Somalis spreading to Minnesota small towns, opening businesses with your tax dollars
Posted by Ann Corcoran on July 23, 2012
When I saw this story this morning in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, I jumped into it. I thought great! now some reporter is going to tell us where the money is coming from to set up all these specialized Somali shops (11 of them in one town) when the Somali population is under 2000 (max) in that featured town. No such luck! No one ever investigates that question!
If Americans cannot open and make profitable stores on main street America, where are the immigrants getting all that money?????
Here is the story about Minnesota, little Somalia:
Once the henna artist arrives, business will really take off, Yonis Hajisaid said.
One of downtown Willmar’s newest entrepreneurs, he owns the Nuura Shop, the latest Somali-owned business to open in downtown Willmar in the past five years.
The change from a barber shop to a henna and perfume parlor is a sign of how new immigrants are transforming business districts outstate just as they have along some main streets in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
[.....]
The vast majority of the 11 African-owned businesses in Willmar surveyed are stores; they sell everything from food to books to gifts to housewares. [the first one to open sold goat meat---ed]
….from 2005 to 2010, the number of ethnic-owned businesses in the Willmar area has jumped from 3 to 42.
Who are they kidding? Henna and perfume will pay the rent, the insurance, the workman’s comp., salaries etc.
They came to Willmar originally lured by meatpacking jobs (what else!):
Drawn to Willmar because of jobs at the Jennie-O meatpacking plants, a growing number of Somali immigrants are calling this west-central Minnesota town home and opening small businesses on the side.
The official count says 700 of Willmar’s 19,610 residents are originally from Somalia, but city officials and Somali community leaders say the real number is at least 2,000. The city’s Latino population has leveled off at 4,099 according to the latest U.S. census data.
In cities such as Rochester and Faribault, too, new immigrants have arrived, adding new flavors and customers to downtown areas.
“Main Streets in many smaller Minnesota communities have not fared so well the last 25 or 30 years,” said Bill Blazar, an executive at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. “The growth of immigrant populations and the businesses that are a direct result really are a shot in the arm. They’re an economic development program.”
The changes have also created angst for some residents. [I'll bet it has!--ed]
The African Development Center is responsible.
African Development Center seems to have the connections to get you (Muslim immigrants) bucks. And, they use Shariah finance (called Murabaha) as well (Muslims are forbidden to pay interest).
In a nod to the growing Somali presence in outstate communities, a Minneapolis-based agency that offers technical support to help African immigrants run their businesses has planted flags in Willmar and Rochester.
Yusuf Ahmed heads up the Willmar branch office of the African Development Center of Minnesota, which opened downtown last September. The building, painted a vivid green and orange, stands out among the red-bricked edifices surrounding it.
You can check out the African Development Center’s (ADC) website here where they have a pretty impressive list of financial backers. But, it does make you wonder if there is a special comparable loan agency called perhaps the Poor Americans Development Center helping regular old Americans open shops especially as we learn that the largest chunk of ADC funding comes from you! the taxpayer via government grants.
See their 2010 Form 990 here. Out of an income stream of $1.5 million that year, $841,000 came from you! (p. 9 govt. grants). They paid out over a half million in compensation to officers, salaries and other benefits.
Just get used to it!
Somali sidewalk conventions are here to stay….
One always has to read to the end of these giddy stories about immigrant success to find out that everything is not so rosy with the local folks. Another town experiencing a similar ‘renaissance’ in its downtown is Faribault.
Still, the new Faribault has been an adjustment for some residents.
“For a small town in southern Minnesota, to have this type of immigrant growth, it is a cultural shock to us a little bit,” Ross said. “It’s neither good nor bad. It’s just different.”
Large groups of Somali men tend to congregate at day’s end on downtown Faribault sidewalks, speaking Somali and often not moving out of the way for others walking by. The practice has annoyed and even intimidated some people in town, said Ross, who was prompted to write about the issue last week in a mass e-mail that was republished in the local newspaper.
“That’s the way they get together and exchange information,” he said of the Somali sidewalk conventions. “They get together and they really talk. We’re not used to seeing large groups congregating in public areas like that. We have to get used to how each other operates.”
So, you think the Shariah isn’t here already!
An afterthought! Wouldn’t it be funny for a white American guy to go to the African Development Council for help securing a business loan or just help to set up a business and see if you were turned away.
8 Responses to “Somalis spreading to Minnesota small towns, opening businesses with your tax dollars”
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acorcoran said
To riveratlantic:
Then why do we need a special loan program for African immigrants—can’t they just use the existing ones??? Seems like they might be duplicating their work and getting hefty salaries via the taxpayer to boot!
Also, so if Americans can get loans so easily to open shops in downtowns, why aren’t they? Are they just lazy, or do they know that in most places its a losing proposition? Why isn’t it a losing proposition for the Africans? Are they running money transfer operations in the back room?
riveratlantic said
Aren’t your questions relevant to any one considering opening a business? One thing that immigrants tend to do that native-born Americans don’t is pool their money. Suppose you were an observant Muslim who looked to avoid interest/credit whenever possible (it’s not always possible) — pooling is a way to do this while spreading the risk.
And clearly native born Americans are starting businesses or these CDCs wouldn’t exist just about everywhere, and they wouldn’t work on both the microlending and large investment levels. We hear all the time that “small businesses are the backbone of the economy” so I am not sure where you are getting this idea you are proposing that “normal Americans” are not operating businesses because Somalis are…? Seems like a red herring. You’ll also find that there are often multiple CDCs operating in a city, state, or region, because as in most fields, different organizations seek and compete against one another for clientele. How is this controversial?
Also… groups of people talking in public = Sharia law? Really now.
acorcoran said
Sharia finance is sharia law.
You still didn’t answer my question. Why special lending groups for certain ethnic people. If there are so many government funded investment groups, why do the Somalis/Africans need their own? What happened to assimilation and all that?
And, as for competing groups—that is all fine and dandy if they all operate on a PRIVATE playing field. If they are being backed by the taxpayer at any level then there is no such thing as competition—unless you count the competition involved in reaching into the public trough.
They can pool their PRIVATE funds all they want and help each other buy businesses, it’s when they take from the taxpayers, it becomes OUR business.
riveratlantic said
Are you being forced to use sharia finance? Have you gone to a bank for a loan and were forced to not pay interest on it? What exactly do you know about Sharia-compliant lending? Sharia finance is much more complex than a blog discussion allows (ie, there are ways to work with interest lending) but you are free to do that research.
“Why special lending groups for certain ethnic people?”
Why special lending groups for any demographic? There’s targeted lending to women, startups, rural biz people, agricultural biz people, Hispanic biz people, disabled biz people, Veteran biz people, urban biz people, first time biz people, the list goes on. Why? Because it’s a free country. Because lenders see a particular client base and want to court their needs because it grows the LENDER’S business/impact. Again… how is this new and how is this controversial? You’re angry because Somalis are doing what literally everyone else is doing (how is that for assimilation?) and you plainly do not like Somalis.
“it’s when they take from the taxpayers, it becomes OUR business.”
Offer some proof that these Somali biz people are “taking” from the taxpayers — in a way that is DIFFERENT than any other targeted lending group “takes” from the taxpayer. I thought conservatives were all about tax breaks and support for small business people? Not certain ones, it seems. You’re angry when they don’t have jobs, and you’re angry when they do. You’re angry when they live in concentrated neighborhoods in cities, and you’re angry when they move out of them into smaller towns. You’re angry if they go to their own schools, and you’re angry if they go to public school but wear a hijab. Etc, etc, etc.
acorcoran said
I’m a conservative and don’t believe the government (taxpayers!) should be funding any private group, anytime, anywhere. And, I especially object to the government funding a group because of their skin color or ethnic background.
I just showed you in their form 990 that the majority of their money comes from taxpayers.
And, you are angry because I have views (and am willing to express them) that differ from your politically correct ones.
riveratlantic said
” But, it does make you wonder if there is a special comparable loan agency called perhaps the Poor Americans Development Center helping regular old Americans open shops ”
Yes, there are many in just about every state in the country. Here’s a few:
http://www.ceimaine.org/
http://www.ncruralcenter.org/
http://www.cfra.org/node/2652
http://www.cdcli.org/our-programs/small-business-lending
http://www.mtcdc.org/
http://www.cdcnein.org/
http://www.hilltowncdc.org/
http://www.njcdc.org/
http://www.mckinneycdc.org/
etc, etc. etc. No need to keep feeling persecuted.