[Special Issue on Hmong Newcomers to Saint Paul Public Schools] Introduction

In the late 1970s the aftermath of the Vietnam War brought displaced Hmong refugees (along with other Southeast Asian groups) to the United States (Chan, 1994; Long, 1993). Other waves of Hmong resettlement to the United States occurred in the mid-80s and mid-90s. This has resulted in a Hmong population of 183,265, the majority of whom reside in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). In 2004, the Thai government closed Wat Tham Krabok (WTK), the last of its Hmong refugee camps (Grigoleit, 2006). This resulted in the most recent resettlement of approximately 15,000 Hmong refugees to the United States (Grigoleit, 2006; Hang et al., 2004). An estimated 5,000 of these WTK refugees came to St. Paul, Minnesota (Hang et al., 2004)