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.“Before we had a lot of problems,” See said.He and his wife would “argue and fight” because the kids were in trouble.Compared with their lifestyle in Laos, See and his wife now share more responsibilities such as working outside the home, childcare, and housework.Before reaching a breaking point, See and his wife made the necessary adjustments to keep their tsev neeg intact and safe, even if it required some familial fine-tuning and relocation.See Yang survived a particularly horrific refugee odyssey, adapted to life in a very different society, made accommodations andadjustments, and now, the future looks promising for his children.InWe Know The Way To Be Human83fact, See told me his daughter was preparing to go to college next year.Some might interpret the Yang family story as the all-Americansuccess story, but this conclusion glosses over some very keydistinctions between people who choose to immigrate to the United States and refugees who are forced out of their country and way of life.See Yang reminded me of this very important distinction when he said,“…we know the way to be human.” See was comfortable with his life in Laos before the war—he had a farm, he had a stable household, and the methods he had learned to solve problems worked for him.He fought for this way of life at enormous cost.See Yang is a survivor, not an assimilationist.I asked See if he would go back to Laos if it became democratic and/or peaceful.Without hesitation, he said, “I want to go back.” “What about your kids?” I asked.He laughed and said, “I don’t care.One day they will know and they will follow me.”Despite Hmong refugees’ remarkable journeys to newgeographical and cultural settings, their connection to Laos and their former way of life is an integral part of who they are now.See Yang’s identity as a Hmong man in the United States is the result of the dynamic conjunctions of war, economic struggle, and cultural patterns in Laos and in the United States.Contrasting Hmong people’s life in Laos, and their current life in the United States creates a misleading binary that limits accurate understanding of the processes of refugee adaptation.Uprooted people exist in a state of disruption.One of the adaptive mechanisms emerging from refugee communities is the ability to make tradition and innovation co-exist and complement each other (Reyes 1986).I argue that Hmong-Americans use their understandings of relatedness as a means to maintain cultural continuity as well as to adapt to new situations.It is vital to look for patterns of continuity as well as points of conflict between conventional expectations of Hmong relationships and the conditions and norms in American society.Incorporation of these two perspectives may provide a more accurate understanding of the ongoing processes of change and of the ways in which Hmong-American families are influenced by both the past and the present.My intent here is to highlight stories of cultural continuation and innovation in the Hmong refugee experience and to demonstrate the effects of this synthesis on relationships between Hmong individuals84Kinship Networks Among Hmong-American Refugeesand families.I use economic and generational relationships as key indicators of dynamic and concurrent cultural change and resilience within families and kinship networks.Kinship and Self-SufficiencyMost refugees arriving in the United States encounter limitations.Although the natures of these restrictions differ, the newcomers create some type of social organization to insure their survival in an untried environment (Chan 1990).In more recent historical and sociological work, scholars have repeatedly shown how migrant groups cluster together and how these social and economic networks can endure far beyond the time of immigration (Tilly 1990, Gold 1992).Social networks provide mutual aid and solidarity, but also produce division and conflict.They may serve spiritual and political ends.Most importantly, material goods and services essential to maintaining group and individual well-being are acquired and shared through these networks.How have pre-immigration Hmong kinship patterns affectedrefugee adaptation? Time-honored kinship duties, obligations, and networks, do have an adaptational quality.Alternatively, some cultural patterns may limit economic self-sufficiency.In this chapter, I limn Hmong refugees’ struggles for self-sufficiency, care giving, and adaptation to the U.S.environment
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