Free vans? No taxes to pay?
Not so, says MyShoua Vang, health educator for the Hmong Mutual Assistance Association.
Vang was responding to rumors implying newly arriving refugees from Thailand receive free airline tickets, free housing, free cars and don’t have to pay taxes.
“We do not get free vans. We don’t get free housing,” Vang said. “Each one has to pay.”
And that includes the money the federal government lends to each refugee — not just those from Thailand, but from the world over — used to pay the price of his or her one-way airline ticket to the United States.
Rosine Lieu Schmitt, director of Migrant & Refugee Services for Catholic Charities, said all refugees are given a one-time stipend of $400. Adult refugees who are single and childless are eligible to receive $670 a month for eight months as part of the federally funded Refugee Cash Assistance Program.
She said those refugees who are married and with children have access to the same benefits as U.S. citizens who qualify for Wisconsin Works.
Families who qualify for W-2, as the welfare replacement program is called, may receive about $650 a month and are given job training to help them become self-sufficient as quickly as possible.
Unlike immigrants, who willingly choose to move to the United States, refugees are displaced people who often are forced out of their homeland. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, refugees are people “displaced by war, famine, civil unrest, and political unrest. Others are forced to flee … in order escape the risk of death and torture at the hands of persecutors.”
Following the Vietnam War, thousands of Hmong fit this description. They were killed, tortured and further persecuted in their homeland, Laos, for helping the CIA and U.S. Special Forces combat communists.
Many Hmong escaped Laos following the war and immigrated to the United States or sought refuge in neighboring Thailand. The Thai government said it will no longer harbor the Hmong refugees, however, and will soon close the camp where about 15,000 refugees have lived for years.
The United States agreed to welcome these refugees. About 3,200 people are expected to come to Wisconsin with about 300 destined for Sheboygan County.
Mayor James Schramm has said he welcomes the families coming to Sheboygan.
“We’ll welcome anyone in our community who is willing to come and work and try to make it a better community,” he said.
Most people have responded positively to the news of arriving Hmong, Vang said. Many donated clothing, furniture and other goods to help the six families who have arrived so far.
Vang said some misunderstandings about the refugees, however, have led some people to feel threatened by their arrival.
“We don’t want them to feel this way, because they are a part of the community,” she said. “And we will be a part of each other as long as we live in this community.”
Reach Roberta Pennington at rpenning@sheboygan.gannett.com or 453-5137.
