Laotian immigrants

SIGNIFICANCE: A significant number of Laotian immigrants first came to the United States (US) after the Vietnam War. They have often been lumped together with Vietnamese refugees, but Laotians are a distinct people who faced unique resettlement challenges. The Hmong, many of whom fought alongside Americans against communism in Laos, are often included among Laotian immigrants; however, they are an Indigenous, multi-country cultural group from throughout Southeast Asia with an individual cultural identity and history.

Laos is in the center of Mainland Southeast Asia (historically called the Indochinese Peninsula) at the heart of the Mekong River Basin, with Vietnam to the east. The nation's location made its involvement in the turmoil of the Vietnam War during the 1960s and early 1970s inevitable, when its own people were also fighting a civil war. Laotian refugees began to go to America after the US withdrew from Southeast Asia in 1975. The US government labeled all refugees as “Indochinese,” regardless of their countries of origin. As a result, Laotians have often been lumped together with the much larger population of Vietnamese refugees who poured into the US. Consequently, some of the available government information does not represent the pattern of Laotian immigration.

The Laotian refugees came in two major waves, which included ethnic Chinese, Laotian minorities (chiefly Lao Theung, Lao Loum, Lao Soung, and Mien), and the Hmong among their numbers. The first wave, from 1975 to 1977, consisted largely of boat people and overland refugees who had spent considerable and often harrowing time in refugee camps in Southeast Asia. Many of these people were Hmong who had fled Laos for refugee camps in Thailand after the communist government of the Pathet Lao took control in December 1975.

The second wave, consisting largely of Laotian minorities who began arriving in the US in 1978, resulted from attempts by the new Laotian government to consolidate its control over ethnic minorities who had earlier fought for the US Central Intelligence Agency. In 1978, the US government offered “parolee” status to Hmong and other Laotians who had been employees of the US government, with priority given to people who the communists had persecuted. The 1980 Refugee Act granted refugees resident alien status and enabled more Laotians to enter the US.

The Laotian immigrants who arrived as a result of the Vietnam War tended to be less educated than other Southeast Asian immigrants. The 20,000 or so Hmong who arrived during the late 1970s were, for the most part, illiterate and had limited skills except in agriculture. The fact that the Hmong and Mien peoples had no written language further complicated their ability to adjust to life in the US. The refugees tended to be young, with most coming as part of large family groups.

By the end of the 1980s, about 266,000 Laotians had immigrated to the US. Most settled in California, but many established lives in the upper Midwest, chiefly in Minnesota. This demographic increased throughout the twenty-first century. According to data published by the Pew Research Center in 2025, 245,000 people in the US self-identified as having Laotian heritage, and 180,000 identified as Laotian alone, with the largest concentrations in California metro areas and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Dallas, Texas; and Seattle, Washington. Those of Laotian descent living in the US continued to have lower educational levels compared to other Asian populations and, therefore, struggled economically, as well. According to the Laotian American National Alliance, the number of ethnic Laotians in the US also remained steady throughout the 2020s. 

Bibliography

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Kelly, Gail P. "Coping with America: Refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in the 1970s and 1980s." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 487, Sept. 1986, pp. 138–49, doi:10.1177/0002716286487001009. Accessed 20 Nov. 2025.

Lan Dong, editor. Asian American Culture: From Anime to Tiger Moms. ABC-CLIO, 2016.

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Lee, Joann Faung Jean. Asian Americans in the Twenty-First Century: Oral Histories of First- to Fourth-Generation Americans from China, Japan, India, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Laos. New Press, 2008.

"Who Are Laotian Americans?" AAPI Data, Center for American Progress, Apr. 2015, cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AAPI-Laotian-factsheet.pdf. Accessed 20 Nov. 2025.