Mankato becomes destination for refugees

If you want to live in the U.S., you need to understand English. That's what 23-year-old Abukar Adnan believes. It's why he studies English though adult classes at Lincoln Community Center each week.

Adnan hopes to learn enough English and pass his General Educational Development test so he can study computer science and auto engineering in college. Yet fewer than two years ago, Adnan and his family were living in a refugee camp in Kenya after their home in Somalia was destroyed.

"I thought when I came to the U.S., my life is safe, and I will have a better life," he told The Free Press.

Adnan, and hundreds of people like him, have come to call Mankato home in recent years. Ever since the mid-1990s, Mankato has grown as a prime destination for refugees to settle into once they've come to the U.S. As the federal government plans to accept 85,000 refugees in 2016, state and local officials expect to see even more refugees settle in the region.

"They are able to choose where they want to live, and they choose Mankato," said Jessica O'Brien, associate director of Mankato Refugee Services, a division of the Minnesota Council of Churches.

"I think that says something about this community, because people have migrated here, migrated from other states, and have chosen to make their home here."

Minnesota is among the top destinations for refugees who have already settled in larger U.S. cities, a phenomenon called secondary refugee migration.

The state has received 2,016 refugees from the beginning of 2015 through November, according to the state Department of Health. More than 80 percent of those refugees settled in the Twin Cities, but about 30 refugees came directly to Blue Earth and Nicollet counties.

Yet those numbers don't show how many refugees have relocated here from elsewhere over the same time period. Refugee assistance experts say Minnesota has become the top destination for secondary migration.

"The trend over recent years is that those secondary refugees are moving sooner and sooner after resettlement to another state," said Kristine Bjerkaas Friesen, director of refugee services for the Minnesota Council of Churches, one of five statewide refugee service agencies.

"What we see as more of a trend is that they come, they land in a state and then move right away, or move within a week."

Many refugees have come to Mankato over the past 20 years, which is why local officials reached out to the Minnesota Council of Churches a few years ago to help offer services. That's how the Mankato Refugee Service office came to open in 2012, according to Bjerkaas Friesen.

"Mankato today is serving as a really wonderful example of other communities in Minnesota who are dealing with those same shifting demographics," she said.

Mankato and other areas around Minnesota expect to see more refugees settle here in 2016 as the federal government plans to take in 15,000 more refugees than the normal 70,000 or so the U.S. has received over the past few years.

State and local agencies are preparing to stretch their resources to meet the increase in refugees. The Minnesota Council of Churches told federal officials it could help 395 people in 2015, but the nonprofit ended up serving 408 refugees. This year, staff say they can serve 425, but Bjerkaas Friesen believes they'll help about 435 refugees, if not more.

Refugees are different from regular immigrants who come to the U.S. To qualify as a refugee, people must be fleeing violence or persecution of some sort, which makes it almost if not impossible to return home.

When Adnan was a boy, his family home in Mogadishu, Somalia, was destroyed when a bomb landed on it during the Somali Civil War. Faced with no shelter, the children made a month-long arduous journey into Kenya on foot.

They could only travel at night, however. If Somali fighters on either side had seen them, Adnan's family would have been killed. And the same thing could have happened had Kenyan police caught them.

It's one of the reasons why Fartum Ali, Adnan's sister, was terrified of police when she first came to the U.S. Ali was one of several adult students to discuss their lives with Minnesota State University students last month. She told them about the time a police officer waved to her on the street, and Ali tried to hide. She didn't realize the officer was trying to be friendly.

"I was so scared," she said.

Adnan, Ali and other refugees tell similar stories of how police in some African countries take people away, never to be seen again.

Adnan and Ali came to the U.S. a year and a half ago when they were settled in Tuscon, Arizona. They didn't stay long there, however. The weather was way too hot, and they didn't know enough people.

Yet their aunt, who lives in Mankato, offered to let them stay with her while they make plans to get a job or go to school.

"She said come here, where we can help you," Ali said.

That's a big reason why so many refugees and immigrants have come here -- those who have already settled in Mankato have told others about everything the community offers.

That was a major reason why Mankato Area Public Schools Board Member Abdi Sabrie moved his family here. Though he's not a refugee -- he came to the U.S. from Somalia in the late '70s to study engineering in Boston -- he has advocated for refugees for decades.

Sabrie's family moved to the area from Atlanta, Georgia, seven years ago after doctors told him the climate and poor air quality was affecting his children's breathing.

In Mankato, there were no such problems. There was a sizable African refugee population, however. And many faced language and cultural barriers while adjusting to life in the U.S.

"Ninety-five percent of the Somali community was relatively new, the majority of them," he said. "When I moved here, I became a natural ambassador."

Many refugees also come to Mankato through family reunification programs, according to O'Brien. When one family member settles in the U.S., federal and state officials will try to ensure the rest of the family is settled in the same area.

A majority of refugees in Mankato and Minnesota come from African and Asian nations. Since 2000, more than 70 percent of refugees who directly settled in Minnesota have come from Laos, Burma, Ethiopia and Somalia alone. While the federal government expects to take in more Syrian refugees in 2016, Minnesota will likely continue to predominantly welcome African and Asian refugees.

It can be difficult to adjust to life in the U.S. for a refugee, however. People in the U.S. often stay busy with school or work, which marks a big difference from living in a refugee camp.

"You don't do anything there," said 22-year-old Kadir Hassan. "Refugee camp is a different life because you never get enough to eat."

Hassan has lived in the U.S. since December 2011. Before that, he lived at the Kebribeyah Refugee Camp in Ethiopia, where he was born and raised. Coming to the U.S. was a bit of a shock, not just because of how busy life is.

"The weather here," he said with a laugh. "In Africa, there's normal weather and then there's rain. Here, there are big weather changes in America."

Hassan looks forward to taking the U.S. Citizenship Exam in 2016. Refugees are eligible for permanent residency after a year and are able to become citizens after five years. To that end, he studies English and U.S. customs every day.

O'Brien estimates about 500 current or former refugee families live in the Mankato area, many of them like Hassan and his family.

"I think it really speaks to this community being really welcoming, having really strong components of support for families within the schools and within the public safety systems, all of those avenues," O'Brien said. "I think it speaks to the quality of life here."

Area refugees agree. Hassan, Adnan and Ali are studying to go to college, and all of them hope to contribute to their new community.

"I think this country is very good to live in," Adnan said. "People here are very kind."

An AP Member Exchange shared by Trey Mewes of The Free Press