Sheltering Barriers in Zos Vib Nais
Mentor 1
Dr. Timothy Patrick
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
29-4-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
29-4-2016 3:30 PM
Description
By comparison, the Hmong ethnic group have some of the lowest bachelor’s degree attainment rates with other racial & ethnic groups. We suspect that cultural and socio-economic factors are presented as post-secondary education barriers to the Hmong population in Milwaukee. Many of the Milwaukee Hmong population derives from some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Most notably, the 35th and North neighborhood, which is commonly referred to as “Zos Vib Nais,” based off one of the biggest Hmong refugee camps in Thailand, Ban Vinai. We first identified the top five zip code neighborhoods where the Hmong population resided in Milwaukee through past censuses. We then applied the crime data, socio-economic factors and density of the Hmong population residing in these neighborhoods to make sense of the environment that these population are living in. Of the five, two zip code neighborhoods, 53208 & 53218, rank among the poorest in the nation. Both zip codes contained neighborhoods that were poorer than 90% of neighborhoods in America in terms of income per household. These two zip codes also combined for more than 50% of the crime occurrences reported under the Wisconsin Incident Based Report for specific group A offenses from January 1st, 2013 to December 26st, 2015. It is clear that socio-economic barriers to postsecondary education, such as poverty and crime levels, are present in these Hmong populated neighborhoods. However, of particular interest to us are the cultural characteristics of these neighborhoods (e.g., the importance of extended families) that are both protective of adolescents and young adults that may also constitute barriers to attainment of postsecondary education. The next phase of our project is to understand these cultural & socioeconomic barriers through direct outreach to individuals in the Milwaukee Hmong neighborhoods to discuss these barriers and understand their impact.
Sheltering Barriers in Zos Vib Nais
Union Wisconsin Room
By comparison, the Hmong ethnic group have some of the lowest bachelor’s degree attainment rates with other racial & ethnic groups. We suspect that cultural and socio-economic factors are presented as post-secondary education barriers to the Hmong population in Milwaukee. Many of the Milwaukee Hmong population derives from some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Most notably, the 35th and North neighborhood, which is commonly referred to as “Zos Vib Nais,” based off one of the biggest Hmong refugee camps in Thailand, Ban Vinai. We first identified the top five zip code neighborhoods where the Hmong population resided in Milwaukee through past censuses. We then applied the crime data, socio-economic factors and density of the Hmong population residing in these neighborhoods to make sense of the environment that these population are living in. Of the five, two zip code neighborhoods, 53208 & 53218, rank among the poorest in the nation. Both zip codes contained neighborhoods that were poorer than 90% of neighborhoods in America in terms of income per household. These two zip codes also combined for more than 50% of the crime occurrences reported under the Wisconsin Incident Based Report for specific group A offenses from January 1st, 2013 to December 26st, 2015. It is clear that socio-economic barriers to postsecondary education, such as poverty and crime levels, are present in these Hmong populated neighborhoods. However, of particular interest to us are the cultural characteristics of these neighborhoods (e.g., the importance of extended families) that are both protective of adolescents and young adults that may also constitute barriers to attainment of postsecondary education. The next phase of our project is to understand these cultural & socioeconomic barriers through direct outreach to individuals in the Milwaukee Hmong neighborhoods to discuss these barriers and understand their impact.
