The Refugee Soldier: A Critique of Recognition and Citizenship in the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 1997

This essay examines the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 1997 to critically engage with the context of the “secret war” in Laos (1961–75) and the “refugee question.” In doing so, it explores the ways in which the state deploys the concept of citizenship: first, as a validation of the Hmong soldiers' sacrifice and, second, as a reward for the Hmong refugee who inhabits a condition of statelessness. This essay foregrounds the link between the refugee and soldier figures to formulate the refugee soldier, a conjoining of the soldier who fought abroad and the refugee who lives at home, as a critical category of analysis that imbues the refugee figure with social and political critiques of the nation-state.