The Road to America

            Anthropologist, Jo Ann Koltyk wrote New Pioneers in the Heartland: Hmong Life in Wisconsin and Cathy A. Small wrote Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs, studied different kinds of immigrants; Hmong refugees and Tongan migrants. How each group arrives in America is different but the end is the same. The Hmong became refugees because they aided the United States Army during the Vietnam War. The United States abandoned the Hmong leaving them defenseless against the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Many Hmong lost their lives fleeing their homes in Laos. The ones that made it stayed in refugee camps under harsh conditions before being relocated to the United States and other regions. “The Refugee Act of 1980 classifies an individual as a refugee when he or she is unable to remain or return to his or her county of origin because of persecution or well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”  The path of the Tongan’s is less traumatic then that of the Hmong. The Tongan people originally left Tonga to work in United States, Australia, or New Zealand and then return home. Today’s Tongan’s are making permanent homes over seas, some with the hope of returning to Tonga to retire.  Some Tongan’s left with the help of Mormon missionary, other for education, while others fallowed the lead of family members.  Tonga life is steeped in tradition and rituals that are changing, making it harder to be Tongan in Tonga. They find that it is easier to leave Tonga and hold to traditional values than it is to stay and keep the tradition. Such a large portion of Tongan’s migrate that it has become apart of what it means to be Tongan.  Regardless of how the Hmong and the Tongan’s arrived in America they both had to adjust to a new language, culture, and life.

Refugees have government assistance in relocating to the United State, but by no means completely rely on that. They seek out others like themselves, friends, and family for help. Emigrants don’t receive government assistance; they also look to others like themselves, friends, and family for assistance. The first of the new wave of immigrants to America had to struggle through embarrassing culture blunders. One account of a culture mishap was with a young Hmong girl who received a Christmas card from a male classmate and wanted to return the favor. She didn’t have a clue were to go to get a Christmas card. She ended up cutting out part of the card she had received and gluing it to a piece of paper and giving it to her classmate. Buying a Christmas card seems a simple thing to us. We take for granted going to the grocery store or department store. Imagine going into a grocery store for the first time and not knowing what the words on the can mean or what a can is and how much $1.50 is and what debit or credit meant.  For the immigrants that lived of the land and made their own clothes; venturing in to one of our supermarkets or department stores is a scary event.  The immigrants have to learn basic task that Americans do on a daily basis. I moved to Hawaii for two years and left my family in Arizona and it was hard. I can’t imagine what it would be like to move overseas. Anyone that can leave their home, family, culture, and language have my respect.

            Not only do immigrants have to deal with a different culture, language, and way of life, they have to deal with anti-immigrant Americans.  The film New Faces on Main Street showed that Americans have a hard time excepting people that look different. The film focused on the Heartland of America.  Towns the have always been white are seeing an influx of non-white immigrants. They are especially upset over the new arrivals. The people in these towns have never had to deal with anyone that didn’t look, act, or sound like them. Some of the people are reacting out of fear of the unknown. This is not only occurring in the Heartland, but nation wide. Americans are crying; immigrants take jobs and use services that drain our tax dollars. Some want to deny immigrants the right to an equal education. The European immigrants of Ellis Island endured some of the same protest. Eventually they “blended” into society. The majority of immigrants today are non-white and may never “blend” into society. We need to remember that the only people that didn’t migrate here are the American Indians.