Minority residents drive Northland’s growth
When Govin Ghimirey started his Nepali Bazaar grocery store on Columbus’ Northeast Side six years ago, his customers were almost exclusively Bhutanese Nepalis like himself.
But nowadays, the 25-year-old greets residents outside his community on a daily basis.
Besides selling grocery products – from fresh produce and Bhakri flour to Nepali snacks and curry powders – he also takes the time to explain to customers at his store at 1782 Morse Road where the products come from, what the ingredients taste like and how to cook them.
Often, he would pick out milder spice for American-born customers who are not used to the taste of Nepali cuisines.
“This was my biggest plan from the beginning – to connect us and the rest of Columbus through food,” he said. “The type of food we eat is a huge part of our culture. I want to introduce people to food products that they’ve never seen before.”
Born in Nepal, Ghimirey and his par
ents lived in Bhutan for years, where he said they faced discrimination and persecution like the rest of the country’s Nepali-speaking minority.
When he was 10, his family moved to Buffalo, New York, as refugees. In 2013, having heard of the growing Bhutanese Nepali community in Columbus, they came here and settled in the Northland area.
“Back in Bhutan, our houses were connected to each other and we used to share the same tap water,” he said. “We’re used to living in a big community and the area offered that to us.”
The Northland area, covering more than 25 square miles, is home to an increasingly diverse population, according to data from the newly released 2020 census.
In the last 10 years, the number of minority residents grew by 45% in the 18 census tracts roughly bounded by Interstate 270 on the north and east, Morse Road on the south, and the Worthington city limits on the west. Currently, approximately 62,000 out of 97,000 people in the area belong to minority groups.
Notably, the influx of Asians is driving key demographic changes in these Northland neighborhoods, surging from 2,128 to 7,770 residents in the past decade. That accounts for slightly less than half of the total population increase in the area. Meanwhile, the number of Black residents rose steadily by 23%, while the number of white residents dropped by 18%.
In one census tract north of Morse Road between Karl Road and Cleveland Avenue, the number of Asians skyrocketed from just 36 10 years ago to 1,920 in 2020.
The arrival of Bhutanese Nepali refugees such as Ghimirey could be one of the main reasons behind this growth, according to Angie Plummer, executive director at Community Refugee and Immigration Services, a local refugee resettlement agency.
Advocates estimate that there are about 20,000 Bhutanese Nepalis who came to Greater Columbus through refugee resettlement and secondary migration. Many of them live in Northland because of its expanding immigrant community and the availability of affordable housing options, Plummer said.
Her agency resettled more than 1,700 Bhutanese Nepali refugees in the last 10 fiscal years. About 85% of them were placed in Northland neighborhoods, she said.
“Our initial caseload was very heavily Somali. They were living in Northland, so there was a snowball effect,” Plummer said. “And then the Bhutanese Nepali came here largely because of the apartments on Shanley Drive. That became a natural neighborhood for the Nepalis.”
The drop in Northland’s white population might have been caused by some older residents wanting to move away from the city center, according to Carla Williams-scott, director of Columbus’ Department of Neighborhoods. There may also be some cases where non-immigrants felt alarmed by the demographic changes in their area, she said.
“There’s always a fear of somebody when you don’t know their customs or cultures,” Williams-scott said. “I think you may see some people moving because they don’t know who’s moving into their neighborhoods and they don’t take the time to get to know their new neighbors.”
To address the disconnect between new Americans and the rest of the city, the department started the New American Leadership Academy in 2017. The goal is to make sure that foreign-born residents are represented where decisions about their communities are made.
Right now, however, there is still only a low number of immigrants involved in the city’s civic associations and block watches.
“Most changes take five to 10 years,” Williams-scott said. “It’s challenging but certainly nothing we can’t overcome.”
The retail corridor on Morse Road has always been known as a popular destination for diners and shoppers, according to residents. But the area suffered in the 2000s as retailers started to move into other Columbus neighborhoods where rapid commercial development led to a number of new shopping malls.
Around the time of the Northland Mall’s shutdown in October 2002, empty storefronts and rising crime rates prompted the city to set up a plan to reinvest in the neighborhood, according to Columbus City Council member Emmanuel Remy, former president of Northland Community Council.
It just happened that local resettlement agencies were also based in Northland and started to bring in an increasing number of new Americans who proved to be crucial to the area’s revival, Remy said.
In 2002, Ahmed Mohamed, a Somali immigrant, rented space in a former TJ Maxx store on Morse Road and started his own mall. The space now houses dozens of shops selling traditional African gowns, jewelry, perfumes, ceramics as well as restaurants and grocery stores.
Other immigrant business owners followed suit, filing the empty storefronts on Morse Road, according to Remy.
“There are literally no vacancies along Morse Road today,” Remy said. “I live here. I see it every day. Whether it’s through retail, shopping or eating, you can take a trip around the world to any place you want to go just along Morse Road.”
Immigrants in Greater Columbus are having an outsized impact on the economy here, according to a recent report by research center New American Economy.
While foreign-born residents only made up 8.7% of the Columbus metro area’s total population, they are responsible for 11.5% of its gross domestic product. Compared to their American-born neighbors, immigrants are also more likely to have their own businesses, the report shows.
Ghimirey grew up in a household of entrepreneurs. When his family first resettled in the United States, his father used to take him from city to city to sell African clothing and accessories. Their living room would always be filled with luggage full of merchandise.
When he opened the Nepali Bazaar at the age of 19, as one of the youngest business owners in his community, he knew he had a lot to prove.
In just three years, he expanded his store and doubled its size from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet. He is now looking to open up a new 25,000-square-foot Nepali mall in Pickerington in the next few weeks.
“My dad is my role model. He used to sell shoes on the street back in Bhutan when he was 7 years old,” Ghimirey said. “When we came to the U.S., we had no more than $20 in our pocket. I was all in because otherwise, I’ll still only have $20 in the end.”
Ismail Mohamed, a former refugee from Somalia, has been living in Columbus for 17 years and started a law firm in Northland in 2019. Most of his clients are immigrants from surrounding neighborhoods.
There was not a lot of diversity when he first came to the city, Mohamed said. But now he is seeing more immigrants and refugees moving into Northland, many starting their own restaurants, hotels, daycare centers and trucking businesses, among others.
“It really speaks to the kind of entrepreneurship in our community,” he said. “Many of them had experience building businesses back home, and here they are building on that and creating opportunities for themselves.”
Yilun Cheng is a Report for America corps member and covers immigration issues for The Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at https://bit.ly/3fnsgaz.
ycheng@dispatch.com