When Minnesota was a new state, thousands of settlers arrived, many of them from Europe. But in recent decades, the state has attracted large numbers of Hmong and Somali refugees. There are also thousands of people from India, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Mexico and the People’s Republic of China living in Minnesota.
The state has become more racially diverse in the last 10 years, and demographers said that's especially true among children. About 83 percent of Minnesotans were white, non-Hispanic for the 2010 census, compared to 88 percent in 2000.
April 7, 2004 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Republican Representative Marty Siefert about legislation that would require drivers license tests be given only in English. The change was proposed as an amendment to a larger transportation bill. Currently, the written portion of the Minnesota drivers license exam is given in several languages, including Hmong, Somali, and Spanish.
April 9, 2004 -
April 15, 2004 - Immigrants to the U.S. often arrive with a tremendous hope for a new life as well as a deep sense of loss for the one left behind. Those themes, plus culture clash and the resilience of youth, are at the center of the play "Snapshot Silhouette." A product of the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, the play has for the past month been providing Twin Cities students a glimpse of what life is like for some of the region's newest immigrants. It is built around two twelve year old girls, one Somali and one African-American who, as circumstances have it, find themselves living together in the same Minnesota home.
April 20, 2004 - It's unlikely that very many people in Somalia have read the novels of Nuruddin Farah, partly because Somalia remains largely an oral society, but also because Farah was exiled from the country after writing about African dictatorships in a trilogy of novels. Farah is increasingly read outside of Somalia though, and many call him the best writer Africa has produced. He's in the Twin Cities to talk about "Links" his latest work that draws on modern Somalia's history of terror, clan violence, decimated cities, corruption, and conflicting family relations. Despite that list of negatives in his country's everyday life, Farah says he writes to "keep Somalia alive" in the minds of other immigrants, and in the eyes of the world.
April 20, 2004 - Recent immigrants to Minnesota may have survived torture in Latin America, war trauma in Southeast Asia, even famine in Afric, but a new study says their health may be at greatest risk after they've lived in the US for several years. The study , by the Greater Twin Cities United Way, found that many immigrants struggle with diabetes and mental health problems after they adjust to American life. More than half of the state's foreign-born population has arrived since 1990. Kathy Lentz is the Director of Community Building Strategies for the Greater Twin Cities United Way. She says the fact that many of the new arrivals are refugees raises particular health problems.
May 21, 2004 - Leaders in the Twin Cities Somali community are urging Somalis to hold on to their income tax refunds if they haven't spent them already. State and federal tax officials are investigating eleven Somali income tax preparers they say fraudulently claimed over three million dollars in tax credits for their clients. Those clients will have to return any part of a refund that resulted from an improper credit. Officials say immigrant groups are especially vulnerable to tax fraud, though the scale of this year's activity is surprising. Jerry McClure of the Minnesota Department of Revenue says investigators have an eye for the tricks the Somali tax preparers used.
June 3, 2004 - By the end of the 2004, the Twin Cities will have nearly 5000 new Hmong residents as they arrive from Thailand. They'll join the more than 20,000 Hmong who began arriving here in the 1970s. While this new wave of refugees will have some obstacles to overcome when they arrive, they'll have some advantages their predecessors never did.
June 7, 2004 - Mainstreet Radio's Annie Baxter reports that for thirty years, St. Cloud has had an ordinance on its books that forbids immigrants from driving taxis. It wasn't enforced; in fact, most people had forgotten about it. City officials were embarrassed to learn of the ordinance recently, and promptly swore they'd get rid of it. The matter is under consideration in the city council, but even so, Somalis say they can't get jobs as taxi drivers...and they're wondering why.
June 22, 2004 - MPR’s Toni Randolph reports on a Chong Thao and his family as they arrive to the Twin Cities. The family had been living at a refugee camp in Thailand for over a decade.
July 5, 2004 - On this Fourth of July weekend, MPR listeners are asked to call in with their stories about coming to America. Caller comments are interspersed between an interview with guest Senator Mee Moua, the first Hmong American elected to State Legislator. She speaks of living in refugee camps in Laos and resettling in the U.S.