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Editorial: Diversity drives Storm Lake

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Storm Lake is the most diverse city in Iowa, the Census tells us, the principal reason that this is one of the few rural places to post population growth. Taking the Census numbers at face value, The City Beautiful grew by 6.7% and nearby Alta was up 10.8% over the past decade. Buena Vista County’s population rose 2.7%.

Of course, the growth in food processing — eggs, turkey and pork — is driving the population. We are relatively younger than the state, we are growing organically with more births than deaths, and more people moved in. Counties with natural resources like Buena Vista and Dickinson long have been identified as rural places that can thrive. And they are, the Census says. Yet here, immigration remains the story.

There is a lesson for rural areas draining its young since the sod was broken.

Fonda is growing because of Latinos working in Storm Lake. Varina is full up, thanks to immigrant residents. Early looks tremendous if you blink through downtown. Spanish is spoken there. Newell-Fonda enrollment is growing thanks to its proximity to jobs.

A lot of infrastructure is going to waste and opportunity lost trying to fit it to an old model. Immigration has been the story of Iowa since the mid-19th century. The Danes came to Newell, the Swedes to Albert City, the Germans to Hanover, the Irish to Sulphur Springs. Now Latinos, Asians and Africans are writing a new chapter of growth by launching their own enterprises and improving their own lot through education.

That model can be repeated throughout Iowa. There will be jobs in a new energy economy in towns that have actively resisted immigration. Someone will have to fill them. There will be new food processing jobs in southern Iowa as cattle move north, and Latinos will fill them because the Anglos have been leaving the likes of Creston and Ottumwa. Iowa’s future, like its past, is bound up in the endless cycle of immigration. Storm Lake is attempting to make the most of it, and so are the little towns around. It’s a tremendous tale of success that Iowa should study.

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