A good investment or money down the drain?

This article reports that immigrants have become a lightning rod for the resentment of native-born taxpayers who disapprove of extra spending on social services. A letter to the Star Tribune newspaper last spring about the impending arrival of 5,000 Hmong refugees in Minnesota raised concerns voiced often in neighborhood cafes and public forums. The Fargo-Moorhead area has absorbed more than 3,000 immigrants over the past 13 years. The public costs incurred by those new residents are real and quantifiable, line items in the budgets of local schools, clinics and social service agencies.