Minneapolis Demographics

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The Hmong are more concentrated in St. Paul, right though?

Yes.  There were also Hmong elected to the St. Paul school board and city council.

There was also a Hmong state legislator.. I'm not sure if she's still there, though.

There is actually a lot of racial tension building up in the city's high schools among the African American blacks and the African blacks.  I'm not sure if it's along cultural or religious lines... I suspect both.

The Somali community is becoming politically active and have become a major presence in the city by throwing out long-standing politicians and replacing them.

The DFL hasn't really known exactly what to do about it since they're torn between backing well known, entrenched progressives vs. relatively unknown, but potentially close allies in the Somali population.

Jimrtex:  What you'll find among ethnic groups in the Twin Cities and among immigrant communities in Minnesota and the upper midwest is that we don't tend to attract "traditional" immigrants.  To be sure, there is plenty of Hispanic immigration here... but we have traditionally been big in the refugee immigration side of things since many non-profit resettlement organizations are based here.

So there was an influx of Vietnamese and Hmong in the 70s and 80s (into the 90s) with increasing migrations from Africa since the 80s (Ethiopia during the famine, Liberia, and once again Ethiopia and Somalia)... and even a good amount of Eastern European and Russian migration during the 90s.

Once people are here, their families and even friends tend to come to the same place.

Most recently, the Karen people of Myanmar have been settling in Minnesota.  So we have a disproportionate amount of African and southeast Asian migration compared to the nation... and oddly also European migration.  We're below average in domestic and hispanic migration.

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Minnesota is definitely associated more with Norwegian influence than Swedish.  When people refer to the "home country" that means Norway. 

Norwegians and Swedes are referred to as Scandihoovians while people of Finnish descent are called Finlanders.

Sven, Ole, Lena, and family are all Norwegian.  That should settle this.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Minnesota is definitely associated more with Norwegian influence than Swedish.  When people refer to the "home country" that means Norway. 

Norwegians and Swedes are referred to as Scandihoovians while people of Finnish descent are called Finlanders.

Sven, Ole, Lena, and family are all Norwegian.  That should settle this.

PIONEER NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENT IN MINNESOTA (PDF) See page 21 of 35(PDF) for distribution of Norwegian settlement.   According to the monograph, Norwegians skipped the areas east of the Mississippi as less fertile (and more trees).

In 1940, the foreign stock (foreign born and children with at least one foreign-born parent) was:

Germany: 266,707
Sweden: 229,121
Norway: 228,965

Given this reality, why is there a perception (among some) that Minnesota is Norwegian?

Possible theories:

(1) German nationalism was discouraged after the two WW, and Germans are so ubiquitous that to be of German descent is almost the same as being of British descent as far as making one a non-hyphnenated-American;

(2) The Swedish-born were concentrated in the more cosmopolitan Twin Cities, and developed more of a Twin Cities identity, than a Swedish one;

(3) The Norwegian-born and descendants had a stronger (nationalist) identification with the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian monarchy in 1905.  Though Norway had its own parliament and government, foreign policy was under greater influence of the King, and Norway was denied its own diplomatic corps, which might be of significance among those who were not US citizens.

Ole: Hey Sven, why do the Hmong and Somali refer to Norway as the "home country".

Isn't Sven Swedish?  Or is there some other explanation of he being the less bright of the two?

The point is that none of them are particularly bright.

For example:

Ole finally kicked the bucket, so Lena went down to the newspaper to put an obituary in the Sunday paper.  The newspaper receptionist asked Lena what she'd like to put in the obituary, and Lena replied "Ole died."

The newspaper receptionist was a bit flummoxed and says to Lena "you know you can have up to 20 words for no extra charge!"

Lena ponders this for a good while and then writes on a piece of paper "Ole died.  Boat for sale."

But yeah:  Any German nationalism was stifled during WWI and the German speaking schools were forcibly anglicized while German speaking churches were frowned upon.  Meanwhile the Swedes assimilated better being in the urban areas.  That left the Norwegians... with some churches offering services in Norwegian into the 1950s.

And yes... Norwegian independence and the rural agricultural nature of Norwegian settlement in the upper midwest kind of entrenched Norway as the standard bearer for "Scandihoovian culture" as people call it.

Getting back to Minneapolis more specifically, there was a good amount of both Norwegian and Swedish immigration to the city.  St. Paul, meanwhile, was always home to the largest concentration of Irish in the state... hence their early and unique affinity to the Democratic party.  Eventually Humphrey was able to marry those Irish Democrats to the Scandinavian socialists and create the DFL.

On the other hand the majority of Republicans are "out-of-staters" who came from the Dakotas or other midwestern locales friendly to the GOP who have pushed the MNGOP rightward and kind of into oblivion.  This rightward push has alienated the more moderate establishment GOP types that long dominated the party up until the 1990s.  The last minute nomination and overwhelming popularity (in Minnesota terms, at least) of Arne Carlson (a good Swede) was the capstone on the moderate/liberal Republican dominance.

After what could eventually be called the MNGOP's Great Big F**k-Up  (GBFU), they're still recovering and are trying to re-establish their more moderate roots along with a new libertarian flair.  And the MNGOP once again takes its place as the occasional reality check for when the DFL gets tangled up in its own web of well-intentioned bullsh**t.