Why Minnesota has the Largest Somali Community in the U.S.

Why Are There So Many Somalis in Minnesota?

The Somali community in Minnesota has received national attention these past months.

After YouTuber Nick Shirley posted his viral video alleging massive daycare fraud in the Twin Cities, run in large part by Somalians, outrage at the community and misuse of state and federal funding grew.

In a November Truth Social post, just over a month before the video was published, President Trump called Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” and wrote, “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing.”

“I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota,” he wrote.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, TPS for Somali nationals fully ends on March 17, 2026.

United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced the termination and said, “Temporary means temporary. Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status.”

“Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”

While the deportation orders and use of federal agents to enforce them may attempt to satisfy the factions of the Republican Party who would like to see a crackdown on Minnesota, the reality is that most Somalians in Minnesota are not getting deported. They’re American citizens, either U.S.-born or naturalized.

Who Are Somali Minnesotans?

Minnesota is home to the largest concentration of Somalis outside of Africa, with the next major Western hubs being the UK, Canada, and Sweden. Most of the diaspora lives in neighboring African states.

According to U.S. Census data, before the 1990s there were about 2,000–3,000 people of Somali descent living in the U.S. As of 2026, that figure is now around 260,000. An estimated 70,000–100,000 of those live in Minnesota.

However, that figure also includes those with Somali ancestry, meaning federal action like the termination of TPS will impact only those who are non-citizens.

How Minnesota Became a Hub

To understand why Minnesota grew to have the largest American concentration of Somalis, you have to go back to the early 1990s.

The collapse of Somalia’s state engendered by a civil war drove large numbers of refugees to the U.S.

Some Somalis who migrated found work opportunities in Minnesota in industries such as hospitality or in meat processing. In the aftermath, secondary migration followed, as families joined relatives and friends who were already established in Minnesota. The process of chain migration concentrated the community.

Large numbers of Somalis were admitted into the U.S. under the Refugee Act of 1980, which established a modern U.S. admissions framework. Following the collapse of the Somali state and the ensuing civil war, tens of thousands of refugees were admitted under the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).

After one year, those admitted were able to apply for green cards, and after five years of holding a green card, they were able to apply for citizenship.

In 1990, Congress passed the Immigration Act, which created Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals of specifically designated countries who faced war or other disasters. Unlike the Refugee Act of 1980, TPS does not put those admitted on a direct path to permanent residency or citizenship.

U.S. Involvement in Somalia

As with many other conflicts in Africa, and pretty much everywhere else, the U.S. did not remain on the sidelines. American involvement began long before the 1990s.

During the Cold War, Somalia shifted its alliance from the Soviet Union to the United States. Then, following Somalia’s war with Ethiopia in 1977–78, known as the Ogaden War, the U.S. backed Somalia’s dictator at the time, Mohamed Siad Barre.

Siad Barre was overthrown in the early 1990s but fighting between factions persisted. In the absence of a functioning centralized government, Somalia became a failed state. After the collapse, the U.S. intervened again, but this time under a humanitarian banner.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush authorized Operation Restore Hope, which had a mission to address the widespread famine in Somalia. The United Nations joined in under UNOSOM II. What was supposed to be humanitarian assistance ended up entangling the U.S. and the UN in factional conflict.

You may remember the movie Black Hawk Down which dramatized one of the more well-known battles that American troops were involved in. In 1993, U.S. forces attempted to capture warlord lieutenants in Mogadishu, leading to an ugly battle where eighteen American soldiers were killed.

The United States withdrew in 1994.

But as is often the case, the U.S. eventually returned to Somalia. In the 2000’s America came back and supported the later internationally recognized government in its fight against the Islamist group al-Shabaab.

Over time, as the regional dynamics in the Horn of Africa changed, Washington reevaluated whether Somalis should be eligible for protected statuses within the U.S.

The current administration has decided conditions in the country have improved enough that TPS is no longer justified.

What Does Ending TPS Mean?

Ending TPS does not mean mass deportation of Minnesota’s Somali community.

It means that Somali nationals who currently live in the U.S. solely under TPS protection will either have to find another way to obtain legal status or leave when the designation expires. Again, the scale of those affected is likely very small.

It’s worth noting that Minnesota is not uniquely foreign-born compared to many states. Roughly 8–9% of Minnesota’s population is foreign-born, compared to about 23% in the state of New York and 27% in California. In New York City alone, that figure is about 38%.

Wisconsin’s foreign-born population sits around 5%.

While Somalis have gotten a lot of press, they are just one of many refugee groups resettled in the U.S. under the Refugee Act, including Iraqis, Afghans, Syrians, Ethiopians, and others.

Minnesota may be the epicenter of recent controversies, but the demographic and policy questions it raises aren’t just confined to the state. In Wisconsin, the largest immigrant groups are Mexican, Indian, Chinese, and Hmong communities that arrived under much different historical circumstances than Somalis.

But the broader pattern is familiar. America intervenes, and refugee flows often follow. Vietnamese after Vietnam. Bosnians after the Balkans. Iraqis, Afghans, and Syrians after the Global War on Terror. And Somalis after decades of civil war and U.S. involvement in the Horn of Africa.

If conflict between the United States and Iran continues to escalate, it would not be unprecedented to see similar displacement emerge in the years ahead.

The Upper Midwest’s demographic trajectory is determined not just by state policy, but by federal decisions made years earlier in Washington, long before their impact reaches neighborhoods in Minneapolis or Madison.