The Somali story (Minneapolis, Lewiston: section 8, apartments, city hall)

[WhatMe]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Since most Minnesotans don't interact at all with these immigrants (save for seeing them occasionally on the sidewalk or in a store), I'm curious why their attitude towards them would change?

I rather enjoyed seeing an increasing number of Somalis and other folks when I was shopping at Eden Prairie Center. Their dress made the place more colorful, and I didn't see or sense any negatives at all. FWIW.

Are you kidding me?! Their dress made the place more colorful?! You didn't see or sense and negatives?! Get a grip on reality and take a closer look. You pay for unemployed Somalis to roam around malls with your tax dollars! What little money they spend is money handed to them by our government. The vast majority of them don't work. The vast majority of them make no effort to fit in. Many are illiterate and will never get off welfare. They continue to have children they can't afford and we pay for it with free medical care, free school lunches, free school bus rides, etc. There is nothing "colorful" about people living on welfare!

If you had to live next door to them, as I do, you would change your tune very quickly. Somali families renting $1400 a month single family homes in nice neighborhoods? Gee, how can they afford that? Can you afford $1400 a month for rent or for your mortgage? Most can't, but the renters in my neighborhood can - thanks to our generous welfare system. It's not bad enough that they get everything paid for, but they trash the neighborhood out with their junk cars, discarded household debris and litter. They don't mow their lawns or lift a finger to keep their rental properties looking decent. I guess they're just too busy working the welfare system! Do you have any idea what this does to property values?! And don't tell me to move if I don't like it! I shouldn't be driven from what was once a nice neighborhood. Plus, it's pretty difficult to sell a house with 17 Somali children playing in the street day and night. Nothing says "great neighborhood" like Somalis on welfare!

And don't even get me started on the increased number of police calls on our block. We went from ZERO in more than 14 years to more than two dozen in last two years! Theft, drugs, domestic assault, gang fights - you name it - we've now got it in our neighborhood! Yup, it's colorfull all right.

I would say it's not likely YOU don't interact with them, or you wouldn't think them so "colorful."

[Slig]

Originally Posted by WhatMe

Are you kidding me?! Their dress made the place more colorful?! You didn't see or sense and negatives?! Get a grip on reality and take a closer look. You pay for unemployed Somalis to roam around malls with your tax dollars! What little money they spend is money handed to them by our government. The vast majority of them don't work. The vast majority of them make no effort to fit in. Many are illiterate and will never get off welfare. They continue to have children they can't afford and we pay for it with free medical care, free school lunches, free school bus rides, etc. There is nothing "colorful" about people living on welfare!

If you had to live next door to them, as I do, you would change your tune very quickly. Somali families renting $1400 a month single family homes in nice neighborhoods? Gee, how can they afford that? Can you afford $1400 a month for rent or for your mortgage? Most can't, but the renters in my neighborhood can - thanks to our generous welfare system. It's not bad enough that they get everything paid for, but they trash the neighborhood out with their junk cars, discarded household debris and litter. They don't mow their lawns or lift a finger to keep their rental properties looking decent. I guess they're just too busy working the welfare system! Do you have any idea what this does to property values?! And don't tell me to move if I don't like it! I shouldn't be driven from what was once a nice neighborhood. Plus, it's pretty difficult to sell a house with 17 Somali children playing in the street day and night. Nothing says "great neighborhood" like Somalis on welfare!

And don't even get me started on the increased number of police calls on our block. We went from ZERO in more than 14 years to more than two dozen in last two years! Theft, drugs, domestic assault, gang fights - you name it - we've now got it in our neighborhood! Yup, it's colorfull all right.

I would say it's not likely YOU don't interact with them, or you wouldn't think them so "colorful."

Wait a minute, so you're blaming the fact that you can't sell your house on some kids playing in the street? I'm sorry but you lost me there. I'm not sure you're aware of this but we're in the middle of a housing crash, and as a result many people are having difficulty selling their home. I'm not going to go into your other statements, which are also pretty ridiculous by the way.

[JenLee]

Originally Posted by WhatMe

I guess they're just too busy working the welfare system!

As someone who works with a lot of welfare clients, I see a lot of other ethnicities "playing" the welfare system, not the least of them being white!

It sounds to me that you have passed judgment on all of the Somalis. Have you taken the time to meet any of them and shown them how to clean up their yards, etc.? I've found that by teaching immigrants about our culture and how we do things they benefit in assimilating better and we benefit by learning more about the world in general.

[camebacknhappy]

Somali gangs? I've been back here in mpls for five years now and have never even heard of a Somali gang. Plenty of Somali kids go to school with my kids (middle school and high school) and my kids have never mentioned anything bad going on with those kids. There are small Somali neighborhoods in the Cedar Riverside area and in the area around Nicollet and Lake street. I've walked those neighborhoods at night and have not been hassled by anyone.

[golfgal]

For the most part the Somali population has worked harder then any recent immigrant population to assimilate. English as a second language classes are FULL of Somali immigrants trying to learn English so they can get better paying jobs. Most of the Somali's I know were highly educated in Somalia but can't get a job that is equal in the US because of the language barrier. Some friends of ours in our old town were plucking turkeys for a living yet he was a physicist in Somalia (and an Olympic marathoner).

Sorry, but $1400 isn't that much for rent in the metro area. It isn't all that hard to come up with $1400 working a factory type job around here.

[Slig]

I personally cannot afford $1400/month but it would be different for a family with 2+ people in the household working. It still seems like a lot to me though...it's a decent chunk higher than my escrowed monthly house payment which includes property tax and homeowner's insurance.

[nick is rulz]

Originally Posted by WhatMe

Are you kidding me?! Their dress made the place more colorful?! You didn't see or sense and negatives?! Get a grip on reality and take a closer look. You pay for unemployed Somalis to roam around malls with your tax dollars! What little money they spend is money handed to them by our government. The vast majority of them don't work. The vast majority of them make no effort to fit in. Many are illiterate and will never get off welfare. They continue to have children they can't afford and we pay for it with free medical care, free school lunches, free school bus rides, etc. There is nothing "colorful" about people living on welfare!

If you had to live next door to them, as I do, you would change your tune very quickly. Somali families renting $1400 a month single family homes in nice neighborhoods? Gee, how can they afford that? Can you afford $1400 a month for rent or for your mortgage? Most can't, but the renters in my neighborhood can - thanks to our generous welfare system. It's not bad enough that they get everything paid for, but they trash the neighborhood out with their junk cars, discarded household debris and litter. They don't mow their lawns or lift a finger to keep their rental properties looking decent. I guess they're just too busy working the welfare system! Do you have any idea what this does to property values?! And don't tell me to move if I don't like it! I shouldn't be driven from what was once a nice neighborhood. Plus, it's pretty difficult to sell a house with 17 Somali children playing in the street day and night. Nothing says "great neighborhood" like Somalis on welfare!

And don't even get me started on the increased number of police calls on our block. We went from ZERO in more than 14 years to more than two dozen in last two years! Theft, drugs, domestic assault, gang fights - you name it - we've now got it in our neighborhood! Yup, it's colorfull all right.

I would say it's not likely YOU don't interact with them, or you wouldn't think them so "colorful."

call the waaaaahmbulance

[Laggard]

My interaction with the Somali population has been extremely positive. I find most to be positive, friendly and hard working.

[xz2y]

I've read this entire thread about why and how the Somalis were resettled in Minnesota and some in Rhode Island. But it strikes me as somewhat misguided to bring a group of immigrants to areas of this country where the climate and culture is radically different from their country of origin in Africa. Would it not make more sense to relocate them to places with a culture and geography closer to where they came from? How successful can anyone expect them to be, having been uprooted and moved around the world to a foreign place, far colder with a totally different culture? There have to be other countries with some resources and perhaps a more tropical climate and more similar culture/lifestyle. I've also read that some Somalis were settled in Atlanta Georgia, but on their own went to Lewiston Maine, of all places, because of the high cost of living and lack of jobs in Atlanta. That doesn't make too much sense to me, as Atlanta has had tremendous growth in jobs over the last 15 years and the cost of living is lower than the northeast. In Maine, there was considerable backlash when they continued to arrive in big numbers. I can't think of a place more foreign to a native Somali than small town Maine, IMO. I don't really understand this.

[JenLee]

Originally Posted by xz2y

I've read this entire thread about why and how the Somalis were resettled in Minnesota and some in Rhode Island. But it strikes me as somewhat misguided to bring a group of immigrants to areas of this country where the climate and culture is radically different from their country of origin in Africa. Would it not make more sense to relocate them to places with a culture and geography closer to where they came from? How successful can anyone expect them to be, having been uprooted and moved around the world to a foreign place, far colder with a totally different culture? There have to be other countries with some resources and perhaps a more tropical climate and more similar culture/lifestyle. I've also read that some Somalis were settled in Atlanta Georgia, but on their own went to Lewiston Maine, of all places, because of the high cost of living and lack of jobs in Atlanta. That doesn't make too much sense to me, as Atlanta has had tremendous growth in jobs over the last 15 years and the cost of living is lower than the northeast. In Maine, there was considerable backlash when they continued to arrive in big numbers. I can't think of a place more foreign to a native Somali than small town Maine, IMO. I don't really understand this.

I understand that some of the Somali immigrants settled in Southern California but when the elders saw that some of their youth were becoming interested in joining a local gang out there, they uprooted and moved to MN where another group of Somalis had settled in order to keep the community stronger and the kids out of trouble.