MPR: The Melting Pot in the Nation's Ice Box

The Melting Pot in the Nation's Ice Box
By Dan Gunderson
November 9, 1999

One of the largest window and door makers in the world is located in the small town of Warroad in northern Minnesota. Marvin Windows provides about 3,000 jobs, many to farmers who have left the land or need a second income.

A growing number of the workers are Laotians, attracted to Warroad by relatively good-paying jobs and small-town life.

WARROAD IS A PRETTY TYPICAL small Minnesota town of less than 2,000 people. Downtown you'll find a couple bars and restaurants, a hardware store, and a bank. Conspicuous by it's presence on a side street is the Asian Market.

The tiny store is a constant of bustle of shoppers and conversation. Cheerfully answering questions and ringing up merchandise is Khamsing Chanthanvonga, affectionately known around Warroad as "Store Man."

Chanthanvonga: I came here the first time in 1983. Warroad is kind of my town, I love it. Most of the town is very very nice. Furthermore, I like Marvin Window, you know.

It's difficult to know the number of Laotions in Warroad. Some were resettled here as refugees. Others came on their own. Many followed family. Chanthanvonga says there are about 65 families, and he expects more to come because there are jobs at Marvin Windows.

Boneham Siserath followed two brothers to Warroad. He lives in a new, decidedly middle-class, housing development a couple miles outside Warroad. He and his wife work at Marvin Windows. Siserath says he left Laos with very little education. Now he says he's living the American dream.

Siserath: They pay me pretty good pay. I talk with a lot of people, some have two-year, four-year college. They still work side-by-side. Well, nothing wrong with me.

But Siserath says a good job is not the reason he came to Warroad. He came here to give his kids an opportunity for a better life.

Jeff Siserath is a junior at Warroad High School. He says the family lived in Hawaii before moving to Warroad. He says classes are much smaller here and it's just a nice place to live.

Jeff Siserath: You know, not gang violence. Nobody brings guns to school. Not a lot of trouble. Everybody knows everybody, friendly.

For a high school student, there are some drawbacks to small-town life, at least from his high school student perspective.

Siserath: No shopping mall, stuff like that. No gathering place for people to have talk, fun, hangout. Things like that.

Boneham Siserath says the frigid northern Minnesota winter has also been a bit intimidating. His siblings, eight-year-old Maryann and five-year-old Adam, on the other hand, say winter is the best part of living in Warroad.

The Laotian influx has brought some changes to Warroad. Asian food and culture is finding a place in the land of lutefisk and lefse.

The local school has level diversity unseen at other rural Minnesota schools. Superintendent Dave Kragness says there are 79 Laotion students, about six percent of the student body. That's slightly less than the American-Indian student population in Warroad.

Kragness: Most schools here in northern Minnesota are white-American. We don't have a lot of different nationalities, other than Swedes and Norwegians.

The school district recently started an English-as-a-second-language program. Language has been a barrier for some students. Superintendent Kragness says that's reflected on state test scores where some Laotian students struggle with the reading portion.

But Kragness says there's been remarkably few cultural clashes, and he sees educational benefits for all the students.

Kragness: When Mr. Fermwell talks to the kids about U.S. history, they get a perspective from another country and, I think, world history, you see a lot of dialogue exchanged in the classroom that other places wouldn't have.

Marvin Windows officials say a labor shortage will be one of the greatest impediments to growth in the next five years. With jobs available, it's likely the Laotian population of Warroad will continue to grow.

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