By Abdi Husen

In the great state of Minnesota and elsewhere in America, many people ask what seems to be a simple question at first: what brought Somalis of the horn of Africa to America? Then a more perplexing one follows: why did they flock into one of the coldest states of the union, Minnesota, where the largest number of them in the United States is now concentrated?

As someone who had worked with the Somali refugee resettlement programs in the early 1990s in San Diego, Calif., then followed the herd of his countrymen flocking to Minnesota, I am able to take a crack at both questions. So I would argue that the first thing that brought Somalis to America is naturally embedded in the historical fabric of what America itself is made of. Just like the European American who at the turn of century in the face of political persecutions and economic deprivations crossed the Atlantic, Somalis also sailed through the same route in search of a better life and liberty.

Faced with the collapse of their state and a civil war that ensued in the early 1990s, many Somali refugees took advantage of America’s Africa immigration quota. Thus, the first wave arrived in San Diego to resettle. They chose San Diego because a handful of Somali families from the Ogden region of Ethiopia were brought there in the 1980s. So much of the credit that made it possible for Somalis to resettle in San Diego was due to the International Rescue Committee of San Diego for which I worked at the time.
As we picked many of them up from the airport and would drop them off in southeast San Diego residential apartments, I would cringe in pain. In pain, because the reality of life these refugees would encounter at firsthand in America was far from the one they had imagined. With gang and drug riddled neighborhoods of Southeast San Diego, the gunshot nightmares that had chased them from their motherland followed them here too, it seemed.

Little did I know that the same nomadic experience that taught Somalis how to survive through the harshest terrain in their motherland, would serve them well here in America! As pastoral nomads, Somalis would move with their herds from one place to another in search of a better pasture. In a typical dry season a Somali family or a whole village would send a man or men on feet or horseback to explore miles and miles away. These men would travel back hundreds of miles once a better pasture and greener world is discovered and the whole village would relocate for another season!
In early 1990s, a handful of Somali men who happen to be scouts sent by their fellow Somalis arrived at meat processing plants in Marshall, Minn. Only this time these men were traveling by bus or train and not on horseback. The plant managers were happy to employ them.

So because Somalis are as well an oral society, the word of mouth travels with a mighty speed. The news about jobs in Minnesota spread like a wildfire, but now they just picked up the telephone and let it through a network of clan relatives, cousins and extended family members. The employment opportunities as well as Minnesota’s hospitality news soon reached Somalis way beyond San Diego to refugee camps back in East African and other states. As they all made a dash for the opportunity, they were not disappointed. In short their pockets were warmed with dollar notes, and the hearts that had been iced with disappointment in San Diego began to throb with hope once again. Minnesota’s cold snow thawed in the heat of their celebration for both the life and liberty they have been searching for. The formation of a sizable Somali community would later attract Somali professionals around the United States to Minnesota.

And for that, it is quite clear that many Somalis who live in the Twin Cities areas today have first started at a meat processing and manufacturing plant in outstate Minnesota and slowly made their way to the Twin Cities for better opportunities. And though they might not all be successful, they too are after their share of the American dream and more hopeful than any other time or any other place. Yet, most are still meat processing plant workers, taxi drivers, airport bag checkers, after-hour office cleaners, small business owners and for sure the fathers and mothers of tomorrow’s doctors, lawyers and political leaders. And yes, in the process, there will be turns and twists but their story will not be different than those great Americans who had paved the way for us!

Abdi Husen is a resident of Eden Prairie and owner of two businesses in the Twin Cities area.

Source: Eden Prairie News