VIVID: Global citizens form a new palette for business in central Minnesota

Signs of central Minnesota's increasingly diverse community are everywhere, from the Latino-owned businesses that have given new life to Long Prairie's main streets to the Halal grocery stores that now serve St. Cloud's Muslim shoppers. In fact, immigrants from Mexico and dozens of other countries have such a profound economic impact that if they were removed from the labor force, one estimate says the state would lost more than 24,000 permanent jobs and $1.2 billion in personal income.

IQ's new cover story by Laura Billings Coleman takes a look at the changing face of central Minnesota and the new opportunities for businesses and the region's economic development.