Burma is the largest country in Southeast Asia. While the country is officially known as Myanmar, a name given by the military regime in 1989, refugees in California refer to it as Burma. This is in part a subtle protest against the government from which they have had to flee. As this project is informed by the community of refugees from Burma in San Diego, we will refer to the country as Burma, as they do, within the Story of US.
Burma is an incredibly diverse country made up of more than 135 distinct ethnic groups, each with their own language, history, and culture. Almost two-thirds of the population of Burma is of the Burman majority ethnic group, which controls the military and the government. Some of the main ethnic minority groups represented in Burma include the Karen, Karenni, Shan, Chin, Kachin, Mon, Rakhine, and Rohingya. Burma is divided into states with most being named for the ethnic minority group that has traditionally lived there. The Karen state, (Kayin), where many members of the community of refugees from Burma in San Diego come from, is a mountainous and mineral rich area along the Thai border, (1).
For more than 50 years, ethnic minority groups in Burma have been persecuted by the government. Many have been forced off of their land and have become internally displaced peoples within Burma or refugees in other countries. Ethnic minority groups in Burma sometimes face multiple taxes, are forced to be porters for the army, have had their villages burnt down, and at worst have been tortured or killed.
While refugees from Burma in the United States have faced trauma at the hands of the Burmese government, this pain is not the only feature of their lives or of the history and culture that they bring with them to California. We hope that the stories collected here will illuminate the complex human experiences of one of the newest communities in our midst.
Please note: this section will be added to as the project is developed.
- Oxford Burma Alliance, ‘Ethnic Nationalities of Burma’, http://www.oxfordburmaalliance.org/ethnic-groups.html, 2016