Since the fifth congressional district of Minnesota is an urban liberal hotspot for refugee settlement in my research I wanted to measure refugee integration. In this paper I define integration as political activity, rights gained, and groups serviced who come back. I wanted to focus on the roles  on the role that non-profit groups and cultural groups (groups who are supposed to target one type of immigrants)designated to help refugees, play in terms of advocating for their refugee constituents.I also wanted to measure whether or not refugees would be as politically involved as suggested by Irene Bloemraad due to the privileges and rights afforded by their refugee status( which aren’t allowed to other non-resident/citizen immigrants). Rather or as suggested by Aptekar it would be a much more complex story where despite a great density of support immigrant/refugee groups and services integration doesn’t necessarily translate into political power. Since my congressional district like San Francisco is urban and has “a liberal political culture” I expected or predicted that the refugee nonprofits in my congressional district would at least be  politically active locally. de Graauw in her paper “ Nonprofit organizations: agents of immigrant political incorporation in Urban America” talks about the roles non-profit refugee centered organizations play into advocating for refugees on the local levels for urban cities like San Francisco without necessarily interacting with national or governmental institutions. I wanted to test how true this was especially since my district’s representative herself is a refugee immigrant.

My research contained of both short and long interviews with the executive director of one of  Minnesota’s biggest refugee settlement non-profits, Several small cultural groups the communications director of Minnesota’s Democratic party office, and a representative from congresswomen Ihan Omar’s office. My interviews with the communications director of the DFL(Democratic party for the 5th district ) and the representative the congresswoman’s office were the shortest interviews and I was encouraged to email with questions rather than call. During these calls I asked much broader questions about wanting to learn about immigration with the 5th district. My longest calls was definitely with the executive director and even the receptionist of Arrive Ministry the local non-profit that handles refugee settlement. During these calls I asked more specific questions about the demographic breakdowns of the populations they serviced and the ways in which they addressed different populations  needs. In terms of experimental limitations I really wonder whether or not asking more direct questions of party representatives would have lead to longer interviews.

However, despite the briefness of the first two interviews(5-10 minutes)  I learned that essentially even the dominant political party within the state defer most of the integration of refugees to Arrive Ministry the local refugee non-profit as predicted by Anderson. From the medium length(20-30 minutes) interviews with cultural groups like the United Cambodian Association of Minnesota I learned that again a lot of the work is deferred to the largest local non-profit. Although, these programs do have things like daycare and elderly care much of advocacy aspect of immigration services and even things like legal help are handled by local nonprofits. Now although there were a small number of groups who seemed to be vocal advocates for immigrant rights who had protest pictures on their websites, I wasn’t able to secure any interviews with them. That said my longest interview which lasted approximately an hour long was with Arrive Ministries executive director Bob oehrig revealed a lot. He informed me of the necessity and therefore informal advocacy for refugees. Due to Minnesota’s aging population the refugees that are resettled in Minnesota play a vital role in the local economy and Mr.Oehrig even went on as far as to say  more refugees were needed. His agency provides almost everything from necessary legal services to lessons on how to take the bus. One of the most important things that Mr. Oehrig pointed out was economic status when it came to civic participation. He said that while some refugees do come back and help and even go on to gain power within the district, he argues that most refugees especially first generation refugees face large economic burdens including sending money back home. Therefore despite the resources available to them, most simply cannot afford to be politically active.

From my research I can conclude that non-profit refugees in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district play a vital role in refugee integration in terms of providing them with resources as suggested by de Graauw. However, despite these resources being made available a lot of these refugees simply are not as poised to gain power as they should theoretically be as proposed by Bloemraad. However, they are not completely shut off from political power if they please to as suggested by Aptekar, evidentiary by some refugees like representative Omar gaining political power. Therefore from my research, I ‘ve concluded that non-profit organizations are vital to refugee and immigrant integration into my CD. However, such integration though it may lead to social integration , it may not lead to political integration or success not because of demographic or political beliefs, but rather because of everyday economic struggles faced by the first generation refugees and immigrants within my congressional district.

Minnesota has one of the smallest migrant population nationally(the national average is about a 14% of our current population being foreign born)  and its fifth district has about 7.04% migrants during the time of our 111th congress and currently during the 115th congress about 6.93% migrants. Since the 1970’s Minnesota has perhaps had one of the most diverse migrant population particularly one of the most diverse Asian Population. Minnesota as a state has seen as much as a 74% (according to some estimates)  increase in Hispanic and Latino population(which still tallies to about a 4.3%) but the immigrant population averages stays to about the same. However, Minnesota as a state experiences the highest migrant population from Asian countries at number one and African refugees at number 2, with Latin American immigrants slowly gaining a rise.Within Minnesota’s 5th district the Trends that are consistent with Minnesota’s national averages. The district itself has a majority white population and minority immigrant population. Something to note about the Data presented in my graphs is that the Hispanic population is not completely reflective since it is conflated with many other races.

Immigration research suggest that migrants tend to be more integrated depending on the resources available, their utilization of these resources and their shaping of these resources(ie.having the political power to do so), and also based on factors like their race, economic status(or at least those associated), and their statuses. Minnesota’s 5th district has a predominant Asian and Somali ( Minnesota actually has the 2nd highest Somalian refugee population in the United States) immigrant population. According to Bloemraad refugee immigrants tend to have a greater odds for integration than other immigrants because of the narrative associated with their status(as deserving because suffering) and because of the resources also provided to them. As suggested by  Sofya Aptekar in the Edison study it seems as though Asian Americans are more likely to be accepted within societies and integrated as long as they do not participate within the politics of that white community and potentially contribute to the “threat narrative”. Public Opinion according to previous research tend to be fueled by narratives both perpetuated in the media and specifically the “threat narrative” correlated and emphasized with different groups(White backlash).

This research is relevant to my district because the immigrants within my district were mostly refugee immigrants and Asian immigrants( those of higher class) who were in part seen as more acceptable(Cynthia Boyd). However, despite the perpetuation of these trends which seem to indicate why immigrants in Minnesota’s 5th district have on average been better integrated into general mainstream society because as mentioned by White Backlash and Bloemraad they pose less of a “threat” because the association to these groups tend to be positive. However, Minnesota’s 5th unlike Edison seems to support immigrant  integration despite their run for political power because of the success of leaders like Omar. However, with the diversifying of immigrants within the state as a whole the narrative might start to differ. Especially with an increase in the hispanic population and the economic diversity of Asian immigrants certainly seems to be already changing the local narrative with people like Boyd pointing out the decrease in economic integration of Asian immigrants because of the different opportunities available.

My potential research plans would be to definitely compare to compare the treatment of older immigrants and contrast it with the treatment of newer immigrants. I want to compare the resources provided from the point of view of organizers for different ethnic groups and seeing whether or not and if so how the challenges for different ethnic, economic groups differ base on their affiliations. I would want to ask different community leaders about the challenges that their constituents see as hindering their integration into dominant society. I would also be interested in seeing whether or not public opinion has affected policies post shut down especially since between 12-25% of Minnesotans  are government employees? For my research I would also like to explore political activist websites and blog forums but my main question would be whether or not this would more along the lines of news and media research project?