Laotian Americans
Laotian Americans (Lao: ຄົນອາເມລິກາລາວ) are Americans who trace their ancestry to Laos. Laotian Americans are included in the larger category of Asian Americans. The major immigrant generation were generally refugees who escaped Laos during the warfare and disruption of the 1970s, and entered refugee camps in Thailand across the Mekong River. They emigrated to the United States during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
The category ‘Laotian American' includes all ethnic groups who lived within the borders of Laos, except the Hmong community.[3]
History[edit]
Laotian immigration to the United States started shortly after the Vietnam War.[4] Refugees began arriving in the U.S. after a Communist government came to power in Laos in 1975 and by 1980, the Laotian population of the U.S. reached 47,683, according to census estimates. The numbers increased dramatically during the 1980s so the census estimated that there were 147,375 people by 1990. The group continued to grow, somewhat more slowly, to 167,792 by 2000.[5] By 2008, the population nearly reached 240,532. Included are the Hmong, a mountainous tribe from that country.
Demographics[edit]
The states with the largest Laotian American populations (including the Hmong from Laos) are California (58,424, 0.2%), Texas (13,298, 0.1%), Minnesota (10,065, 0.2%), Washington (9,333, 0.2%), Colorado (7,434, 0.1%), Tennessee (6,336, 0.1%), Illinois (5,822, 0.1%), North Carolina (5,566, 0.1%), Georgia (5,560, 0.1%), Florida (4,896, 0.05%), and Oregon (4,692, 0.1%). There are about over 200,000 ethnic Lao in America. Approximately 8,000 to 11,000 Americans are of mixed Lao and other descent. Ethnic Lao people may identify as both Lao American and Laotian American (see also Hmong American).[6]
Most were estimated to live in the West (95,574), followed by the South (44,471), Midwest (37,820), and Northeast (15,382).
Cities or regions with significant Laotian-American populations include the Seattle metropolitan area (enumerating 12,190; 0.4% of its population); San Francisco Bay Area (11,545; 0.2%); Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area (10,500; 0.2%);[7] Sacramento metropolitan area (9,814; 0.4%); Minneapolis – Saint Paul area (8,676; 0.3%); San Diego metropolitan area (8,079; 0.3%); Fresno metropolitan area (7,967; 0.9%); Greater Los Angeles Area (7,120; 0.04%); Nashville metropolitan area (6,210; 0.4%); Portland metropolitan area (5,806; 0.3%); Chicago metropolitan area (4,762; 0.05%); San Joaquin County, California (4,266; 0.6%); Providence, Rhode Island (3,456; 0.2%); Denver metropolitan area (2,673), Des Moines, Iowa (2,270), Anchorage metropolitan area (1,997; 0.5%), and Fort Smith, Arkansas-Arkoma, Oklahoma (1,730).[6][8][9]
Smaller Laotian communities can be found in other cities and metropolitan areas across the United States. In the Southern United States, there is a significant Laotian community in St. Petersburg, Florida, where at least 1,000 Laotian-Americans reside.[6][10] There are communities in Habersham County, Georgia (740), and Houston, Texas.
In the Southwestern and Midwestern United States, there are Laotian communities in Denver, Colorado; Storm Lake, Iowa (400; 4%), and Wichita, Kansas (1,594; 0.4%). The Oaklawn-Sunview community near Wichita is 11.5% Laotian American. In the Chicago area, there are sizable Laotian communities in the suburban cities of Aurora, Elgin, Joliet, and Rockford.[6][11][12]
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Laotian population is concentrated in the cities of Oakland, Richmond/San Pablo, San Jose, and Santa Rosa/Roseland.[13] Elsewhere in Northern California, there are Laotian communities in Chico, Eureka, Redding, Stockton, and Yuba City. In central and southern California, there are communities in Fresno - also one of the largest Hmong communities outside Laos, Merced, and in Tulare County, California, especially in the city of Porterville. In the 1980s after the communist takeover of Laos, over 10,000 Laotians settled in central California. Many of the Laotians settled in central California to work in the farmland there.[14] Additional Laotian communities exist in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area and in the Inland Empire region (i.e. Banning).
In the Northeast, there are Laotian communities spread across the New England states. With the large concentration in Providence, Rhode Island, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Lowell, Massachusetts, and Newmarket, New Hampshire.
Community and social issues[edit]
Poverty[edit]
According to data collected by the American government in 2013, 18.5% of all Laotian Americans live under the poverty line.[15] A Pew Research Center study published in 2019 found that the poverty rate had dropped to 13% which is equal to the national average.[16]
Gangs have been an issue in the Laotian community ever since the 1980s and 1990s, although like most Asian communities, gangs have decreased in number and/or have received less media coverage for their activity. Gangs like the Original Laotian Gangsters in West Valley City, Utah, Asian Boyz chapters in California which include a large number of Cambodian Americans, but also have Laotian Americans, and other Asian Bloods and Crips gangs have committed serious crimes starting in the 1980s.[17]
Per capita income[edit]
In 2014, identified by factfinder census, when Americans' per capita income was divided by ethnic groups Laotian Americans were revealed to have a per capita income of only $21,479 below the American average of $25,825.[18]
One of the first national Laotian-American publication, Lao Roots Magazine, was published in 2007. The English-language magazine is geared toward the younger generation of the Laotian-American community. Published in San Diego by a small volunteer staff, the magazine has reached widespread national circulation within the Laotian-American community. After the publication ceased, former staff member and Yale University graduate Siamphone Louankang created the popular online magazine LaoAmericans.com,[21] which continues to share stories by and about Americans of Laotian descent.[22]
The documentary film The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) was directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath. It portrays the epic of a family forced to emigrate from Laos after the chaos of the secret air war waged by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Kuras spent 23 years chronicling the family's journey in this film. The film won a Spectrum Award for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; it was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary.[23]
American animated sitcom,
King of the Hill between 1997 and 2010, featured ten Laotian-American animated characters in various roles, to include series regulars, recurring, guest roles, or single appearances:
The subject of Jamie Wyeth's painting Kalounna in Frogtown is Laotian American.
Krysada Binly Phounsiri (Lancer) & Kennedy Phounsiri (EraNetik), brothers from San Diego, California who share the same passion for breakdancing, were featured on season 6 of America's Got Talent with a dance team called the Body Poets and are now current performers in the Jabbawockeez - "MÜS.I.C" Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. They are also part of the breakdance crew "The Calamities", which they created in 2002.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 6), in episode 2 titled “Room Service” both the murder victim and perpetrator are Laotian American.[24][25]