Minnesota’s future: State’s welcoming tradition still unites us

Minnesota has a legacy of welcoming refugees. And true to that tradition, Minnesotans were the first to welcome refugee families under the new national Welcome Corps program.

I'm not surprised that Minnesota is leading the way nationally in welcoming refugees, and you shouldn't be either. But what may surprise is that these debut groups of welcomers aren't from the Twin Cities.

Last month, on World Refugee Day, two groups of private sponsors in Worthington and Moorhead welcomed the first refugees to arrive in the United States through the Welcome Corps. They were a three-generation Congolese family and a single individual from Ethiopia. After months of preparation, groups of volunteers arrived at the nearest major airport — one in Sioux Falls and the other in Fargo — to provide a warm welcome and a ride to the refugees' first homes in the United States.