American Taxpayers Are Paying Somalis Millions To Not Assimilate
Beth Brelje Visit on Twitter @BethBrelje
A review of recent federal grants reveals that taxpayers are on the hook for more than $32 million in funding for programs for Somalis in Minnesota.
Civil war and famine spurred many Somalians to immigrate to the United States in 1991 and settle in Minnesota. That was 34 years ago. Somalians could have assimilated into U.S. culture by now, but American taxpayers have been roped into funding programs that coddle Somalians’ Third-World culture and disincentivize their assimilation.
The Somali population explosion has rendered parts of Minneapolis unrecognizable as they impose a decidedly non-American culture on every aspect of the city. Somalis are members of the police force, city council, state legislature, and even Congress, still speaking their own language in those positions and, at times, cutting English speakers out of the loop. Their business signs are not in English. To the Western eye, their women’s clothing looks oppressive on a hot day. The Muslim call to prayer can be broadcast across Minneapolis five times a day.
In the name of helping Somalians in culturally sensitive ways, many federally funded programs have been tailored specifically for their population. And like other so-called refugee communities, big bucks have gone to university researchers who have made careers studying immigrant populations.
Going back as far as 2008, when USASpending.gov made finding government spending accessible to the public, taxpayers have sent more than $32 million to Minnesota for programs to support Somalis in America. That does not count the usual social programs many in that population have been gifted, including SNAP, Section 8 housing vouchers, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Nor does it count Minnesota’s scandalous $250 million Feeding Our Future scam and additional schemes that apparently total in the billions of dollars.
Here is a sampling of some of the programs funded for Somalians in Minnesota. This is just one group and location. Across the U.S., wherever there is a subculture of impoverished immigrants who won’t assimilate, someone is making money with government grants and contracts to “help” and “study” them. It is money that would be better spent encouraging assimilation or helping the U.S. taxpayers who are paying for it all.
More Pap Smears
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a drastic cultural difference Somali immigrants brought to the U.S. The United Nations reported in 2025 that 99 percent of young girls in Somalia still undergo the excruciating religious ceremony. It is officially outlawed in Minnesota. But since in Somalia it often performed without anesthesia by family member or an older woman in the community using a sharpened rock or piece of glass instead of a sterile hospital setting, it could happen in private in the U.S.
While cancer screening is not likely a priority in their home country, in 2011, researchers at the University of Minnesota were worried Somali women were not getting enough pap smears because of modesty and their FGM. They got a $3.1 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to boost cervical cancer screenings in that population. Researchers planned to develop a “culturally-tailored HPV self-sampling intervention for Somali women,” in which they could conduct their own tests.
And in 2016, HHS gave more than half a million dollars to the Minneapolis-based Isuroon, which provides “culturally specific” assistance according to its website. The grant was for Isuroon to offer a “self-help program” for Somali women to help them get “better health care” and to “prevent spreading of female genital cutting, develop leadership skills and integrate better in the Twin Cities.”