We hope that small congregational groups will use this project to develop a new understanding of who their neighbors are and an awareness of their experiences.
We invite readers to use the reflection questions and any knowledge that you gain from this project to foster meaningful conversations with peers. We intend to present a wide range of immigrant backgrounds before congregations seek greater interactions with immigrants in their community.
This only works if you read!
Conclusion
Each story above was found through Minnesota-based media outlets or blogs, such as MPR, Sahan Journal, MinnPost, StarTribune, and Stories of Unheard Voices. While each of these sources is well-established and reputable, we would like to acknowledge that we did not interview these immigrants ourselves. These sources do not tell the full story of any individual and thus, we discourage anyone from drawing definitive conclusions from these articles.
After determining a list of respectable sources, we each scoured the sites to find stories that specifically interviewed an immigrant (or multiple) in southern Minnesota, as firsthand stories were important to us in the absence of conducting our own interviews. As a starting point, we searched for stories in St. Cloud, Worthington, Rochester, and Albert Lea. Eventually, we each found 10 sources (30 total). After determining themes from those stories (described in greater detail in the opening paragraphs), we decided to whittle the final number of stories to 15 to add a “curation” element; ensuring careful discussion and selection of each story. We also believed that 5 stories for each theme gave the audience the element of choice without being overwhelming. Our selection criteria involved establishing that each story was different in their own way, no stereotypes were furthered in the story, and it provided a specific insight into living in southern Minnesota.
We hope that these stories can be used as a primer for congregations as they explore the rapidly changing communities around them. Face-to-face interactions with immigrants is invaluable, but prior reflection and an awareness of the diversity of immigrant experiences is vital in order to engage sensitively and effectively. We encourage all congregation members to continue searching for diverse perspectives, whether that be online or from the people around you.