Born in Laos amid the Vietnam War to Hmong refugees, all Mai Zong Vue knew was war. After fleeing persecution in 1975, Vue spent five years of her adolescence in Thai refugee camps before arriving in Wisconsin as a teenager in 1980.
“When we came to America, to Wisconsin, the government didn’t embrace us,” Vue told The Daily Cardinal. “We were on our own, which is really sad, but we are proud people.”
Vue has spent her entire career working to support and uplift refugee communities. For 20 years Vue worked for the Wisconsin State Refugee Office as a program specialist, working to help create nonprofit organizations for women, such as the Refugee Family Strengthening Program.
Now as the chief operating officer at The Hmong Institute, a nonprofit Vue co-founded in 2018, Vue continues her mission to preserve Hmong culture and provide support to a community that is often left behind.
2025 marks 50 years of continued Hmong history and resilience after the diaspora. The Hmong Institute has planned a series of events to provide a space for the community to reflect on a history of resilience and healing, while looking toward the future to address community educational needs.
Today, Wisconsin has the third-largest Hmong population in the United States, with more than 58,000 Hmong residents. With 12,566 residents, Milwaukee County has the largest Hmong population in the state, followed by Marathon (6,414) and Dane (5,901) counties.
“[The Hmong] did this all by ourselves… We expected that because our community was new and we don't have the capacity to support them, that they would be behind,” Vue said. “Our hope is that this is a foundation for the Hmong community and for many years to come.”
From Laos to Wisconsin
During the Vietnam War, the CIA recruited the Hmong in Laos to fight in support of the U.S. against the North Vietnamese and the communist Pathet Lao in Laos, an operation that became known as the Secret War.
“When General Vang Pao left, he was the last one to leave,” Executive Director at New Beginnings for Refugees Yee Leng Xiong told the Cardinal. “Many of the Hmong individuals still stood on the tarmac waiting for planes to arrive, but no planes came back again.”
Those left behind were forced to flee to refugee camps in Thailand to escape persecution from the communist governments of Laos and Vietnam. It is estimated that 35,000 Hmong people, more than 10% of the entire Hmong population in Laos, died as a result of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
Initially, the U.S. government wanted to hide that the Hmong community participated as allies during the Vietnam War, Xiong said.
“They attempted to just leave and let it be… but it was because of the good grace of many of the churches in the U.S. that fought hard to bring Hmong individuals to the United States,” Xiong said.
From the 1970s through the early 2000s, Hmong refugees arrived in Wisconsin in waves, legally admitted to the U.S. as political refugees. In Wisconsin, church organizations such as Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services worked to bring Hmong families to the state with area churches sponsoring their resettlement. Vue’s family was one of them.
Through a church sponsorship, Vue’s family settled in Kimberly, Wisconsin in 1980. Her family became permanent residents after two years, and in five, they became U.S. citizens. When Vue started school, she didn’t speak English and said she had to learn quickly in order to serve as a translator for her family. In school she was seen as an outsider and experienced racism from her classmates.
Upon resettlement to Wisconsin, Hmong refugees faced racism and discrimination. A 1975 Gallup poll found that only 36% of Americans agreed that the U.S. should resettle Southeast Asian refugees with 54% opposing resettlement. In rural, predominantly white cities like Wausau, residents spread rumors that Hmong refugees stole dogs to eat.
But despite pushback, Hmong refugees worked to build a strong foundation for the next generation and “chase the American dream and also contribute to other people's dreams,” Xiong said.
Hmong veterans remain left behind, despite their service
There are less than 250 Hmong veterans left in Wisconsin, Xiong said. Those veterans have still not been officially recognized by the federal government or the state of Wisconsin, even after 50 years of diaspora.
“They contributed with their lives, blood, sweat and tears, and they also contributed to our economy — the thriving of the American dream — yet they are not able to access any of the resources that are available through VA or anything else,” Xiong said.
More than 30,000 Hmong soldiers fought in the Secret War, but because they were a part of a CIA-run paramilitary force and not the U.S. Armed Forces, they do not meet the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ definition of a veteran. Therefore, Hmong veterans are not officially recognized U.S. veterans and are ineligible for benefits.
“The Hmong elders, the veterans are kind of mad at the United States. When you wanted us to fight for you during the war, you didn’t ask whether we were citizens or not. Now when you are playing the card, ‘you’re not a citizen, so therefore you’re not getting any veteran’s benefits,’ they have every right to be angry,” Vue said.
Xiong recalled a time when he spoke with a U.S. Armed Forces veteran at a Veterans Memorial Day event that told him the reason he was still alive today was because of the Hmong veterans. In addition, he said that a local Hmong veteran told him that he “gave up his bed at the village” so his American counterpart could stay safe and survive in the jungles.
Calls to recognize Hmong contributions past and present
In January, lawmakers reintroduced legislation that would formally recognize Hmong and Laotian soldiers for their service during the Vietnam War.
While the bill won’t grant Hmong veterans access to federal benefits, it would correct state statutes to “ensure that their service to freedom and our country will not be forgotten,” according to the bill’s co-sponsorship memo.
This bill isn’t the first time the state Legislature has taken up proposals to recognize Hmong people and veterans in Wisconsin.
In 2021, Gov. Tony Evers proclaimed May 14 as Hmong-Lao Veterans Day in Wisconsin, and in April 2024, Evers signed a bipartisan bill into law that requires public schools in the state to include Hmong American and Asian American history in their K-12 curriculum.
Kong Pheng Pha, an assistant professor of gender and women’s studies and Asian American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the Cardinal that everybody wins when they take time to understand the “different people, cultures and histories” that make up Wisconsin.
“Hmong communities really are a fundamental part of the state of Wisconsin in so many ways from politics to economics rights to just the social fabric in general,” Pha said.
Even with small steps taken to recognize the Hmong history, Xiong believes the Hmong deserve more credit for the community’s significant contributions to the state, including the state’s workforce in key industries and business landscape.
“[The Hmong] saved the ginseng industry in central Wisconsin…they were farmers, butchers and production line workers,” Xiong said. “Because of their contributions, not only during the war, but also their contributions to the economy, they have now been able to build a strong foundation for many of the younger generations.”
Manufacturing is the leading industry for Hmong workers, employing 38% of the Hmong workforce, followed by educational services, health care and social assistance sectors, according to a 2020 statistical overview by the Applied Population Lab and The Hmong Institute.
Vue noted that often people only want to talk about the past struggles and the initial resettlement of the Hmong people instead of the issues the community still faces today.
“We’ve been here for 50 years now. When people cover our community, it should be about daily issues we are facing and the contributions that we make to society,” Vue said.
In 2013, The Hmong Institute started the Hmong Language and Cultural Enrichment Program (HLCEP) to boost self-esteem and provide cultural support to Madison Hmong students after Madison school district data showed academic gaps in reading and math. Vue said that by helping Hmong K-12 students develop a strong cultural identity, they can increase academic success.
While programs like HLCEP and Hmoob Kaj Siab — a program that provides mental health case management, support and health educational services — help bridge community gaps, Vue wishes there was more support from the government for Hmong elders.
“I think we can do a better job to uplift the Hmong refugees…All the education about why the Hmong come to the United States is done by the Hmong elders, the veterans who come here with so much pain,” Vue said. “We matter.”
Anna Kleiber is the state news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as the arts editor. Anna has written in-depth on elections, legislative maps and campus news. She will spend the summer as the 2025 Sharon Stark political reporting intern with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Anna has previously interned with WisPolitics and Madison Magazine. Follow her on X at @annakleiber03.
