Jason Richwine at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) does a deep dive into the data on the Somali community in Minnesota. His headline,
Somali Immigrants in Minnesota: Profile of a struggling group.
He documents the striking differences between persons of Somali ancestry and the native population of Minnesota on a wide range of measures. Perhaps the most compelling statistics,
Among working-age adult Somalis who have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years, half still cannot speak English “very well”.
About 54 percent of Somali-headed households in Minnesota receive food stamps, and 73 percent of Somali households have at least one member on Medicaid. The comparable figures for native households are 7 percent and 18 percent.
Nearly every Somali household with children (89 percent) receives some form of welfare.
Defenders of the community would point out that Somali refugees came to America, beginning 35 years ago, with nothing. Reflecting the chaos back home, they arrived here with relatively low levels of educational attainment, little knowledge of the local language, etc.
Richwine points out that Somali immigrants show noticeable improvement in their economic condition, but continued struggles, after a decade or more in America.
Through the generosity of Minnesota and federal taxpayers, most members of the Somali community have familiarity with the state’s social welfare programs. A small percentage of the community has taken advantage of the programs and defrauded taxpayers of what appears to billions of dollars.
The Minnesota Star Tribune published a commentary yesterday under the headline,
Vang: Somalis don’t contribute anything? How about $8 billion to the Minnesota economy.
In her column, Ms. Vang cites a source for the $8 billion figure. Given the statistics Richwine has compiled, it’s difficult to conclude that the Somali community is making a net positive contribution to the state’s economy.
This observation is not a moral judgement.
In fact, the original source of the $8 billion figure concedes (Q11) that it does not represent a cost-benefit analysis, nor does it account for stolen funds.
The $8 billion figure appears to be the result of merely multiplying the Somali population by the state’s average GDP per capita, without accounting for any underlying economic disparities.
The now-repeated claim that the Somali population has become the state’s “engine of economic growth” appears to rely exclusively on the group’s relative population growth, rather than any underlying economic contributions.
A cynic would observe that in the $8 billion analysis, the Somali community is seen as merely an object for receiving government assistance, which in turn is then recycled in the local economy and abroad, producing economic impact.
