Hmong in Vietnam and Laos were subjected to targeted attacks in both countries, and tens of thousands were killed, imprisoned or forcibly relocated following the war.
[5] They were seeking asylum in the United States, as many had worked or served in fighting for U.S. forces in Laos during the "secret war".
[6] Churches and social service agencies initially settled Southeast Asian refugees, most of them Hmong, along with some Vietnamese and Laotian people, in Wausau.
[10] By 1980, the Hmong quickly began to organize Mutual Assistance Associations in cities where they had the largest populations, and these have continued.
[8] In a period ending in 1994, the tax rate of the Wausau School District rose by 10.48% because of the added expenses of services to children from immigrant families.
[8] Some native-born American families in Wausau criticized crime associated with the Hmong community and the costs of social services to them.
The governor of Wisconsin Jim Doyle appointed a Hmong Resettlement Task Force in 2004 to review social policies and make recommendations to aid the acculturation of Hmong in the state, particularly as some welfare and social service programs were changing as a result of federal law.
[6] Due to the post-Vietnam War resettlement policies of the federal government of the United States, the Hmong population was primarily concentrated in medium-sized and large-sized towns.
[12] As of 2010 the largest groups of Hmong in Wisconsin live in Greater Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison, Sheboygan, and Wausau.
In order, the following numerically largest groups are in the counties of La Crosse, Marathon (Wausau), Brown (Green Bay), and Eau Claire.
Jenna Christian, Pa Sia Low Moua, and Ingolf Vogeler, authors of The Cultural Landscape of the Hmong in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, wrote that "the Hmong stand out more singularly as an ethnic minority" in the other counties, which are less densely populated, "than they do in metropolitan areas like Milwaukee, which is already more racially and culturally diverse.
[6] The communities that they identified as having significant Hmong populations included Appleton, Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, La Crosse, Ladysmith, Madison, Manitowoc, Mauston, Menasha, Menomonie, Milwaukee, Neenah, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, Stevens Point, Superior, Tomah, Two Rivers, Wausau, and Wisconsin Rapids.
[19] In December 1999 the Institute for Wisconsin's Future stated in a report, "Given the major cultural differences, language barriers and skill gaps facing the Hmong, a number of Wisconsin's Hmong population have relied on welfare to meet their families' basic needs during this transition.
"[20] Vicky Selkowe, who served as the organization's project coordinator and the co-writer of the report, said that the language barrier was the main difficulty affecting the state's Hmong population.
[3] As of 2022, the largest Hmong populations in the state are located in Appleton (2,965),[22] Eau Claire (2,868),[23] Green Bay (2,822),[24] La Crosse (1,435),[25] Madison (1,985),[26] Milwaukee (11,469),[27] Oshkosh (2,165),[28] Sheboygan (5,002),[29], and Wausau (3,885).
[31] In 1994 Roy Beck wrote an article about Wausau's Hmong community for The Atlantic, stating that it would grow to the point where native-born Americans would be displaced.
[8] In the 1990s the Wausau School District received an increase of Hmong students, some of whom came from refugee camps and lacked formal education.
[32] Patti Kraus, who worked as a secretary for the WSD, stated in 2016 that the ethnic Hmong successfully adapted to American school life.