Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
Seattleites share their stories of migration to the Pacific Northwest
This week, The Newsfeed brought you some stories on the origins of immigration to Washington. We also asked some of the people we talked to about their personal stories of their families’ migration to the Pacific Northwest, and about why they’ve stayed here. Here’s what they shared.
Visiting a vital resource for Somalis in South Seattle
By Paris Jackson, story published 04/23/2026
King County is home to one of the largest populations of Somalis in the US. One vital resource for East Africans in South Seattle has been a community anchor for many years.
Historians say a small group of Somali students and engineers came to Seattle in the 1970s and 80s. But it was in the 1990s, when a larger wave of Somali refugees fled their country’s civil war with many settling in Seattle’s Rainier Valley, Tukwila and SeaTac.
“Somalis in particular, we’re very resilient and very, like deeply community connected. (We) not only survive, but thrive in this country. Community connectedness is really important because it's, you know, families checking up on each other. It's neighbors looking out for one another,” said Somali Health Board Executive Director Najma Osman.
The Somali Health Board was founded in 2012 by dedicated public health professionals, who came together after realizing work needed to be done to bridge the healthcare gap for Somalis, a vulnerable and hard to reach group. Today, much of the needs remain. group.
On their newly acquired property in Seattle, the Somali Health Board is connected to two other other organizations, Somali Community Services of Seattle and the Al Noor Islamic Center, as a part of the Somali Community Cultural and Innovation Hub.
“We hope to have affordable housing, for our seniors to have a community space to hopefully have a soccer pitch, here for our kids, and to grow, as a community hub,” Osman said.
Over the years, increased costs have forced many Somalis out of Seattle – pushing them to neighboring cities.
“We've seen elected leaders, you know, we have the mayor of SeaTac, who’s a Somali. A council member, who's in SeaTac, who is Somali. We see thriving business leaders, doctors and nurses and lawyers, who are Somali, and the first black owned pharmacy in Tukwila and Othello Station are owned by Somalis, in areas that Somalis originally came,” Osman said.
Osman was born and raised in Washington. She says her parents came to the state as refugees when they were young.
“They both became successful business owners and really, were hard-working. I'm first first generation ... pretty much all my friends are also first generation," she said. “And we’re seeing more and more, first generation Somalis go and accomplish things. At this point, for me, Seattle is my home. I was born and raised here. It's all I know.”
Last year, SHB held 25 community events, and more than 2,000 community members were able to access their direct services that include a maternal health program, mental health support and other resources. Osman says 68% of their programs directly serve youth.
Domestic migration to WA trending down
By Jaelynn Grisso, story published 04/22/2026
While Washington is home to migrants with origins spanning the globe, the bulk of current immigration to the state is from migration within U.S. borders.
On average, about 240,000 people move to Washington every year from elsewhere in the country, according to the U.S Census Bureau. Most folks come from other parts of the West Coast, but a sizeable portion of incomers also come from the South. That’s partly because an average of 15,000 people move here from Texas each year.
Many of the top states people are coming from have been consistent over the last ten years, with folks in nearby states like California and Oregon frequently at the top. Notably, the influx from Idaho has dropped by about 40% from a decade ago.
Net migration to Washington – which is the difference between how many people move here and how many people move away – dropped significantly after the pandemic but has slowly increased again in recent years. Although, it still hasn’t gone back to pre-pandemic numbers.
While domestic migration currently makes up the bulk, the amount of new folks coming in each year has begun to drop. Meanwhile, despite taking a dip during the initial years of the pandemic, international migration seems to be on the rise.
Preserving Sephardic Jewish Culture with Food
By Lizz Giordano, published 04/21/2026
Rachel Almeleh’s father came to Seattle in the late 1920s - part of a wave of Jewish immigrants whose roots stretch back centuries to what is now Spain and Portugal. That community has grown in Seattle into what some estimate is the third-largest Sephardic population in the country. Connecting with her culture through food, she wrote a cookbook to help preserve her Mediterranean heritage.
“My mother never taught me how to cook because she died. And she was ill ever since I was born. She wasn't even supposed to have me. But, so I would go to my aunt's house and learn how to cook, and they didn't have written recipes like my Aunt Lavinia would say. Half a box of that. There's a handful of that. So, I had to go write things down. And when I got married, my cousin Mary Healy gave me my first Sephardic cookbook. So that's when the journey began to learn how to make everything Sephardic,” Almeleh said.
“I kept collecting recipes and recipes, and, I decided, I should put these all together in one place, so that my children can have them have their food, and so that it would also be a legacy for the community,” Almeleh said. “I just love it when people come up to me and say, I made this, and I made that from your book. So it's been very joyful.”
Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle's Filipinotown
By Venice Buhain, story published 04/20/2026
The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn't forgotten.
One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID.
“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.
He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.”
The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum
In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID.
“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said.
Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.
While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.
“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said.
The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals.
Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle.
“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It's all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it's more than one thing,” Cabanilla said.
