Minnesota, a blue-leaning state, is by many standards exceptionally welcoming of immigrants; it has the country’s second-largest population of Vietnamese Hmong people and is home to more Somalis than any other state in the country. The 2018 election to US Congress of Ilhan Omar was a testament to how politically engaged the Somali community is. But an hour west of Omar’s Minneapolis-based district, a town like St. Cloud in central Minnesota—once known as “White Cloud”—is not such an easy place for outsiders to settle in, especially East African Muslims. Adjusting to its new demographic reality, the town finds itself poised uneasily between tension and accommodation.
