Download or read book Somalis in Minnesota written by Ahmed Ismail Yusuf and published by Minnesota Historical Society. This book was released on 2012 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Somalis in Minnesota begins with three words: sahan, war, and martisoor. Driven from their homeland by civil war and famine, one group of Somali sahan, pioneers, discovered well-paying jobs in the city of Marshall, Minnesota. Soon the war, news, traveled that not only was employment available but the people in this northern state, so different in climate from their African homeland, were generous in martisoor, hospitality, just like the Somali people themselves. The diaspora began in 1992, and today more than fifty thousand Somalis live in Minnesota, the most of any state. Many have made their lives in small towns and rural areas, and many more have settled in Minneapolis, earning this city the nickname "Little Somalia" or "Little Mogadishu." Amiable guide Ahmed Yusuf introduces readers to these varied communities, exploring economic and political life, religious and cultural practices, and successes in education and health care. he also tackles the controversial topics that command newspaper headlines: alleged links to terrorist organizations and the recruitment of young Somali men to fight in the civil war back home. This newest addition to the people of Minnesota series captures the story of the state's most recent immigrant group at a pivotal time in its history.
Download or read book Call Me American Adapted for Young Adults written by Abdi Nor Iftin and published by Ember. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adapted from the adult memoir, this gripping and acclaimed story follows one boy's journey into young adulthood, against the backdrop of civil war and his ultimate immigration to America in search of a better life. Abdi Nor Iftin grew up amidst a blend of cultures, far from the United States. At home in Somalia, his mother entertained him with vivid folktales and bold stories detailing her rural, nomadic upbrinding. As he grew older, he spent his days following his father, a basketball player, through the bustling streets of the capital city of Mogadishu. But when the threat of civil war reached Abdi's doorstep, his family was forced to flee to safety. Through the turbulent years of war, young Abdi found solace in popular American music and films. Nicknamed Abdi the American, he developed a proficiency for English that connected him--and his story--with news outlets and radio shows, and eventually gave him a shot at winning the annual U.S. visa lottery. Abdi shares every part of his journey, and his courageous account reminds readers that everyone deserves the chance to build a brighter future for themselves. FOUR STARRED REVIEWS!
Download or read book Somalis in Maine written by Kimberly A. Huisman and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lewiston, a mill town of about thirty-six thousand people, is the second-largest city in Maine. It is also home to some three thousand Somali refugees. After initially being resettled in larger cities elsewhere, Somalis began to arrive in Lewiston by the dozens, then the hundreds, after hearing stories of Maine’s attractions through family networks. Today, cross-cultural interactions are reshaping the identities of Somalis—and adding new chapters to the immigrant history of Maine. Somalis in Maine offers a kaleidoscope of voices that situate the story of Somalis’ migration to Lewiston within a larger cultural narrative. Combining academic analysis with refugees’ personal stories, this anthology includes reflections on leaving Somalia, the experiences of Somali youth in U.S. schools, the reasons for Somali secondary migration to Lewiston, the employment of many Lewiston Somalis at Maine icon L. L. Bean, and community dialogues with white Mainers. Somalis in Maine seeks to counter stereotypes of refugees as being socially dependent and unable to assimilate, to convey the richness and diversity of Somali culture, and to contribute to a greater understanding of the intertwined futures of Somalis and Americans.
Download or read book Somalis in the Twin Cities and Columbus written by Stefanie Chambers and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1990s, Somali refugees arrived in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Later in the decade, an additional influx of immigrants arrived in a second destination of Columbus, Ohio. These refugees found low-skill jobs in warehouses and food processing plants and struggled as social “outsiders,” often facing discrimination based on their religious traditions, dress, and misconceptions that they are terrorists. The immigrant youth also lacked access to quality educational opportunities. In Somalis in the Twin Cities and Columbus, Stefanie Chambers provides a cogent analysis of these refugees in Midwestern cities where new immigrant communities are growing. Her comparative study uses qualitative and quantitative data to assess the political, economic, and social variations between these urban areas. Chambers examines how culture and history influenced the incorporation of Somali immigrants in the U.S., and recommends policy changes that can advance rather than impede incorporation. Her robust investigation provides a better understanding of the reasons these refugees establish roots in these areas, as well as how these resettled immigrants struggle to thrive.
Download or read book From Somalia to Snow written by Hudda Ibrahim and published by . This book was released on 2022-09-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Somalia to Snow: How Central Minnesota Became Home to Somalis gives readers an invaluable insider's look into the lives and culture of our Somali neighbors and the important challenges they face. Designed with a diverse audience in mind, this book is a must-read for students, health-care professionals, business owners, social service agencies, and anyone who wants to better understand the Somali people. In providing a great understanding of Somali culture, tradition, religion, and issues of integration and assimilation, this book also focuses on why thousands of Somali refugees came to live in this cold, snowy area with people of predominantly European descent.
Download or read book Call Me American written by Abdi Nor Iftin and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop and watching action films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these Americans, who seemed as heroic as those of the movies. Sporting American clothes and dance moves, he became known around Mogadishu as Abdi American, but when the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab rose to power in 2006, it became dangerous to celebrate Western culture. Desperate to make a living, Abdi used his language skills to post secret dispatches, which found an audience of worldwide listeners. Eventually, though, Abdi was forced to flee to Kenya. In an amazing stroke of luck, Abdi won entrance to the U.S. in the annual visa lottery, though his route to America did not come easily. Parts of his story were first heard on the BBC World Service and This American Life. Now a proud resident of Maine, on the path to citizenship, Abdi Nor Iftin's dramatic, deeply stirring memoir is truly a story for our time: a vivid reminder of why America still beckons to those looking to make a better life.
Download or read book European Somalis Post Migration Movements written by Joëlle Moret and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-19 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a qualitative study on migrants of Somali origin who have settled in Europe for at least a decade, this open access book offers a ground-breaking exploration of the idea of mobility, both empirically and theoretically. It draws a comprehensive typology of the varied “post-migration mobility practices” developed by these migrants from their country of residence after having settled there. It argues that cross-border mobility may, under certain conditions, become a form of capital that can be employed to pursue advantages in transnational social fields. Anchored in rich empirical data, the book constitutes an innovative and successful attempt at theoretically linking the emerging field of “mobilities studies” with studies of migration, transnationalism and integration. It emphasises how the ability to be mobile may become a significant marker of social differentiation, alongside other social hierarchies. The “mobility capital” accumulated by some migrants is the cornerstone of strategies intended to negotiate inconsistent social positions in transnational social fields, challenging sedentarist and state-centred visions of social inequality. The migrants in the study are able to diversify the geographic and social fields in which they accumulate and circulate resources, and to benefit from this circulation by reinvesting them where they can best be valorised.The study sheds a different light on migrants who are often considered passive or problematic migrants/refugees in Europe, and demonstrates that mobility capital is not the prerogative of highly qualified elites: less privileged migrants also circulate in a globalised world, benefiting from being embedded in transnational social fields and from mobility practices over which they have gained some control.
Download or read book Somali Immigrants written by Patricia Hutchison and published by Momentum. This book was released on 2017-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Offers readers a compelling look into the lives, challenges, and successes of Somali immigrants. Additional features include a Fast Facts page, a timeline, informative photo captions, critical-thinking questions,primary source quotes and accompanying source notes, a phonetic glossary, additional resources for further study, and an index"--Provided by publishe
Download or read book The Western Disease written by Claire Laurier Decoteau and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-06-04 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Autism has become an all-too-common diagnosis here in the United States. Typically diagnosed in early childhood, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is identified based on developmental delays in three areas: language, social skills, and particular behaviors. But what Americans know and think about autism is shaped by our social relationship to health, disease, and our country's medical system. The Western Disease explores the ways that Somali recent immigrants make sense of their children's diagnosis of autism. Having never heard of the disease before migrating to North America, they often determine that since autism doesn't exist in Somalia, it must be a Western disease. Many even believe it is Somalis' forced migration to North America that has rendered their children vulnerable to the development of autism. As Decoteau shows, autism--as a category, identity, and diagnosis--does not exist in Somalia because the infrastructure for its emergence is absent. When Somalis say that autism does not exist in Somalia, however, they mean that the disorder is Western in nature--that it is caused by environmental and health conditions unique to life in North America. Following Somali parents as they struggle to make sense of their children's illness and advocate for alternative care, Decoteau untangles the complicated ways immigration, race, and class affect the Somali relationship to the disease, and how this helps us understand our distinctly American approach to healthcare"--
Download or read book Home Now written by Cynthia Anderson and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A moving chronicle of who belongs in America. Like so many American factory towns, Lewiston, Maine, thrived until its mill jobs disappeared and the young began leaving. But then the story unexpectedly veered: over the course of fifteen years, the city became home to thousands of African immigrants and, along the way, turned into one of the most Muslim towns in the US. Now about 6,000 of Lewiston's 36,000 inhabitants are refugees and asylum seekers, many of them Somali. Cynthia Anderson tells the story of this fractious yet resilient city near where she grew up, offering the unfolding drama of a community's reinvention--and humanizing some of the defining political issues in America today. In Lewiston, progress is real but precarious. Anderson takes the reader deep into the lives of both immigrants and lifelong Mainers: a single Muslim mom, an anti-Islamist activist, a Congolese asylum seeker, a Somali community leader. Their lives unfold in these pages as anti-immigrant sentiment rises across the US and national realities collide with those in Lewiston. Home Now gives a poignant account of America's evolving relationship with religion and race, and makes a sensitive yet powerful case for embracing change.
Download or read book Immigrants from Somalia and Other African Countries written by Jessica Gunderson and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2019-05-01 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In today's uncertain world, many families are leaving their home countries and seeking a better life in the United States. Immigrants from Somalia and Other African Countries explores the stories of two families who left their home countries to find a better life in the United States. Follow their journeys to find out why they left their homelands and understand the challenges they faced in moving to a new country.
Download or read book America Here I Come written by Hamse Warfa and published by Sunshine Publishing. This book was released on 2014-11-20 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America Here I Come: A Somali Refugee's Quest for Hope brings you the moving story of Hamse Warfa. It is a heartrending narration of his escape from a civil war that ultimately claimed the lives of more than two million people in Somalia to his becoming a leading light here in the U.S. The author takes us back to his difficult life as a refugee in the camps in Kenya and the trials of adapting to life as a New American. The book is candid about the kind of challenges that new immigrants face seeking education and integration in the U.S. The cultural shocks that Hamse faces in the new land of opportunity are as funny as they are thought-provoking. Hamse is determined to make an honest and meaningful existence, and he openly shares what really goes on in the back of an immigrant's mind throughout the process.. Hamse's personal story is helpful for Americans to understand their neighbors (New Americans) and the intricate web of global affairs that often lead people to seek refuge in distant lands. Hamse talks of his struggle with education, partly for the feeling of alienation that he suffers in a foreign land, and second due to his poor language skills. But he confronts the language barrier and eventually gets the breakthrough he has always yearned for. He earns a bachelor's degree in Political Science from San Diego State University, and later Masters of Science in Organizational Management & Leadership from Springfield College. Currently, Hamse is pursuing his doctoral degree in Public Administration at Hamline University. Certainly, Hamse is no longer the naive boy of mixed identity he was close to 20 years ago when he first landed in the United States. This book is not an appeal for pity. Rather, it is a living proof that with persistence you can conquer the tallest barriers standing between you and your success. Today, Hamse serves as an advisor to philanthropy working with foundations. He also is an expert in peacebuilding serving as a board and executive committee member for Alliance for Peacebuilding, a global membership association of more than eighty peacebuilding organizations, 1,000 professionals, and a network of more than 15,000 people developing processes for change in the most complex, chaotic conflict environments around the world. Hamse is also a motivational speaker on conquering adversity, building resilience, and the importance of education and academic success for low-income children. America Here I Come: A Somali Refugee's Quest For Hope is both a memoir as well as a view on leadership for people in positions of authority both in private and public sectors. It is a must-read for students of political science, leadership, history, as well as immigration. For New Americans facing the challenge of integration and needing to redefine their new identity, this is the book you need to understand your situation better and chart your way forward towards success.
Download or read book Somalia The Untold Story written by Judith Gardner and published by CIIR. This book was released on 2004 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the experiences of women in Somalia and how they have survived the trauma of war.
Download or read book Elusive Jannah written by Cawo M. Abdi and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Elusive Jannah is a remarkable portrait of the different experiences of Somali migrants in the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and the United States. Cawo M. Abdi's nuanced analysis demonstrates that a full understanding of successful migration and integration must go beyond legal, economic, and physical security to encompass a sense of religious, cultural, and social belonging. Her timely book underscores the sociopolitical forces shaping the Somali diaspora"--
Download or read book Women of the Somali Diaspora written by Joanna Lewis and published by Hurst Publishers. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about Somali mothers and daughters who came to Britain in the 1990s to escape civil war. Many had never left Somalia before, followed nomadic traditions, did not speak English, were bereaved and were suffering from PTSD. Their stories begin with war and genocide in the north, followed by harrowing journeys via refugee camps, then their arrival and survival in London. Joanna Lewis exposes how they rapidly recovered, mobilising their networks, social capital and professional skills. Crucial to the recovery of the now breakaway state of (former British) Somaliland, these women bore a huge burden, but inspired the next generation, with many today caught between London and a humanitarian impulse to return home. Lewis reveals three histories. Firstly, the women’s personal history, helping us to understand resilience as an individual, lived historical process that is both positive and negative, and both inter- and intra-generational. Secondly, a collective history of refugees as rebuilders, offering insight into the dynamism of the Somali diaspora. Finally, the forgotten history and hidden legacies of Britain’s colonial past, which have played a key role in shaping this dramatic, sometimes upsetting, but always inspiring story: the power of women to heal the scars of war.
Download or read book Adua written by Igiaba Scego and published by New Vessel Press. This book was released on 2017-05-22 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Utterly sublime . . . Aduatells a gripping story of war, migration and family, exposing us to the pain and hope that reside in each encounter” (Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King). Adua, an immigrant from Somalia, has lived in Italy nearly forty years. She came seeking freedom from a strict father and an oppressive regime, but her dreams of becoming a film star ended in shame. A searing novel about a young immigrant woman’s dream of finding freedom in Rome and the bittersweet legacies of her African past. “Lovely prose and memorable characters make this novel a thought-provoking and moving consideration of the wreckage of European oppression.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Igiaba Scego is an original voice who connects Italy’s present with its colonial past. Adua is an important novel that obliges the country to confront both memory and truth.” —Amara Lakhous, author of Dispute over a Very Italian Piglet “This book depicts the soul and the body of a daughter and a father, illuminating words that are used every day and swiftly emptied of meaning: migrants, diaspora, refugees, separation, hope, humiliation, death.” —Panorama “A memorable, affecting tale . . . Brings the decolonialization of Africa to life . . . All the more affecting for being told without sentimentality or self-pity.” —ForeWord Reviews “Deeply and thoroughly researched . . . Also a captivating read: the novel is sweeping in its geographical and temporal scope, yet Scego nonetheless renders her complex protagonists richly and lovingly.” —Africa Is a Country
Download or read book Muslims in the Diaspora written by Rima Berns McGown and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the balancing act of living as a Muslim in the west. It is a comparison of the Somali communities in London, England and Toronto, and is based on a series of in-depth interviews with over 80 Somali women, men and teenagers in those cities.
