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THE HMONG IN LAOS: ECONOMIC FACTORS 37have very little to do with the total availability of agriculturalresources and the total annual rate of exodus,but statistics certainly suggest a link between resourceexploitation patterns and patterns of monthly exodus.They also suggest that at least a proportion of Hmongrefugees are sensitive to economic factors when selectinga time to flee the country.SUMMARYSupporting evidence for the thesis that a directzorrelation exists between availability of agriculturalresources and rate of exodus follows:1. Historical precedents exist. The Hmong have behavedin the same way before, moving across national boundariesin very large numbers when threatened by resourcescarcity.2. The Hmong exodus from LE,oa existed prior to the beginningsof civil war in 1950.3. The civil war disguised the population/resources imbalanceby providing alternative means of livelihood.4. The civil war promoted large-scale settlement and dependency.Economic survival required large-scalesettlements to disperse rapidly in 1975. Thousandsfaced famine; thousands fled Laos.5. The drought of 197; and floods of 1978 meant thetraditional supplement of rice could not be purchasedfrom the lowlands in 1979.6. Vast areas of Hmong lands hive become unsuitable forcultivation by traditional methods. This is particularlytrue in the former Hmong stronghold ofXieng Khouang.7. The majority of Hmong refugees in the camps in Thailandare from Xieng Khouang.'.49