Refugees and Immigrants in Minnesota

Authored by Kassie Maxeiner and Maja Black in 2016 with contributions from Will Yetvin and Colleen McCarty

The Center for Changing Lives
The Center for Changing Lives
The Center for Changing Lives

Outside the Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis. Run by Lutheran Social Services, the Center offers a web of interconnected, easily accesible services for immigrants and refugees — "breaking down barriers between providers and resources".

Dakota Refugees in 1862
Dakota Refugees in 1862
Dakota Refugees in 1862

Dakota refugees fleeing from battlegrounds on the first day of the Dakota War of 1862.

Khao-I-Dang Refugee Camp
Khao-I-Dang Refugee Camp
Khao-I-Dang Refugee Camp

Entrance to Khao-I-Dang Refugee Camp in southeast Thailand, orginally opened for Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge. This photo is from April 1990, three years before its closing in March of 1993.

United States Refugee Act of 1980
United States Refugee Act of 1980
United States Refugee Act of 1980

The 1980 United States Refugee Act, defines a "refugee" as any person who is outside their country of nationality and who is unable or unwilling to return to that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

"This Much I Can Tell You" front cover
"This Much I Can Tell You" front cover
"This Much I Can Tell You" front cover
 Front cover of This Much I Can Tell You, compiled by Minnesota Council of Churches chronicling the stories of refugees in Minnesota.

In the past few decades, the demographics of Minnesota have changed dramatically, stimulating the exercise of hospitality and neighborliness in many corners of the state. In addition, civic and political discourse about policies involving education, public heath and the cultural and religious makeup of communities have often revolved around the place and contributions of refugees and immigrants in Minnesota. Through effective aid organizations and programming, more than 93,000 refugees from over 90 countries have been welcomed to and resettled in the state from 1979 to 2010.1 The precise number of refugees in the state is difficult to verify. Some refugees are initially settled in Minnesota but then move to another state, while other refugees initially settled outside of Minnesota move to Minnesota to be with family and friends or for economic opportunities. Many of these refugees, including large populations of Somalis, Cambodians, and Hmong, to name a few, have resettled in large communities to create new ethnic neighborhoods in the Minnesota. These populations have begun to transform the ways in which ethnicity, religion, and race are perceived in Minnesota, and Minnesota has, in turn, transformed them. Still, there is a great deal of misunderstanding regarding these communities, and other immigrants within the state. For this reason, this work seeks to deepen the narratives about the refugee experience, especially with respect to the ways in which religous traditions and cultures are expressed within this world of transition. Through seeing the increasing diversity, and wealth of perspectives, that refugee communities have brought, and continue to bring to the state, we seek to foster more nuanced understanding. 

 

  1. “About Refugees,” Twin Cities World Refugee Day: Many Traditions, One Minnesota, accessed April 22, 2013, http://tcworldrefugeeday.org/aboutrefugees-2/. ↩