Settling Afghans in Small-town Minnesota

When Caroline Clarin is not restoring wetlands for the US Department of Agriculture, she is restoring hope, confidence, and stability for Afghan refugees. As a Department advisor in Afghanistan more than a decade ago, she had built strong relationships with Afghan colleagues in agricultural development. Now the university-trained horticulturalists who worked for her are coming to rural Minnesota. 

Clarin is determined to save more Afghans from the Taliban’s takeover of their country. The first of five families she has helped to get visas immigrated in 2017. Now she and her wife are helping others learn to live in America. An Associated Press story explains the couple’s role and describes the challenges faced by the most recently-arrived Afghan family, the Patans. 

That family is choosing to settle not far from Clarin’s farm, in Fergus Falls. This town of 14,000 has many amenities—an arts center, a community college, the falls for which the town is named—and is located in a beautiful area of rolling hills and lakes. Opportunities for fishing, hunting and camping abound. Although it does not have a mosque or a halal butcher, Fargo, North Dakota, which does, is only an hour away. A Patan cousin already lives in the town, and if Clarin’s efforts are successful, an Afghan community may well spring up in West Central Minnesota.