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The Newest African-Americans?: Somali Struggles for Belonging

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The Contexts of Diaspora Citizenship

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Migration ((IPMI,volume 17))

Abstract

The chapter historicizes Somali migration and the context and content of the 1990s Somali influx to the United States (US). It locates Somali migration experiences within the wider debates of integration and citizenship in the highly racialized US context. The chapter highlights some of the key challenges Somalis are experiencing in urban America and their implications for settlement and belonging. Somali refugees’ limited human capital and their ongoing financial obligations to families left behind are two key factors that are shaping their settlement in the US. These entail significant implications for citizenship and the future of Somali-American as this new community reaps some of the benefits associated with migration while becoming further entrenched in inner city segregated urban America.

America is God’s crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming!...

The real American has not yet arrived. He is only in the crucible, I tell you – he will be the fusion of all races.

~Israel Zangwill

Not merely a nation but a nation of nations.

~Lyndon B. Johnson

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Originally published in Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies 11(1):90–107.

  2. 2.

    Minnesota’s Job Market: Land of 1000 Opportunities. The Economist (1999, May 27) at http://www.economist.com/node/208084

  3. 3.

    Security Stepped Up at Southside Terrace. Action 3 News (2011, January 28) at http://www.wardheernews.com/News_2011/Jan/28_security_stepped_up_at_south_side_terrace.html

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Cawo Mohamed Abdi

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  1. Cawo Mohamed Abdi
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Correspondence to Cawo Mohamed Abdi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Päivi Armila

  2. Juvenia – Youth Research and Development Centre, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Mikkeli, Finland

    Marko Kananen

  3. Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Yasemin Kontkanen

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Abdi, C.M. (2019). The Newest African-Americans?: Somali Struggles for Belonging. In: Armila, P., Kananen, M., Kontkanen, Y. (eds) The Contexts of Diaspora Citizenship. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94490-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94490-6_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94489-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94490-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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