MarketNeutral
11th April 2010, 08:49 PM
The St. Patrick’s Day festivities meant something much different for the couple in their 80s from Minneapolis than for the other revelers at the local American Legion Post on Florida’s Treasure Coast.
Within days the couple would be returning home to a Minnesota suburb now changed forever by the huge influx of Somali immigrants whose behavior had forced them to move from their familiar neighborhood.
“They are taught how to flush,†Marie (not her real name) said. She began to describe how the émigrés are taught how to use and flush a toilet, how to turn on kitchen faucets to get hot and cold water and how to use a stove in a house built in Somalia expressly to teach immigrants to the United States how to behave in their new surroundings
Then she went on to reminiscence on her over 80 years of living in her beloved country. One of 11 children of Eastern European descent, she said, “We spoke English.†The life she and her husband lived was one of hard work, diligence and respect for our country. When she said they had to move away from the home they worked hard to pay for, her voice became sadder. Describing how the Somalis bring home their groceries in the metal carts and just discard them along the streets and sidewalks, frustrated Marie. When she asked one woman why she didn’t return the carts, she was told that someone from the store always comes along and picks them up. In that small detail, Marie revealed a totally different mindset from America’s earlier immigrants than from what she and her husband were confronting today.
Somali immigration trends in Minnesota have exponentially grown from 1990 when fewer than 5,000 residents were born in Africa, to the estimated 25,000 Somali residents by 2004 “with no signs of slowing down.†Most are Sunni Muslims.
Brought initially to the northern state by do-gooder missionaries, the Somalis readily found welcoming social services, health and educational opportunities in the mostly left leaning state’s bureaucracy. But a far darker unintended consequence of Somali immigration has reared its head in the high number of their children born in America with autism. Dr. Sanne Magnan, Minnesota state health commissioner, said a recent study seems to confirm that “Somali children in this country experience higher levels of severe autism.â€
Idil Abdull, mother of an autistic child, said, “Yes, there is a problem. . .I know there are Somalis whose kids are under the bed and not taken anywhere. . .†The study concluded the Somalis were two to seven times more likely as other pupils to be in autistic classrooms. What is not included in the NEW YORK TIMES article is any estimate of the enormous cost to taxpayers of educating even one autistic child, let alone a burgeoning population of such pupils. Rightful consideration must be given to hard working American taxpayers and residents like Marie and her husband who all over this country are being forced to pay for and adjust to the inordinate strains of immigration, either legal or illegal, while liberal politicians and liberal media souhttp://www.collinsreport.net/2010/04/11/somalis-in-minneapolis-their-numbers-are-growing-and-theyre-bringing-expensive-autistic-children/rces continue to ignore them.
Within days the couple would be returning home to a Minnesota suburb now changed forever by the huge influx of Somali immigrants whose behavior had forced them to move from their familiar neighborhood.
“They are taught how to flush,†Marie (not her real name) said. She began to describe how the émigrés are taught how to use and flush a toilet, how to turn on kitchen faucets to get hot and cold water and how to use a stove in a house built in Somalia expressly to teach immigrants to the United States how to behave in their new surroundings
Then she went on to reminiscence on her over 80 years of living in her beloved country. One of 11 children of Eastern European descent, she said, “We spoke English.†The life she and her husband lived was one of hard work, diligence and respect for our country. When she said they had to move away from the home they worked hard to pay for, her voice became sadder. Describing how the Somalis bring home their groceries in the metal carts and just discard them along the streets and sidewalks, frustrated Marie. When she asked one woman why she didn’t return the carts, she was told that someone from the store always comes along and picks them up. In that small detail, Marie revealed a totally different mindset from America’s earlier immigrants than from what she and her husband were confronting today.
Somali immigration trends in Minnesota have exponentially grown from 1990 when fewer than 5,000 residents were born in Africa, to the estimated 25,000 Somali residents by 2004 “with no signs of slowing down.†Most are Sunni Muslims.
Brought initially to the northern state by do-gooder missionaries, the Somalis readily found welcoming social services, health and educational opportunities in the mostly left leaning state’s bureaucracy. But a far darker unintended consequence of Somali immigration has reared its head in the high number of their children born in America with autism. Dr. Sanne Magnan, Minnesota state health commissioner, said a recent study seems to confirm that “Somali children in this country experience higher levels of severe autism.â€
Idil Abdull, mother of an autistic child, said, “Yes, there is a problem. . .I know there are Somalis whose kids are under the bed and not taken anywhere. . .†The study concluded the Somalis were two to seven times more likely as other pupils to be in autistic classrooms. What is not included in the NEW YORK TIMES article is any estimate of the enormous cost to taxpayers of educating even one autistic child, let alone a burgeoning population of such pupils. Rightful consideration must be given to hard working American taxpayers and residents like Marie and her husband who all over this country are being forced to pay for and adjust to the inordinate strains of immigration, either legal or illegal, while liberal politicians and liberal media souhttp://www.collinsreport.net/2010/04/11/somalis-in-minneapolis-their-numbers-are-growing-and-theyre-bringing-expensive-autistic-children/rces continue to ignore them.