.
  5. Students write an essay explaining the concepts of migration.
  6. Student make and justify predictions for St. Paul and its new immigrants.
  7. Multiple choice questions that are specific to both the Hmong part of the unit, as well as the geographic themes that are presented.

As indicated in the introduction, this is a new lesson. I expect to tinker with the evaluation as well as the lesson. Updates will follow.

Roy Magnuson
Como Park Senior High
740 West Rose, Street.
St. Paul, MN
55117

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