​Immigrant entrepreneurs share the American dream

By Amy Venn

Immigrant business owners and those aspiring to be entrepreneurs will have a chance to speak, network and gain valuable knowledge about starting their own businesses at the Immigrant Entrepreneur Event during Welcoming Week in Fargo.

Darci Asche, the director of development at New American Consortium for Wellness and Empowerment, explains the event as informative, motivating and encouraging for potential immigrant entrepreneurs. There’s also a chance for new Americans to showcase their tycoon spirits.

“Immigrant-owned businesses are really a testament to what new Americans bring to our community,” Asche said, “People have the idea that they are just takers and this is a testament to them being as much a part of the community economic liability as anyone else.”

The four-person panel discussion will be held at the International Market Plaza, where immigrants will have a chance to ask questions and hear the stories of those who have had success as migrant business owners. Much of the discussion will focus on businesses that don’t necessarily stand out as a store front.

“When you talk about contacting immigrant-owned businesses, people think of the grocery stores or the restaurants,” Asche explained, “but there are other options new Americans can explore.” Like the unaccompanied refugee minor from Bosnia who graduated from Concordia University and started his own highly successful cleaning business.

There is also the Saudi Arabian-Canadian-African-American, Mohamed Hussein, co-director of Jasmin Child Care in west Fargo. Open since January of this year, Jasmin Child Care is a daycare and a multi-licensed pre-school that serves children ages six weeks to 12 years old.

Hussein is excited to share his family’s story at the Immigrant Entrepreneur Event. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to explain the process to people. When we were starting our business, it wasn’t a piece of cake,” he said, “We would have loved someone who is familiar with the process to guide us through it.”

Hussein saw a need for culturally sensitive child care in an area with immigrants from a wide range of backgrounds. “One of the main factors for us opening the center was to address the educational disparities especially in early childhood education,” he said recently, “Our director, who also happens to be my mom, Rhoda Elmi, is always looking for tools to bridge that gap.”

While the child care center is open to children of any nationality, Hussein sought to do something more for the new Americans in the area. “We offer a diverse and safe space for children,” he explained, “They are exposed to different cultures and multiple languages. They speak Arabic, Somali, Swahili and English.”

With studies showing that bilingual children have many cognitive benefits, the multilingual system at Jasmin Child Care is a point of pride for Hussein and his mother. They also incorporate other culturally sensitive customs, like not serving pork at their school because of Muslim beliefs. Jasmin Child Care also helps new Americans adapt to the process of child care, a notion that is often unfamiliar to families. Being able to communicate in their own languages helps ease the process.

Hussein and his family migrated from Saudi Arabia to Canada as economic migrants after the first Gulf War in 1998. Hussein was five years old, but it was in Canada that he was first exposed to the entrepreneur spirit.

His father worked and saved in Canada for almost a decade, when they then made the move to Kenya. “When I was there for five years, it was probably the best time of my life,” Hussein said. In Kenya, Hussein graduated high school, learned Swahili and had many wonderful experiences.

“I gained perspective,” Hussein said, “Growing up in Canada; it’s a first world country. Coming back and seeing the opportunities we had here, I really gained a wonderful value of education.” Such values have been instilled in Hussein and his three siblings, who all enrolled in college when they gained green cards and moved to the United States.

“It’s really here in the United States that you really have an opportunity to achieve your dreams,” Hussein marveled, “It may sound cliché: The American Dream. But from first-hand experience whatever you set your mind to, you really can do it.” His statement doesn’t go without due credit to his mother, who encourages education and hard work.

Darci Asche added, “If you have the entrepreneur spirit, you don’t just go working for a guy on the assembly line. You want to be your own boss. We help make that dream come true.”

The Immigrant Entrepreneur Event will take place on September 20 at 4pm as part of the Welcome Week celebration in Fargo this month.