When Yusuf Ali hosted a dinner to launch a new Somali community nonprofit, he brought in a Hmong attorney as the keynote speaker. When Ehtaw Dwee needed advice on keeping his kids connected to their Karen heritage, he turned to a Hmong elder. And when Ali Hashi looks to stock up on fresh lamb or goat, he'll head to Long Cheng, a local Hmong butcher shop he recently discovered.
This year, the Minnesota Hmong community celebrates the 40th anniversary of its arrival in the state. One testament to its progress: The community has increasingly become a resource and a model for newer refugee and immigrant arrivals.
From the Hmong, these groups are learning how to avoid clashes between tradition and the law, navigate changing gender roles and start successful businesses. In recent years, more Hmong nonprofits and businesses have reached out to a diverse mix of newcomers — a move that's in turn helping them stay viable and relevant.
Still, leaders see much work to be done — both to address challenges within a Minnesota Hmong community of more than 77,000 and to foster relationships with others.
"The Hmong have paved a lot of roads," said Chong Bee Vang, the Hmong head of the Karen Organization of Minnesota. "There is also more we can do to be more intentional in supporting those other refugee communities."
When Dwee arrived in Minnesota a decade ago, he and others in a pioneering group of Karen refugees experienced intense culture shock, he recalls: "We were lost in the jungle, and now we were lost in the city."
Then, they met the Hmong. They felt an instant affinity. An ethnic minority in Myanmar, also known as Burma, the Karen faced military persecution and spent years in Thai refugee camps. Before them, the Hmong, an ethnic minority in Laos and American allies during the Vietnam War, made their way to Thai camps as their homeland's military retaliated after the war.
Dwee sought out Hmong people and heard crucial cautionary tales. In America, obeying the law trumps clinging to traditional cultural practices such as underage marriage. Spousal conflict is not always the family's private affair.