Monday, October 17, 2011

Karen immigrants celebrate new lives in Minnesota

Immigrants from Burma have settled in Minnesota and more are joining them all the time. - - Donna Poisl

By Frederick Melo

Saw Morrison knew he had to name his fourth and youngest child after his snowy, adopted new homeland, even as unfamiliar as it still was.

But "Minnesota"? Too long.

Morrison, part of an early wave of Karen immigrants who relocated from Thai refugee camps to St. Paul in 2004, celebrated his new surroundings with a compromise. Sota August Johnny is now 6 and, unlike his father, has grown up familiar with snow, the English language, American television and other daily intricacies of Minnesota living.

Morrison still puzzles over much of it. Big Macs leave him hungry for home cooking, even as his kids complain about some of the traditional dishes he whips up. Traditionally, the Karen, an ethnic minority from southern Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), have no surnames, forcing them to invent them on arrival in the U.S.
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