MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, US, May 27, 2011 (Star Tribune): For Shalini Thadani of Woodbury, shopping for Asian Indian groceries used to require a special trip to Minneapolis. In the 10 years since she and her husband arrived in the Twin Cities from Atlanta, she’s watched with delight as more Indian grocery stores have popped up in the metro area — including one in Woodbury.
The Thadanis are riding a wave of immigration that has propelled Indians like themselves to become Minnesota’s second-largest group of Asians in the last decade, overtaking the Vietnamese (the Hmong are believed to be the largest Asian group in the state). Most of that growth is in the Twin Cities’ suburbs.
From 2000 to 2010, the number of Minnesotans with roots in India nearly doubled, from 16,887 to 33,031, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data released on the state’s ethnic groups. Though the group is still comparatively small, such rapid growth places Minnesota among the leaders of the nation’s Asian Indian boom.