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International Institute of Minnesota

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Christmas Party at the International Institute, 1920

Christmas party at the International Institute’s first location at 584 Rice Street in St. Paul. The image was included in the 1921 annual report for the year of December 1919– December 1920. Photography by Brown’s Photo Studio, St. Paul. Used with the permission of the International Institute of Minnesota.

The International Institute in St. Paul opened on December 12, 1919. For one hundred years, it has helped meet the needs of immigrants, refugees, and asylees beginning their new lives in Minnesota.

The national Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) created the first International Institutes in the 1910s as service bureaus for foreign-born residents and new immigrants. Following World War I, the all-female staff and board of directors of the St. Paul Institute included Lorena Harrison, the organization’s executive secretary, and Bess Leuthold Beebe, the president of the board. The 1921 staff of four caseworkers spoke German, Italian, Norwegian, and Polish and served people from thirteen countries.

The institute’s services helped new Americans overcome barriers such as learning English, becoming citizens, and finding jobs. Caseworkers took people to appointments and made home visits. At the same time, the institute’s cultural programs helped encourage new and “old stock” Americans to share similarities and celebrate differences.

In the 1930s, the institute offered classes and programs at the downtown St. Paul YWCA and other sites. An Upper Levee site served Italians, and a West Side site served Mexicans. In 1931, Alice Lilliequist Sickels became the third executive secretary; she then began what became the Festival of Nations in 1932. A three-day “Homelands Exhibit” event that celebrated fifteen cultural groups was held at the YWCA on April 22–24 of that year.

On December 6, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In March of 1942, the US government forced West Coast residents of Japanese descent into concentration camps. In response, the institute started the St. Paul Resettlement Committee in October of 1942. Committee members found jobs and housing for Japanese Americans who wanted to leave the camps and settle in St. Paul.

During World War II, institute caseworkers responded to community needs and expanded services to work with the Red Cross to find European family members. Citizenship classes filled with resident “aliens” eager to complete their citizenship process. After the war, the institute reached out to “war brides” married to US servicemen. These women needed cultural support and English classes.

In 1946, the institute moved into its own building at 183 West Kellogg Boulevard. It built up a large membership and offered many activities to bring different cultures together. In addition to monthly international lunches and dinners with guest speakers and film screenings, it offered classes in ethnic dance, folk arts, cooking, citizenship, English, and world languages.

From 1948‒1952, the institute expanded its services to help displaced people arriving from Eastern Europe. In 1956, the Hungarian “Freedom Fighters” came after a failed revolution. In the early 1960s, the institute served Cubans fleeing their country’s Communist revolution.

The institute moved into a building at 1694 Como Avenue in 1970. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, 3,800 people came to Minnesota from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam as legal refugees. In 1975, the Institute hired its first Vietnamese caseworker. By the following year, the institute’s main staff was eighteen people, and thirty teachers taught English to the new arrivals. From 1976 to 1980, the number of Hmong people living in Minnesota grew from zero to 10,000.

The Immigration Act of 1990 opened up resettlement from more countries and introduced new kinds of immigrant visas. This act guides immigration policy today and has brought an increased diversity to Minnesota. Meanwhile, the institute continued expanding services to help new Americans succeed. In 1990, it started a nursing-assistant job-training program to find better jobs for clients. In 1993, the first refugees from civil wars in Bosnia, Liberia, and Somalia came to Minnesota. The institute served 10 percent of Africans who resettled in the US in 1999.

In the 2000s, the institute served refugees fleeing conflicts all around the world. In 2001, refugee arrivals temporarily stopped after the 9/11 attacks. The institute resettled a record 2,316 people in 2004. More than half were Hmong from Wat Tham Krabok, a refugee camp at a Buddhist monastery that Thailand’s government had closed. At the same time, the institute started new programs to serve clients who needed college-readiness preparation.

As of 2019, the institute has resettled nearly 23,000 refugees and asylees to Minnesota since 1980. The institute annually serves clients from nearly 100 countries and continues to help new Americans overcome barriers to success in American life. More than fifty employees and many volunteers and interns work in the departments of Refugee Resettlement, Immigration, Employment, Job Training, English and Spanish Language Classes, College Readiness, and the Festival of Nations.

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International Institute of Minnesota
In-house organizational archives, St. Paul
Description: Annual reports, newsletters, and scrapbooks documenting the institute’s history.

IHRC 3257
International Institute of Minnesota records
Immigration History Research Center Archives, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/6/resources/4884
Description: Records (ca. 1920–1971) of the International Institute of Minnesota include minutes of the membership Council and Board of Directors (on microfilm), administrative records, educational program information, department records, materials documenting group services and activities, special programs, projects, and publications, community and national contacts, publicity, music, travel literature, case files, correspondence, photographs, and miscellany.

Keremidchieva, Zornitsa D. “From International to National Engagement and Back: The YWCA’s Communicative Techniques of Americanisation in the Aftermath of World War I.” Women’s History Review 26 (2017): 280–295.
http://works.bepress.com/zornitsa_keremidchieva/10/

Sickels, Alice. Around the World in St. Paul. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1945.

Related Images

Christmas Party at the International Institute, 1920
Christmas Party at the International Institute, 1920
Bess Leuthold Beebe
Bess Leuthold Beebe
1932 Peace Review
1932 Peace Review
English class at the St. Paul YWCA, 1938
English class at the St. Paul YWCA, 1938
Citizenship class at the YWCA location of the International Institute, 1940
Citizenship class at the YWCA location of the International Institute, 1940
Alice Sickels book signing, December 1945.
Alice Sickels book signing, December 1945.
Overseas Bride Club Meeting
Overseas Bride Club Meeting
International Institute, 1949
International Institute, 1949
Citizenship class, 1949
Citizenship class, 1949
International Institute Committee welcoming refugees in New York Harbor, 1952
International Institute Committee welcoming refugees in New York Harbor, 1952
Storytelling at the International Institute
Storytelling at the International Institute
International Institute, St. Paul
International Institute, St. Paul
International Institute of Minnesota building, 1973
International Institute of Minnesota building, 1973
Party potluck, 1976
Party potluck, 1976
Hmong students at a party, 1976
Hmong students at a party, 1976
Citizenship ceremony, 1979
Citizenship ceremony, 1979
International Institute groundbreaking ceremony
International Institute groundbreaking ceremony
International Institute administrative staff
International Institute administrative staff
Nursing assistants’ class graduation
Nursing assistants’ class graduation

Turning Point

In 1975, 3,800 people with the official designation of “refugee” come to Minnesota from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. As a result, from 1976 to 1980 the Hmong population in Minnesota grows from zero to 10,000.

Chronology

1911

Edith Terry Bremer starts the first International Institute in New York City as part of the YWCA.

December 12, 1919

The International Institute opens in St. Paul at 584 Rice Street in a former saloon called Jake’s Place.

1924

The International Institute moves to its second location in the basement of the YWCA at 123‒133 West Fifth Street in St. Paul.

April 22–24, 1932

Alice Lilliequist Sickels starts what will become the Festival of Nations with a three-day Homelands Exhibit held in the YWCA auditorium.

October 26, 1938

The International Institute, Inc., becomes an independent agency. It allows men to join the board and staff but remains located in the YWCA building.

June 1, 1946

The International Institute moves into a renovated building located at 183 West Kellogg Boulevard in St. Paul.

June 30, 1970

The International Institute purchases a building at 1694 Como Avenue in St. Paul.

March 9, 1972

The International Institute in St. Paul changes its name to the International Institute of Minnesota.

December 22, 1976

Minnesota Governor Wendell R. Anderson commends the International Institute of Minnesota for its outstanding contribution to the resettlement of Hmong refugees in the state.

November 1980

The International Institute dedicates the “Nationality Cultural Center” addition to its building. It includes a main floor “Hall of Nations” event space, a kitchen, and lower level “Folk Arts” rooms.

September 1990

The institute begins its first nursing-assistant training program for new Americans.

1991

The institute becomes the only certified center in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to administer the English and US citizenship tests.

February 2004

St. Paul Mayor Kelly dispatches a delegation to Thailand, including the institute’s associate director, John Borden, to visit a refugee camp the Thai government intends to close.

October 2011

The institute creates a regional anti-trafficking initiative for foreign-born survivors of sex and labor trafficking.

October 2013

The institute creates the Hospitality Careers pathway program to serve new American women with low-level English skills.