User:Nposs/Hmong in Merced Sandbox

Members of the Hmong community settled in Merced settled because Dang Moua, a community leader and former clerk typist at the Embassy of the United States in Laos, promoted Merced. When Moua moved to the United States, he originally lived in Richmond, Virginia. Moua had heard positive reports of agriculture there and learned that General Vang Pao, a leading figure in the Hmong American community, planned to by a fruit farm nearby. While some Hmong migrants were able to purchase land for farming, others found it difficult to find work because they did not speak sufficient English, and Mexican migrants already held low end agricultural jobs.

Due to recent problems with unemployment, many Hmong people have left Merced in search of work elsewhere, such as crabbing and fishing in Alaska. Dr. Long Thao, a Merced Hmong physician quoted in a Merced Sun-Star article, estimated that 8,000 Hmong lived in Merced, down by about half from the number in 1988 (15,000).

Hmong and health care
Miriam E. Warner and Marilyn Mochel, the authors of "The Hmong and the Health Care Delivery System in Merced," stated "Provider and facility insensitivity to the linguistic needs of the Southeast Asian patients sends a loud negative message about accessing health care to the ethnic communities in Merced County." The two state that health care providers in the county had a lack of awareness of the history of the Hmong patients in the Laotian civil war and the experiences during that war. In addition they stated that the providers had a lack of awareness of the Hmong beliefs and that Hmong patients had a difficulty in expressing and sharing their belief systems.

The Merced Department of Public Health began the MATCH (Multidisciplinary Approach to Cross-Cultural Health) program, intending to co-opt Hmong patients into the health care system. In 2009 the Mercy Medical Center in Merced began to formally allow Hmong shamans to practice abbreviated ceremonies for Hmong patients.

Reception to Hmong settlement
Merced residents often perceived the Hmong as being a cause of economic troubles because, as of 1997, a far greater proportion of Hmong are on welfare than White Americans and Hispanic Americans; numbers of White and Hispanic people on welfare were large while their percentages were not large. Other factors contributed to the economic distress of the Merced region. Anne Fadiman said "the crucial distinction is that you cannot see a restructured property tax, but when you drive down almost any street on the South Side, you can certainly see the Hmong."

Seven out of ten Merced County residents voted for Proposition 187. Based on those statistics, Fadiman concluded "even legal immigrants are unlikely to be received with open arms." Some groups in Hmong gave favorable treatment to Hmong, including local churches and a group of well-educated professionals, including politically liberal transplants from other U.S. cities.

John Cullen, the director of the Merced Human Services Agency, said that "Merced has been a fairly conservative, WASPy community for many years." Cullen said that while other ethnic groups trickled into Merced over a long period of time, the Hmong came "in one big rush" and were "a jolt to the system," "inevitably" causing "more of a reaction." Cullen argued "I think Merced's reaction to the Hmong is a matter of water swamping the boat, not a matter of racism." While recalling an event that Dang Moua told her, Fadiman added "On occasion, however, it is a matter of racism." Dang believed that a man who insulted him was a veteran of the Vietnam War who confused him for a Vietnamese person and perceived Dang as an enemy. Fadiman said that "Dang's hypothesis is not as farfetched as it sounds," since many in Merced had confused the Hmong for the ethnic Vietnamese. The former mayor of Merced, Marvin Wells, told a Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the "Vietnam refugees" were "a problem" for California. Fadiman added that, as of 1997, "it is not uncommon to hear the Hmong called "boat people,"" even though Laos is landlocked and "the only boat most Hmong are likely to have seen was the bamboo raft which they floated, under fire, across the Mekong River."

As the Hmong settlement matured and the Hmong children gained English language skills, the town's overall attitude began to be more accepting of the Hmong.

Articles about the Hmong in the Merced Sun-Star
When the Hmong first arrived, according to Anne Fadiman, the local newspaper, the Merced Sun-Star, "treated the newcomers like exotic guests." Because the word "Hmong" was not found in dictionaries at the time, news articles do not mention the word "Hmong." As the Hmong settled, the newspaper began to refer to the Hmong as "refugees" and printed headlines related to Hmong usage of social services. As of 1997 the Sun-Star now has a "Cultural Diversity page."