The Refugee Soldier: A Critique of Recognition and Citizenship in the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 1997

Abstract

This essay examines the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 1997 to critically engage with the context of the “secret war” in Laos (1961–75) and the “refugee question.” In doing so, it explores the ways in which the state deploys the concept of citizenship: first, as a validation of the Hmong soldiers' sacrifice and, second, as a reward for the Hmong refugee who inhabits a condition of statelessness. This essay foregrounds the link between the refugee and soldier figures to formulate the refugee soldier, a conjoining of the soldier who fought abroad and the refugee who lives at home, as a critical category of analysis that imbues the refugee figure with social and political critiques of the nation-state.

White Supremacy, Patriarchy, and Global Capitalism in Migration Studies

“…The end of the Vietnam War thus put the Hmong collaborators in a precarious situation (Vang & Flores, 1999) as soldiers in Laos and Vietnam persecuted them for having aided the United States (Vang, 2012;Hamilton-Merritt, 1999). U.S. refugee resettlement policies, which provided Mao's family assistance with housing and access to the Aid for Families with Dependent Children and Medicaid programs, access to healthcare, technically apply to all refugee in the United States.…”

“…The Hmong saw in the North Vietnamese a shared enemy as the Communist regime threatened their way of life and autonomy. The end of the Vietnam War thus put the Hmong collaborators in a precarious situation (T. Vang & Flores, 1999) as soldiers in Laos and Vietnam persecuted them for having aided the United States (Hamilton-Merritt, 1999;M. Vang, 2012).…”