For the first time ever, Africa is the source of a majority of Minnesota's legal immigrants, with Somalis topping the list

The flow of immigrants to Minnesota is quietly reaching record highs amid signs of what could prove to be a profound and lasting shift in their continents of origin. For the first time ever, African nations are supplying more than half the state's legal immigrants. Four countries from that continent now stand atop the list. Arrivals are doubling and quadrupling from countries such as Kenya and Liberia even as numbers are tapering off, for a variety of reasons, from past immigrant taproots such as India, Thailand and Russia, federal data show.