Manhia's Story

An adventurous immigration story was told by a girl named Manhia. She is a Hmong who had been staying in the United States since she was born. Manhia's immigrant story starts from her parents. She stated that their family immigrated to the United States as refugees due to the Vietnam War. It was her parents who move to United States in the 1980's. Her parents used to stay in Laos before the Vietnam War began. However, their life faces challenges during the war.

 Vietnam War involved the United States, Thailand, Laos, Russia and North Vietnam. The preludes to the Secret War were differing opinions by political parties on the governmental structure that would reign in Vietnam. The United States needed to find a way to help the fight against communism. Thus, they started to recruit Hmong people and provide military weapons to them, trained them and paid them. In spite of entering the army force and facing the plight of war, Manhia’s father decided to leave Laos and escaped to another country to seek their fortunes. They crossed over the Mekong River and lived in Thailand for a while. During this time, Manhia's second oldest sister was born.

In December of 1975, Hmong refugees were granted asylum at this time under the Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 that brought the Hmong refugees to the United States. Manhia was born in the United States and stayed in this country for two decades and their family still maintains their own culture although they were here in the United States for a long period of time. This is the greatest immigration story that I has ever heard.