Minnesota farm town reshaped by migrants wrestles with real changes beyond the political vitriol

WORTHINGTON, Minn. (AP) — Two Guatemalans wearing traditional embroidered skirts bought coconut boba teas on an October afternoon at the bustling downtown Asian market. In decades past, the building served as this rural town’s hardware store where farmers shopped for hammers, nuts and bolts.

Over the past generation, immigrants from Southeast Asia, East Africa and now predominantly Central America have transformed this once overwhelmingly white community on the vast prairie. Students of color constitute more than 80% of those enrolled in K-12, Spanish is most children’s first language, and soccer is far more popular than football.

“ Literally everything has changed,” said Chad Cummings, a city councilor and co-owner of the local radio stations — including a new 24/7 Spanish-language one.

Immigration is a core issue for voters this election, and some of the 2024 campaign’s most charged political vitriol has swirled around its effects on towns small and big across the country.

Like most lifelong residents in this politically red area, Cummings is proud of Worthington’s cosmopolitan flair, thriving economy and booming population. Thanks to migrants, most of whom come to work in the pork processing plant next to giant corn silos on its outskirts, the town has bucked the trend of rural communities nationwide that never recovered from the 1980s farm crisis.

But such rapid change has come with significant challenges and costs, as schools, churches and law enforcement have sought to respond to new needs despite language and cultural barriers. Old-timers and newcomers in Worthington are grappling with perhaps the most basic question — how to turn very separate groups into one functioning community.

“There are many ‘us’ in