Total population | |
---|---|
64,759 (2012) [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Minnesota (Minneapolis–Saint Paul) Indiana (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne) New York (Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica), California (San Francisco Bay Area), Nebraska, (Omaha), Texas (Austin, Houston, Dallas), North Carolina (Chapel Hill, New Bern), Utah (Salt Lake City) | |
Languages | |
Karen languages, especially S'gaw Karen, Karenni and Pa'O English | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity (especially Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, [2] other denominations such as Reformed Christian, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Mormonism also present) minorities of Buddhism, Animism |
The Karen people in the United States are a recent but rapidly growing immigrant population in the United States. Many Karen who emigrate are refugees as a result of violence in their homeland. Many come either from their traditional homeland in Myanmar or from refugee camps in Thailand. [2] Karen first started arriving to the United States en masse during the mid 2000s and now form a significant minority in several cities. The growth of Karen Americans is part of the larger growth of Burmese Americans in the United States. [3]
The Karenni, a related subgroup of the Karen are sometimes included in official statistics of Karen Americans and other times are treated as a separate ethnicity. [4]
The first Karen refugees started arriving in the United States in the late 1990s, but only during the mid 2000s did Karen people start emigrating en masse. [5] Resettlement of Burmese refugees peaked in October 2006 to August 2007, when 12,800 Karen refugees were resettled in the United States. [6]
In November 2017 over 9.000 Karen people gathered in Washington D.C. to both thank the United States government for granting them settlement [7] and at the same time protesting the Burmese government's treatment of the Karen and other minorities, especially the ongoing persecution of Rohingya people and the Trump-era policies on immigration. [8] Karen people have protested in the past in Washington D.C. over the treatment of Karen by the Myanmar government. [9]
As of July 2015 there are 64,759 Karen refugees that have been resettled in the United States, with an additional 11,619 of the Karenni ethnicity. [1] However these numbers may be inaccurate as the statistics only cover Karen who came after 2000 and who are counted as refugees.
Believed to be the state with the largest Karen population, [10] most Karen who live in Minnesota reside in the Twin Cities area although the exact population is unclear. As of 2012 there are believed to be 6,500 Karen refugees in the Twin Cities metropolitan area with Saint Paul having the largest and fastest-growing Karen population of any city in the United States. [11] The overall population of Karen in Minnesota could range from to 4,000 [12] to 8,000. [13] The majority of Saint Paul's Baptist congregations' members are now Karens. [12] The Karen Organization of Minnesota (KOM), was founded to improve the community's social progress, health, and employment opportunities [13] and is today the largest Karen social organization in the country.
In 2017 the KOM claimed that there were over 17,000 Karen people in Minnesota (including those who had been resettled as refugees elsewhere and later moved to Minnesota) as well as 2,000 Karenni people. [8]
Ler Htoo was sworn in after graduating from the St. Paul Police Academy in Minnesota in 2014. Htoo is believed to be the first ever police officer of Karen ethnicity in the United States. [14]
Many of the major metropolitan areas of upstate New York have significant Karen populations. [15] Estimates in 2010 put their numbers at 2,500 in Buffalo, 500 in Rochester, 4,000 in Utica and Rome and 1,000 in Albany. [16] However more recent accounts put the number much higher, as of 2015 around 5,000 are now believed to be residing in Albany, [17] while as of 2016 5,500 Karen and 1,200 Karenni are believed to live in Buffalo. [18] Since 2006 a total of around 2,400 Karen refugees have settled in Syracuse as of 2017. [19]
Karen refugees first started arriving in the Omaha metropolitan area around 2005, [20] and as of 2013 an estimated 5,000 have settled in the area. [21] Nebraska is believed to be the state with the third-highest Karen population after Minnesota and New York. [21]
The city of Indianapolis has a significant population of Burmese immigrants which include the roughly 1,000 Karen and 300 Karenni refugees who have been resettled there. [1] Karen are a part of over 10,000 Burmese refugees that have been resettled in Indiana, including Chin and Rohingya. [22]
Other areas with sizable Karen populations include southern portions of Salt Lake City, [23] the San Francisco Bay Area, [24] [25] and several cities in Texas. [26] An approximate 3,500 Karen are believed to be living in Atlanta, Georgia, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. [16] The town of New Bern, North Carolina is believed to have around 1,900 [27] Karen and Karenni refugees who came because of the abundance of work and low cost of living in the 1990s. [28] Karen are one of the groups of Burmese refugees that have now been settled in Phoenix, Arizona, along with Chin and Burmese Muslim refugees. [29] Burmese refugees are the largest group being resettled in Iowa since 2008, with the majority being Karen. [30] Many Karen refugees have been settled in Des Moines, Iowa in particular by Adventist charity organizations, as well as in Nashville, Tennessee, and Saint Louis and Kansas City in Missouri. [31] A community of around 700 Karen refugees have settled in Clarksville, Arkansas since 2005. [32]
Although only around 15–20% of Karen people in Myanmar are Christians, [33] the vast majority of Karen refugees tend to practice Christianity, specifically the Baptist and Seventh-day-Adventist denominations. [34] Many Baptist churches and other religious denominations have separate services for their local Karen population. [35] [15] Besides Baptist and Seventh-day-Adventist communities, there exists a Catholic Karenni community numbering around 4,500 [36] in places such as Minnesota, [37] and Arizona. [38] Since the 2010s the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has included prayers and hymns in the Karen language in their religious services. [39] Most Karen tend to be Baptist while the Karenni tend to be of Catholic and other Christian denominations. [18] In southern Salt Lake City, the Columbus LDS meetinghouse is now geared towards Karen and Karenni refugees who now make up the majority of the congregation. [40] Anglicanism [17] and Reformed Christian [10] [41] are also are present in significant numbers. In 2013 the Karen community of Omaha planned to build the Karen Christian Revival Church costing an estimate 2 million for their worship needs. [21] Karen Christians usually congregate in rented space or borrow other churches' properties. In 2017 the Karen community of Syracuse bought a Polish-American bar and converted it into the Syracuse Karen Baptist church. [19]
Christianity tends to play an important part in many Karen Americans' lives, and church attendance is generally high. Churches tend to be the focal point of the Karen community where many activities and organizations are based, so much so that many Buddhist and other non-Christian Karen sometimes attend church for the sake of participating in community events with their Christian counterparts. [11]
While Buddhists make up a majority of the overall Karen population, they are a minority within the Karen American population. The first Karen Buddhist temple with four monks was opened in 2013 in Minnesota. [42] Karen Buddhist associations exist in Minnesota, Colorado, [43] Iowa, [44] and Utica, New York. [45]
Because most aid directed to Karen refugees is primarily through Christian organizations, Karen Buddhists have complained of pressure to convert to Christianity by Karen Christians, to the extent that some Karen Buddhists would rather live separate from their Christian counterparts. Nonetheless relationships between Karen Buddhists and Christians are generally good. [46] Most Christian and Buddhist Karen still traditionally celebrate Karen New Year together. [47]
Many Karen, especially Buddhist Karen, incorporate Animist traditions and beliefs in their spirituality. [46] The wrist-tying ceremony which is practiced by both Christian and Buddhist Karen has its origins in Karen Animism. [46]
In the Karen traditional heartland there exists a small community of Karen Muslims who are the descendants of Indian and Bengali Muslims who intermarried with Karen people. These people are called "Knyaw Too" or "Black Karen" and have been subject to persecution by Buddhists in Myanmar. [2] [46] Some Knyaw Too have also emigrated to the United States but they often identify as Burmese Muslims and are not counted in the Karen statistics. [46]
In the late 2000s a Hmong American named Vaj Los Tuam (who latter changed his name to "Txiv Nraug Cuam Dub" or Hmong for "Black Father") founded the "Huv" or "pure" religion based on traditional Karen beliefs, whom he perceived to be the most original of all Southeast Asian animist traditions. Followers of "Huv" must follow a vegetarian diet and dress in what they perceive to be traditional Karen cloths. While the "Huv" religious movement has around a thousand Hmong American followers there is no indication that it has any large following among Karen Americans. [48] [49]
Owing to the ongoing conflict and warfare in their homeland as well as the harsh conditions of the refugee camps in Thailand where many come from, a sizeable percentage of Karen adults in the United States may have PTSD. [12] Perhaps one of the biggest issues facing the Karen American community is the lack of fluency and literacy in English. [12] A 2013 study found that Karen students were far more likely to miss classes or quit school or sports teams because of lack of fluency. In many cases bullying and feelings of isolation were effects of an inability by Karen youth to speak English. [11] Being unable to speak English was also correlated with unemployment and a lower standard of living. [25]
The issues of English fluency and lack of understanding the justice system were brought to light in 2015 when a mentally disturbed Karen man Eh Lar Doh Htoo attacked a Karenni-speaking family in their home in New Bern, North Carolina with a machete. Three children (aged 1, 5, and 12) were hacked to death and the mother had to escape by jumping out of the second floor window. Police response to the attack was severely delayed because neither the victims or her neighbors were fluent in English. [28] The case also drew attention because neighbors of Htoo had been aware of his violent nature for some time but had not contacted the police because of language and cultural barriers. [27] [50] [51]
Around 80% of Karen adults either smoke tobacco and/or chew betel nut, both of which are considered serious health hazards. [13] Because many priests, elders, and other respected community members smoke or chew betel nut it is difficult to convince Karen youth not to take up the habit. Karen children are more likely to be exposed to second hand smoke than non-Karen children. In Minnesota Karen organizations have started partnering with health anti-smoking groups in hope of improving the problem. [13]
Gang membership and violence is a recent but serious problem facing the Karen communities. Unlike many other refugees Karen usually come exclusively from rural areas and often have trouble adapting to urban life. [52] A survey in 2015 found that Karen youth were more likely to becoming involved in gang activities than any other refugee group. [52]
In response to the difficulties Karen and other refugee communities face, some cities have opened up special schools exclusively for refugees. [53]
Soccer is popular among the Karen people, with some youths being recruited to play in college. [54] Many Karen, however, feel alienated when playing for a school's sports team and so generally tend to play the sport among themselves, [11] organizing teams and tournaments. [55] [56] These youths, however, are not able to pay for transportation and related costs of playing on a club team. [47] To combat these issues, some schools and non-profit organisations started soccer programs primarily geared towards Karen and other refugee communities. [57] [58]
Besides soccer, both volleyball and sepak takraw are also popular sports. In 2017, Bishop Maginn High School in Albany, New York, formed a mostly Karen baseball team. [59] [60]
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast and Thailand to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city is Vientiane.
The Hmong people are an ethnic group which mainly lives in southern China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. They have been members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since 2007. In China they are classified as a subgroup of the Miao people.
Kayah State is a state of Myanmar. Situated in eastern Myanmar, it is bounded on the north by Shan State, on the east by Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province, and on the south and west by Kayin State. It lies approximately between 18° 30′ and 19° 55′ north latitude and between 96° 50′ and 97° 50′ east longitude. The area is 11,670 km2 (4,510 sq mi). Its capital is Loikaw. The estimated population in 1998 was approximately 207,357, according to UNICEF. It is inhabited primarily by the Karenni ethnic group, also known as Red Karen or Kayah, a Sino-Tibetan people.
The Karen are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language–speaking peoples. The group as a whole is heterogeneous and disparate as many Karen ethnic groups do not associate or identify with each other culturally or linguistically. These Karen groups reside primarily in Kayin State, southern and southeastern Myanmar. The Karen, approximately five million people, account for approximately seven percent of the Burmese population. Many Karen have migrated to Thailand, having settled mostly on the Thailand–Myanmar border. A few Karen have settled in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, and other Southeast Asian and East Asian countries.
Johnny Htoo and Luther Htoo are twin brothers who jointly led the God's Army guerrilla group, a splinter group of the Karen National Union, in Myanmar (Burma) during the late 1990s.
God's Army was an armed revolutionary Christian resistance group that opposed the then military junta of Myanmar (Burma). The group was an offshoot of the Karen National Union. They were based along the Thailand-Burma border, and conducted a string of audacious guerrilla actions including allegedly being involved in the seizure of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in 1999. They have been described as a terrorist organisation.
Hmong Americans are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Most Hmong Americans consist of those that fled to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s due to their cooperation with the United States' Central Intelligence Agency operatives in northern Laos during the Vietnam War, and their descendants. Over half of the Hmong population from Laos left the country, or attempted to leave, in 1975, at the culmination of the war. At the time, the Pathet Lao launched an aggressive campaign to capture or kill Hmong soldiers and families who aided the CIA. Thousands of Hmong were evacuated or escaped on their own to Hmong refugee camps in Thailand. About 90% of those who made it to refugee camps in Thailand were ultimately resettled in the United States. The rest, about 8 to 10%, resettled in countries including Canada, France, the Netherlands, and Australia. According to the 2019 American Community Survey by the US Census Bureau, the population count for Hmong Americans was 327,000.
Burmese Americans are Americans of full or partial Burmese ancestry. The term encompasses people of all ethnic backgrounds with ancestry in present-day Myanmar, regardless of specific ethnicity. They are a subgroup of Asian Americans. The majority of Burmese Americans are of Burmese Chinese descent, particularly Teochew, Hokkien, and Yunnanese, rather than Bamar, the dominant ethnic group in Myanmar; they may alternatively identify as simply Chinese Americans. However, other types of Burmese ethnic groups immigrating to the U.S. have been on the rise in recent years.
The situation of human rights in Laos has often been, and remains, a recognized cause for serious concern. Laos is one a handful of Marxist-Leninist governments and is ruled by a one-party communist government backed by the Lao People's Army in alliance with the Vietnam People's Army and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi.
The United States Census Bureau counted Minnesota's population at 5,303,925 in the 2010 Census.
Christianity in Myanmar has a history dating to the early 18th century. According to the 2016 census, Christianity is the country's second largest religion, practiced by 6.3% of the population, primarily among the Kachin, Chin and Kayin, and Eurasians because of missionary work in their respective areas. About four-fifths of the country's Christians are Protestants, in particular Baptists of the Myanmar Baptist Convention; Roman Catholics make up the remainder.
The Kayan are a sub-group of Red Karen, Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Myanmar (Burma). The Kayan consists of the following groups: Kayan Lahwi, Kayan Ka Khaung (Gekho), Kayan Lahta, Kayan Ka Ngan. Kayan Gebar, Kayan Kakhi and, sometimes, Bwe people (Kayaw). They are distinct from, and not to be confused with, the Kayan people of Borneo.
Insurgencies have been ongoing in Myanmar since 1948, the year the country, then known as Burma, gained independence from the United Kingdom. The conflict has largely been ethnic-based, with several ethnic armed groups fighting Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw, for self-determination. Despite numerous ceasefires and the creation of autonomous self-administered zones in 2008, many groups continue to call for independence, increased autonomy, or the federalisation of the country. The conflict is the world's longest ongoing civil war, having spanned more than seven decades.
The S'gaw,(S'gaw Karen: စှီၤ or ပှၤကညီဖိ) also known as Skaw, S'gaw, S'gau, White Karen, Paganyaw, Pgaz Cgauz and Pakayo, are an ethnic group of Burma and Thailand. They speak the S'gaw Karen language.
Relations between Laos and the United States officially began when the United States opened a legation in Laos in 1950, when Laos was a semi-autonomous state within French Indochina. These relations were maintained after Lao independence in October 1953.
Mae La, Beh klaw ,(S'gaw Karen: မဲၣ်လးဒဲကဝီၤ, ဘဲကျီး) is a refugee camp in Thailand. It was established in 1984 in Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province in the Dawna Range area and houses 50,000 Karen refugees; the number continues to rise as of June 2019. Mae La is the largest refugee camp for Karen refugees in Thailand. Over 90% are the persecuted ethnic Karen. The camps are overseen and run by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), a union of 11 international non-governmental organizations that provide food, shelter and non food items to the Burmese refugees and displaced people.
The Karen conflict is an armed conflict in Kayin State, Myanmar. The conflict has been described as one of the world's "longest running civil wars".
The recorded arrival of Christianity to the Akha people in Thailand is in the 19th century.
Karen Americans are Americans of full or partial Karen ancestry from Myanmar and Thailand. Karen Americans are one group of Asian Americans. Many Karen war refugees have resettled in the United States. Karen people first arrived to the U.S. in 2002. In 2017 Minnesota was reported to have more than 12,000 Karen, the largest such community in the country. Other places with significant populations are California, Texas, New York, and Indiana.
The Hmong people are a major ethnic group living in North Carolina. According to the American FactFinder, there were 10,864 Hmong living in North Carolina, with about 5,133 living in and around the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area.
An estimated 15-20 per cent of Pwo and Sgaw Karen are Christian ... historical confrontation of Buddhism and Christianity which was a crucial part of the colonial conquest of Burma. This confrontation, which began with Christian conversion in 1830, created an internal opposition among the Karen.