Photo by LeoPaltik1242, published under Creative Commons license.
You’ve heard of Ilhan Omar, a first-generation Somali immigrant now representing Minneapolis in Congress, but do you know her story? MPR tells some of her personal history and the family traditions of civic involvement that still inform her life.
“Omar was just 8 years old when civil war broke out in Somalia. She still remembers the night militia men entered her family’s compound in Mogadishu.
“It was the early 1990s and the nation imploded over the increasingly totalitarian rule of President Siad Barre. He was ousted along with the national army, and in their void a conflict among clans erupted, pitting neighbors against neighbors. Omar’s family home in the city was in the middle of two opposing forces.
“I remember hiding under the bed with one of my aunts and one of my sisters and sort of everything getting quiet inside the home,” Omar recalled. “And then militia men who were outside of our windows started talking about ways that they could make their way in.”
Eater, a Vox Media publication, describes the immigrant business success story of the Silva family:
“In 1979, Tomas and Maria Silva opened El Burrito as an 800-square-foot market in Saint Paul, with the sole intent to sell a few Mexican grocery staples to other immigrants. The couple arrived in Minnesota as migrant workers from Aguascalientes, a state in Central Mexico. At their store, they began by selling basic ingredients, such as tortillas and chiles, to serve the burgeoning Mexican community in Saint Paul.
“Today, El Burrito comprises two restaurants, a deli, a food truck, and a packaged food company, not to mention a market that has more than doubled in size.”
These good news stories about immigration become even more important in the light of Minnesota’s need for more immigrants. Both the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press reported on April 18 that Minnesota needs immigrants to keep growing. With the Trump administration acting on all fronts to keep immigrants out, Minnesota has seen immigration drop by about one-third in each of the past two years. That creates a growing problem for Minnesota’s economy:
“Demographics are working against employers, with baby boomers retiring in droves, fewer people coming out of school now than a decade ago and immigration plunging.
“Meanwhile, Minnesota’s labor force participation, at 69.8%, is already one of the highest in the country.
“Unemployment benefit claims are near record lows in the state, and data coming next week will likely to show that job vacancies are at another record high.”
Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, a majority of Minnesotans and of all people in the United States value and welcome immigrants. Here’s a round-up of polling numbers that show the real story on attitudes toward immigration:
“Positive views on immigration have proven to be resilient. Not only has it withstood the headwinds of fear and division of the past six months, but Americans have become somewhat more positive towards immigrants and immigration, according to public opinion surveys carried out since October of 2018. A majority of Americans told pollsters that they thought immigrants strengthened America, said immigrants have positive attributes such as “hard-working” and having strong family values, and that immigrants were good for America. …
“The Pew Research Center released a survey on January 31, 2019, and noted that the public’s attitude about immigrants have been trending in a positive direction and now are nearly opposite from what they were in 1994 compared to only 31 percent in 1994. Today, 62 percent say that immigrants “strengthen our country because of their hard work and talent.”Only 28 percent say immigrants are a burden.”
Immigration news 
