U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Visits ADC
Recently, *U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, Laurie S. Fulton, made a visit to the African Development Center of Minnesota to learn more about the work that ADC does to help the African immigrant and refugee community in the state.
Denmark, like many northern European nations, has recently experienced a growth in immigrants and refugees from Africa, and subsequently is coming upon a number of challenges in dealing with issues of co-existence of cultures. Ambassador Fulton’s objective on this trip is to learn how organizations and regions experiencing similar situations are successfully dealing with these types of issues.
Upon her arrival, Executive Director, Hussein Samatar gave Ambassador Fulton a tour of the ADC building and Afro Deli. She admired the vibrant art work in the building and enjoyed the introduction to what ADC does. Following the tour, ADC staff met with the Ambassador for a discussion in the Meridel Le Sueur conference room. Everyone introduced themselves and described the work they do with ADC.
Ambassador Fulton asked a lot of questions from the staff regarding ADC involvement in the African community in Minnesota, and spoke at length about her work in Denmark and the perceptions of immigrants in that country. She expressed hopes of seeing immigrants succeed in Denmark in similar ways to the successes experienced by the community in this state. Hussein Samatar then spoke about his experience visiting Sweden recently and Ambassador Fulton agreed that the two countries, Sweden and Denmark had similar difficulties integrating their immigrant communities, particularly in terms of upward mobility.
Before leaving, Ambassador Fulton said she would like to arrange visits from officials in Denmark to Minneapolis to see for themselves the work that we do, in order to see if it is possible to replicate these types of accomplishments there. She also stated that she would like key ADC staff to visit the embassy in Denmark in order to showcase our success and share our experience about how these types of programs and services could work in Denmark as well.
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Ambassador Laurie S. Fulton was appointed by President Obama to be the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark in 2009. Since then, she has made it her goal to learn as much as possible about her ancestral land, and to offer leadership where it is needed in facilitating solutions for Denmark’s problems, particularly as it relates to immigrants. Fulton’s grandfather left Denmark and moved to the U.S. in order to have a better life. Her story is the story of all immigrants, and Ambassador Fulton sees herself in the stories of African immigrants in Minnesota.
