Many Hmong immigrated to Michigan after the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s.[2] The Hmong had moved to Detroit in order to obtain employment and so members of the same families could live in the same area.[3] Hmong people had migrated to Detroit from various places in the United States.[4] As of that year, Metro Detroit's Hmong population is smaller than the major Hmong populations in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.[5]
By 2000 there were about 1,700 Hmong people in the Osborn neighborhood of Detroit.[6] As of 2001 there were about 5,000 Hmong in total in Metro Detroit, with most of them living in the east side of Detroit and Warren.[4] As of that year, Metro Detroit's Hmong population is smaller than the major Hmong populations in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.[7]
As of 2002 the concentrations of Hmong and Laotian people in the tri-county area were in northeast Detroit, southern Warren, and central Pontiac.[8] In 2002 Booza and Metzger wrote that "The 3,943 Hmong living in tri-county area are one of the most concentrated of the Asian groups."[2] A 2010 report from Data Driven Detroit, City Connect Detroit, stated that within the Osborn neighborhood of Detroit, the Hmong, which now numbered at 560, "had established a tight-knit community".[9] By 2013 the Hmong population in the Osborn neighborhood had declined due to Hmong people moving to Warren and Sterling Heights.[10]