The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
When we talk about immigrants in North Dakota, we’re often referring to people who came here in the late 1800s from Norway, Germany, England and Russia.
Most of us today are descendants of those immigrants and we maintain that proud ancestry through festivals such as Norsk Høstfest in Minot, Sauerkraut Day in Wishek and the Ukrainian Festival in Dickinson.
According to U.S. Census data, 40 percent of us are of German descent while 30.8 percent of us are Norwegian. The remaining 30 percent are descendants of a mosaic of nations including Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland, Poland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and Austria.
In other words, nearly all of us who have been born and raised here are of European decent.
There have also been thousands of Canadians who have emigrated to North Dakota for one reason or another, most notably marriage, with work and higher education being major factors for coming here.
Today, it’s a completely different story, and although many of today’s immigrants are from Europe, the largest numbers may surprise you.
A media organization called Stacker compiled a list of today’s immigrants in North Dakota. And as you might expect, Canada and Mexico are toward the top but are not at the top. The following numbers originate from the 2020 census.
Canada is No. 3 with 2,606 residents living here with Mexico No. 2 at 2,714 people. Most of us would think either Mexico or Canada would be at the top since they’re our neighbors. Not so! It’s Liberia, a nation in west Africa with 2,809 of its people living in North Dakota.
Why are people coming here from Liberia? Apparently, it’s because of the state’s need for a workforce and because of a historical connection between the United States and Liberia. It is easier for Liberian citizens to immigrate here than people from many other countries.
Immigrants from the Philippines come in fourth with 2,263 Filipinos living in North Dakota. As you might guess, a large portion of this group are working in a medical setting, such as doctors, nurses, hospital and nursing home staff and in numerous other categories.
Immigrants from other countries you might expect are not necessarily high on this list. In fact, one of them, Ukraine, has only 88 Ukrainian immigrants currently living in North Dakota, according to this report. That places Ukraine at No. 47, ahead of Croatia, Taiwan and Honduras.
One would think there would be a lot of Germans living here too, but there are only 446 German citi-zens living here, placing it 16th of 50. Norway, with 30 percent of us being of Norwegian descent, didn’t make the top 50.
However, Spain, at No. 38, has 121 people in North Dakota, Romania has 123, France has 306 and Russia has 338. No other European countries are represented regarding current immigrants or students.
Again, what might surprise you is that nearly 9,000 immigrants from a variety of African nations are living here in North Dakota. They include Somalia, No. 5; Kenya, No. 7; Nigeria, No. 10; Sudan, No. 15; South Africa, No. 21; Ghana, No. 22; Egypt, No. 28 and Ethiopia, No. 39.
People living here from Central and South America total 1,473 people coming from Colombia, 742; Panama, 132, El Salvador, 113 and Brazil, 108.
This report also lists immigrants from places you might expect, such as Afghanistan with 396, placing it 19th and Iraq with 337, placing it 24th.
China is ninth with 888 residents living here, South Korea is 11th with 750, Japan is 13th with 563, Vietnam is 17th with 444 and 234 Haitians are living here placing that nation’s immigrants at No. 29.
