Hmong immigrants helped save this prairie town, but now their children are leaving

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August 16, 2019
Tom Crann - Host, Jon Collins - Reporter, Terry Yang - Interviewee, Loy Woelber - Interviewee, Sheila Vang - Interviewee, Kou Thao - Interviewee, Peter Thor - Interviewee
Listen: PKG: Walnut Grove (Collins)
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In the early 2000s, Hmong Americans from Minneapolis and St. Paul flocked to Walnut Grove in southwestern Minnesota. The city is best known for its hero, Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote about life in the town. The Hmong immigrants were drawn to farmland, jobs at local factories, and the slower pace of life. That influx of newcomers helped keep Walnut Grove’s main drag alive. But a generation in, the Hmong Americans who came to the region are facing a challenge familiar to other rural Americans…How do you give young people a reason to stay?

An online version of story first appeared in the Sahan Journal, a partner of MPR News.

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