Sign our Petition Demanding that the US Census Bureau Correct Its Mistake and Identify Hmong as ‘Southeast Asian’

Hmong textiles.

In new Census data, ‘Hmong’ is incorrectly included in ‘East Asian’ category

The Hmong community is an integral part of the Southeast Asian American refugee legacy but has recently been misclassified as ‘East Asian’ rather than ‘Southeast Asian’ by the US Census Bureau.

However, the most recent American Community Survey estimates show that 95.6% of Hmong Americans reported Southeast Asia as their region of origin, while only 1.6% reported East Asia.

This mistake erases our Hmong community’s identity and conceals the inequities we experience as refugees from Southeast Asia. Hmong voices and stories matter and the US Census Bureau must honor the Hmong community’s self-identification as Southeast Asian Americans.

We’re mobilizing our communities to tell the US Census Bureau that it must correct its mistake. Sign our petition today (see below) and share it widely.

Please contact searac@searac.org for any questions about this action alert.

Take Action: Urge the US Census Bureau to correct this serious error.

1.) Sign our petition. We have a target of 1,000 individual signatures and 100 organizational signatures. Note: If you are signing on behalf of an organization, you can also still sign as an individual.

2.) Share our petition on social media. Check out our social media toolkit to download shareable graphics and to use sample language.

Photo used in header graphic & featured image courtesy of Kazua Melissa Vang.