***He came here in 2014 and already got permanent status. Is it automatic for Somalis? And he already had completed two years at a community college and got into OSU?***
It is nearly automatic, apparently. I lived in Cbus for over 25 years, and a job opportunity dictated that we move 3 years ago. The Northland area used to be nice enough, homes built in the 60s and 70s, but it got run down because of competition from the suburbs by the 80s and 90s. It went downhill fast once the mall there closed. The Somalis moved in en masse in the mid 1990s and haven’t stopped coming. Commerce has built back up somewhat.
I was shocked in 2012 to learn that all of these “refugees” were given citizenship rather quickly, because they were bused over to the voting site and I stood next to them all in line at the early voting. So this has been going on for a while. Very depressing that they get the instant shoe in, when there are so many others with degrees just waiting and waiting to get a green card status, usually about a ten year wait.
“The Northland area used to be nice enough, homes built in the 60s and 70s, but it got run down because of competition from the suburbs by the 80s and 90s. It went downhill fast once the mall there closed. The Somalis moved in en masse in the mid 1990s and haven’t stopped coming.”
Not surprised at all. I’ve had family live around there since before those subdivisions were built. They got to see schools like Brookhaven at their best and neighborhoods at their safest.
I noticed the decline when chain shops closed left and right. It got plain obvious when tons upon tons of ethnic shops opened on 161, Karl, and Cleveland.
What in their minds made them choose there over anywhere else in Columbus? Unless it was related to decline from the late 1960s, I can’t imagine what attracted them there.