Speaker names poverty, especially among Somali refugees, as key problem for St. Cloud

Feb. 23--A speaker posed a question Thursday night to a full room at the St. Cloud library: We have a poverty problem in St. Cloud. How can we fix it?

John Palmer, a retired faculty member at St. Cloud State University, presented state data and then proposed a solution: a pause on refugee resettlement to improve the economic health of the refugees who are already here.

His data includes Somali refugees, who have been growing in numbers in St. Cloud since the early 2000s.

His paper, "Employment and Economic Status of Minnesota Resettled Refugees," looked at state demographic data that tracks unemployment, participation in the labor force and median income.

Palmer is part of Concerned Community Citizens, also known as C-Cubed, which is online as Central MN Refugee Watch Information Center. He called it a loosely organized group that doesn't yet have a mechanism to make any collective decisions.

Members of the group were major supporters of an unsuccessful proposed moratorium on refugee resettlement in St. Cloud backed by St. Cloud City Council member Jeff Johnson.

Several groups, including UniteCloud, encouraged people to attend the session ready with questions for Palmer and to show support for local refugees. Members of those groups were major opponents of the failed moratorium.

Palmer addressed the situation at the beginning of his presentation.

"If you came to hear an anti-refugee speaker you might as well leave, because I'm not that," he said. "That's not who I am, that's not what I do, that's not what I want to be known of as in the community."

Palmer presented data compiled by the Minnesota State Demographic Center, choosing ethnic groups as his lens. He compared the economic indicators of whites in Minnesota to the other major ethnic groups in the state: Mexican, Somali, Hmong and black.

His conclusion: The state's Somali population appears to have a higher rate of poverty, higher rate of unemployment, lower median income and lower percentage of people looking to be in the workforce than most other groups in the state.

"If you're a Minnesotan and you see this data, you should be embarrassed. Something is wrong with this picture," he said. It confirms the existence of a wide disparity in the economic health of different groups, Palmer said.

"That's not a disputable fact," he said. "The question is what do you do about it."

He said that fact suggests Somali refugees are placing "increased demands on local and state government as well as local charities."

He argued that local government does have indirect costs related to resettlement, including the cost of interpreters, increased personnel needed to handle populations seeking assistance as well as office space, but those costs are difficult to quantify. He referenced a number from a report by the Minnesota Office of the Legislative auditor from April 2017, which said in in fiscal year 2015, the Minnesota Department of Human Services spent $81 million in state funds on benefits for refugees, such as healthcare and Minnesota Family Investment Program support.

The presentation didn't include other breakdown of costs or include demographic breakdowns of the usage of government income or nutrition assistance programs or other programs created to address poverty and hunger.

Palmer also compared the economic health of the Somali population to the Hmong population, the last major group of refugees to come to Minnesota, around the time of the Vietnam War.

"When we look at the experience of the Hmong community and continuing economic challenges faced by African-Americans ... we have not done, as a society, a very good job," he said. "And then, we've brought in another population that have high needs."

He also said that St. Cloud's population is remaining relatively flat, while area cities such as Sartell, Sauk Rapids and Cold Spring are growing. Meanwhile, there is a decreasing percentage of St. Cloud schools students who speak English as a first language at home, he said.

He said that group of facts is evidence of white flight.

After presenting data, he proposed a path to a solution.

"This is not the factually-based, data-driven part of the presentation. This is me thinking aloud," he said.

He proposed a pause in refugee resettlement, which could give St. Cloud a chance to help the refugees already here to improve their economic status.

"Without a pause, more and more people will be competing to escape poverty," he said.

He also argued the federal funds spent at the time a refugee is brought to the U.S. might be better spent on programs that reduce dependence on welfare programs.

Then he posed the question to the group. What would they propose?

"Your presence tonight tells me that there's a commitment to do something," he said. "I don't know what that is. But the status quo, in my judgment, is not acceptable."

Palmer added that there's another huge problem to address in St. Cloud.

"What I see troubles me deeply. Mostly what I see is the absence of conversation," he said.

"The problem are not the people," he said. "The problem is we as a community do not come together and accept and talk with each other even though ... we may disagree."

Palmer then took questions from the group.

It was an ardent crowd, with people sometimes shouting over each other, making side comments and arguing with one another while others were asking questions of Palmer.

Some questioned Palmer's data, saying he was ignoring the economic contribution immigrants make to the state and St. Cloud. Others said they agree on the problem, but refugee resettlement is a federal decision so proposing a pause just confuses the conversation.

Some of the attendees asked about the value of diversity, depending on how one defines diversity.

Many of the questions focused on St. Cloud's overall economic picture. Too few local jobs pay a living wage, some said. Others pointed to the closure of manufacturing plants, such as Electrolux and the Verso paper mill, while new retail jobs don't provide the same stability. The availability of labor is driving down wages in St. Cloud, some said, while the tax rate is driving high-paying businesses out.

At the end of the question period, Palmer said he plans to have three more similar presentations on other papers he is working on, with dates and times to be announced.

"We are sitting as a community at a critical time," he said. "I don't like to be pessimistic. But when I look at the economic numbers and I look at these facts, I am deeply concerned about the future of our community. We have a choice. We can sit on the sidelines or we can engage."

For a copy of Palmer's paper or more on Concerned Community Citizens, visit centralmnrefugeeintel.com/what-s-happening.

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