Update February 20th: Just thought you might be interested in a comment this post received on Facebook, edit of F-word is mine:
Liban Abdullahi Well done, more muslims must go to united states we will invade back as you invaded our muslim countries, killing innocent and torturing guantanamo bay and you are sayind democratic.. F*** Off Democracy.. F*** Off United Nation..
A Somali blogger from St. Cloud says in his giddy report, here, that the population has expanded rapidly in last 5 years and is changing the face of St. Cloud. Emphasis below is mine:
http://wardheernews.com/News_10/Jan/23_Somali_students_protest_against_systemic_racism.html
The number of Somalia living in St. Cloud, MN, is growing. There is no official number of how many Somalis are living in the city now, but the unofficial estimate could be as high as 25,000 Somalis living in St. Cloud and the surrounding cities, like Waite Park, St. Joseph, Sartell and Sauk Rapids.
First Somalis moved to St Cloud in 2000, but about 50 percent of Somalis moved to the city in the recent years, from 2009 to 2013. [Lutheran Family Services opened its satellite resettlement office there!—ed]
In the streets of St. Cloud, Somalis are visible and can be easily seen, especially Somali women with their colorful traditional clothing.
[….]
Many Somalis work in assembly line jobs [meatpacking—ed], but a great number of Somalis got educated and they work in white collar jobs. Others opened their own businesses: medical transportation companies, homecare companies and daycare centers. [Home health and medical transport are companies rife with healthcare fraud as we have reported on many occasions—ed]
About 15 percent of the local school district are Somali, and a huge segment of Somalis are in the pipeline of the education process: in high schools, in colleges and in universities.
The biggest challenge facing Somalis in St. Cloud is housing, especially for families whose size is more than eight: there are families who consist of about 10 or 12 family members, there is no housing structures in the city designed for this kind of family sizes.
We have a huge archive, going back to at least 2008, on St. Cloud Somalis, here.
In 2010, Lutheran Social Services began resettling Somalis in St. Cloud directly from camps in Africa, here.
And, then I found this (below) at Friends of Refugees from 2010 (the St. Cloud Times link has disappeared, but blogger Chris Coen quoted the story):
Lutheran Social Services: Let’s put the Muslims together in St. Cloud!
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota has worked with refugees in St. Cloud since 2002, when it opened a refugee employment office. [I’ve told you these supposedly religious groups are headhunters for big business in need of cheap immigrant laborers!—ed] This year, the agency ratcheted up its efforts by establishing a refugee resettlement office in St. Cloud.
The office has contracted to resettle 100 refugees — mostly Somalis and a few Iraqis — in the St. Cloud area this year and in each of the next two years.
Jennifer Jimenez-Wheatley heads the new office, helping refugees find places to live, work, shop and worship. She helps them learn to speak and write English. She coordinates the resettlement process with local school, government and nonprofit agencies.
Iraqis too! One big happy Muslim melting pot!
Somalis have established a presence in St. Cloud, but the handful of Iraqis she’s helping settle here won’t be joining such a large community from their home country. Jimenez-Wheatley says St. Cloud’s refugee advisory committee — composed of city, school district and nonprofit officials — decided resettling Iraqis here made sense in part because they share the Muslim faith with the Somali community.
For fun, be sure to check out how rich the leaders of Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota become while bringing the joys of diversity to your cities and towns!
Hey, Wyoming, isn’t it the Lutherans who want to bring change to Casper and Gillette?