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Karen Americans

Karen Americans (S'gaw Karen: ပှၤကညီဖိလၢကီၢ်အမဲရံကး) are Americans of full or partial Karen ancestry. They are a recent but rapidly growing immigrant population in the United States. Many Karen who emigrate are refugees as a result of violence in their homeland. Many come either from their traditional homeland of Kawthoolei in Myanmar or from refugee camps in Thailand.[2] Minnesota was reported to have had more than 12,000 Karen residents in 2017, making it the state with the largest Karen community.[3] Other states with significant populations are California, Texas, New York, and Indiana.[4]

For the pejorative term, see Karen (slang).

Karen first started arriving to the United States en masse during the mid-2000s and now form a significant minority in several cities. The growth of Karen Americans is part of the larger growth of Burmese Americans in the United States.[5]


The Karenni, a related subgroup of the Karen, are sometimes included in official statistics of Karen Americans and other times are treated as a separate ethnicity.[6]

History[edit]

The first Karen refugees started arriving in the United States in the late 1990s, but only during the mid-2000s did Karen people start emigrating en masse.[7] Resettlement of Burmese refugees peaked in October 2006 to August 2007, when 12,800 Karen refugees were resettled in the United States.[8]


In November 2017 over 9,000 Karen people gathered in Washington D.C. to both thank the United States government for granting them settlement[9] and at the same time protesting the Burmese government's treatment of the Karen and other minorities, especially the ongoing persecution of Rohingya people and the Trump-era policies on immigration.[10] Karen people have protested in the past in Washington D.C. over the treatment of Karen by the Myanmar government.[11]

Religion[edit]

Christianity[edit]

Although only around 15–20% of Karen people in Myanmar are Christians,[37] the vast majority of Karen refugees tend to practice Christianity, specifically the Baptist and Seventh-day-Adventist denominations.[38] Many Baptist churches and other religious denominations have separate services for their local Karen population.[39][18] Besides Baptist and Seventh-day-Adventist communities, there exists a Catholic Karenni community numbering around 4,500[40] in places such as Minnesota,[41] and Arizona.[42] Since the 2010s the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has included prayers and hymns in the Karen language in their religious services.[43] Most Karen tend to be Baptist while the Karenni tend to be of Catholic and other Christian denominations.[21] In southern Salt Lake City, the Columbus LDS meetinghouse is now geared towards Karen and Karenni refugees who now make up the majority of the congregation.[44] Anglicanism[20] and Reformed Christian[12][45] are also are present in significant numbers. In 2013 the Karen community of Omaha planned to build the Karen Christian Revival Church costing an estimate 2 million for their worship needs.[25] Karen Christians usually congregate in rented space or borrow other churches' properties. In 2017 the Karen community of Syracuse bought a Polish-American bar and converted it into the Syracuse Karen Baptist church.[22]


Christianity tends to play an important part in many Karen Americans' lives, and church attendance is generally high. Churches tend to be the focal point of the Karen community where many activities and organizations are based, so much so that many Buddhist and other non-Christian Karen sometimes attend church for the sake of participating in community events with their Christian counterparts.[13]

Buddhism[edit]

While Buddhists make up a majority of the overall Karen population, they are a minority within the Karen American population. The first Karen Buddhist temple with four monks was opened in 2013 in Minnesota.[46] Karen Buddhist associations exist in Minnesota, Colorado,[47] Iowa,[48] and Utica, New York.[49]


Because most aid directed to Karen refugees is primarily through Christian organizations, Karen Buddhists have complained of pressure to convert to Christianity by Karen Christians, to the extent that some Karen Buddhists would rather live separate from their Christian counterparts. Nonetheless, relationships between Karen Buddhists and Christians are generally good.[50] Most Christian and Buddhist Karen still traditionally celebrate Karen New Year together.[51]

Other religions[edit]

Many Karen, especially Buddhist Karen, incorporate Animist traditions and beliefs in their spirituality.[50] The wrist-tying ceremony which is practiced by both Christian and Buddhist Karen has its origins in Karen Animism.[50]


In the Karen traditional heartland there exists a small community of Karen Muslims who are the descendants of Indian and Bengali Muslims who intermarried with Karen people. These people are called "Knyaw Too" or "Black Karen" and have been subject to persecution by Buddhists in Myanmar.[2][50] Some Knyaw Too have also emigrated to the United States but they often identify as Burmese Muslims and are not counted in the Karen statistics.[50]


In the late 2000s a Hmong American named Vaj Los Tuam (who later changed his name to "Txiv Nraug Cuam Dub" or Hmong for "Black Father") founded the "Huv" or "pure" religion based on traditional Karen beliefs, whom he perceived to be the most original of all Southeast Asian animist traditions. Followers of "Huv" must follow a vegetarian diet and dress in what they perceive to be traditional Karen cloths. While the "Huv" religious movement has around a thousand Hmong American followers there is no indication that it has any large following among Karen Americans.[52][53]

Sports[edit]

Soccer is popular among the Karen people, with some youths being recruited to play in college.[58] Many Karen, however, feel alienated when playing for a school's sports team and so generally tend to play the sport among themselves,[13] organizing teams and tournaments.[59][60] These youths, however, are not able to pay for transportation and related costs of playing on a club team.[51] To combat these issues, some schools and non-profit organizations started soccer programs primarily geared towards Karen and other refugee communities.[61][62]


Besides soccer, both volleyball and sepak takraw are also popular sports. In 2017, Bishop Maginn High School in Albany, New York, formed a mostly Karen baseball team.[63][64]

two-time beauty pageant winner and rebel leader

Louisa Benson Craig

Heavy Table (6 Mar 2023)

From Myanmar to Rice Street: Karen Food in Saint Paul