| Sumario: | Hmong refugees from remote highlands in Laos resettled in the U.S. starting in 1975, after the end of the Vietnam War. This study uses Census microdata to explore measures of economic progress of Hmong Americans in the first twenty-five years after they began arriving in the U.S. Hmong refugees arrived with low average levels of human capital, so their economic progress was slow at first. Over time, as their English language skills improved and they accumulated more work experience, their labor force participation rates, annual hours worked, and hourly wages rose. Remarkably, the median income of Hmong households rose to parity with other households in the U.S. by about 2000, just twenty-five years after the first wave of refugees arrived.
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