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  • Title: Innovations in the struggle for self-reliance: the Hmong experience in the United States.
    Author: Fass S.
    Journal: Int Migr Rev; 1986; 20(2):351-80. PubMed ID: 12267856.
    Abstract:
    Theory suggests that the process by which traditional societies become more self-reliant involves entrepreneurship in experimenting with different ways to move from known to unknown forms of economic activity. Innovative projects in the US indicate that Hmong refugees are in the midst of such a movement. Progress to date has been slow and difficult, but the very fact that the projects exist and that participants in many of them are learning how to improve performance provides a basis for cautious optimism about self-reliance outcomes. The projects exist, which demonstrates motivation and willingness to work hard. Almost without exception, Hmong and American project designers launched themselves into undertakings that were new to them. The difficulties which projects encountered were far less important than the varied processes by which individuals learned from errors so that they did not repeat them. Many projects failed and disappeared, others survived in stagnant form, a few did better but were still too young to warrant ascriptions of success, and a handful did surprisingly well; this is the norm in any entrepreneurial activity. Many participants became aware of their knowledge limitations and were making efforts to overcome them. An increasing proportion of projects, especially the newer ones, were orienting themselves to providing occupational training and experience to prepare refugees for wage employment. Hmong and Americans cannot predict the eventual outcomes but can find optimism in the fact that the refugees are following in the same path as their predecessors.
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