Hmong in Wisconsin: Attitudes toward Minnesota’s Hmong
Marriage Bill
Shoua Thao* and Kristin Espinosa**
*McNair Scholar, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
**Professor Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Wisconsin, USA
Abstract:
”Mai Xiong died while riding as a passenger in a car
driven by her husband, Nhia Xiong. Mai's and Nhia's minor children…filed a
variety of claims against Nhia, including a wrongful death claim. The trial
court, however, determined that the wrongful death claim belonged to Nhia, not
his children, and therefore dismissed it. As the "surviving spouse," Nhia was
first in the line of priorities as provided by [Wisconsin statute]. The minor
children contended that their parents' marriage was invalid and thus their
wrongful death claim should be reinstated.” (Blinka and Hammer, 2002)
A young pregnant Hmong woman married her boyfriend, the father of her child, in
a traditional Hmong marriage. They later divorced, and now with two children,
she cannot claim child support or any marital benefits in the U.S. court,
because there is no legal documentation of the marriage (Heng, 2004).
These are two examples of the consequences of marriage in the Hmong tradition,
which is not legally recognized by U.S. law, whether the marriage took place
before or after arrival in the United States. To prevent such complications,
Minnesota State Representative Andy Dawkins proposed a bill in 1991 in the
Minnesota state legislature that would legalize the status of marriages
conducted in the Hmong tradition. This bill, the Hmong Marriage Bill (HMB), was
intended to help legalize, prevent, and clarify Hmong marriages in order to
prevent further legal problems such as child support, insurance, and
specifically taxes. It would alleviate certain legal disadvantages, but it would
also significantly alter crucial aspects of the Hmong marriage tradition.
In this study, I surveyed individuals in the Hmong community in Wisconsin
(Milwaukee and Green Bay) to analyze their perspectives on Hmong traditional
marriage and, more specifically, the HMB. I evaluated the attitudes of people in
the Hmong community, focusing on whether and how demographic factors, such as
education, gender, and age, influence those attitudes toward the HMB. In
addition, I conducted unstructured interviews with Hmong community leaders and
elders. The purpose of this research is to explore how Hmong’s perception on
traditional marriage and practices might have potential affects on attitudes
toward the HMB.