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I'm always surprised how Americans have a radically different interpretation of diversity. This debate always comes up. Large American cities have many minorit

by lbrito 4y ago

I'm always surprised how Americans have a radically different interpretation of diversity. This debate always comes up. Large American cities have many minorities that tend to congregate socially and geographically, hence "Koreatown", "Little Russia" etc. You have your Cuban-Americans and eat Thai food. An American will say this is diversity. I guess it is in a sense, but with very flawed integration. Other countries also had large influxes of immigrants in the past century and they eventually are integrated, enriching themselves and their host country in the process. I wish people would reflect more why this doesn't happen in the US.

cgriswald 4y ago
The existence and continued renewal of historical enclaves is not an indication that America does not integrate immigrants or that America has not been enriched by their presence. (It's almost absurd to say. America is far from being "little England", and the culture I grew up with was so clearly influenced by the various peoples who settled the area, I don't even know what you could possibly mean.) America is currently home to almost 50 million immigrants, representing about 13% of our population. This is more than any country on Earth by number, and something like 8th by percentage. This number is just immigrants, not the American children of immigrants. The population of Chinatown in SF is around 35,000. Only 80% of that is some kind of Asian. The Chinese-American population of San Francisco is around 175,000 (out of around 850,000; total Asian-American population is around 280,000). There are areas of concentration, but you've a great chance of having a Chinese-American neighbor or two wherever you live in the city. The population of Little Italy in Manhattan is just under half white, with less than 10% being ethnically Italian. Similar demographic changes for Little Russia in SF. With the exception of some religious enclaves (e.g. Hasidic Jews), this is probably the case for most enclaves in the US older than (say) 50 years. Enclaves existed in Europe historically and still exist today. Both in the US and in Europe, enclaves formed both naturally as a thing immigrants did to survive in their new host country and as part of government plans. Ethnically, in the US the lines are essentially gone. Almost no one cares if your grandmother was Irish or your cousin married a Greek. (There are some pockets where people do care, but they're usually associated with historical beef—or generalized racism—and they're by far the exception.) To the extent non-white people care about ethnicity, it is probably correlated with how recently their ancestors immigrated, with recent immigrants themselves most likely to hold such views. I doubt this is that different from Europe. We do tend to divide more along racial lines; especially between certain groups—usually with outspoken people in BOTH groups having a problem with mixing. This is seen both socially and geographically; especially in some places. (Even this has changed significantly over my lifetime in places I thought it wouldn't.) I don't really know how this compares to Europe.
danenania 4y ago
I think the US is by far the most integrated and assimilated country in the world. It has people at all stages of assimilation, including communities of completely unassimilated immigrants, but it also has large populations from just about every ethnic background in existence that consider themselves Americans first, and are also considered fully and completely American by the vast majority of other citizens. I don’t think you’ll find that to the same degree anywhere else.

by lbrito 4y ago

cgriswald 4y ago

The existence and continued renewal of historical enclaves is not an indication that America does not integrate immigrants or that America has not been enriched by their presence. (It's almost absurd to say. America is far from being "little England", and the culture I grew up with was so clearly influenced by the various peoples who settled the area, I don't even know what you could possibly mean.) America is currently home to almost 50 million immigrants, representing about 13% of our population. This is more than any country on Earth by number, and something like 8th by percentage. This number is just immigrants, not the American children of immigrants. The population of Chinatown in SF is around 35,000. Only 80% of that is some kind of Asian. The Chinese-American population of San Francisco is around 175,000 (out of around 850,000; total Asian-American population is around 280,000). There are areas of concentration, but you've a great chance of having a Chinese-American neighbor or two wherever you live in the city. The population of Little Italy in Manhattan is just under half white, with less than 10% being ethnically Italian. Similar demographic changes for Little Russia in SF. With the exception of some religious enclaves (e.g. Hasidic Jews), this is probably the case for most enclaves in the US older than (say) 50 years. Enclaves existed in Europe historically and still exist today. Both in the US and in Europe, enclaves formed both naturally as a thing immigrants did to survive in their new host country and as part of government plans. Ethnically, in the US the lines are essentially gone. Almost no one cares if your grandmother was Irish or your cousin married a Greek. (There are some pockets where people do care, but they're usually associated with historical beef—or generalized racism—and they're by far the exception.) To the extent non-white people care about ethnicity, it is probably correlated with how recently their ancestors immigrated, with recent immigrants themselves most likely to hold such views. I doubt this is that different from Europe. We do tend to divide more along racial lines; especially between certain groups—usually with outspoken people in BOTH groups having a problem with mixing. This is seen both socially and geographically; especially in some places. (Even this has changed significantly over my lifetime in places I thought it wouldn't.) I don't really know how this compares to Europe.

danenania 4y ago

I think the US is by far the most integrated and assimilated country in the world. It has people at all stages of assimilation, including communities of completely unassimilated immigrants, but it also has large populations from just about every ethnic background in existence that consider themselves Americans first, and are also considered fully and completely American by the vast majority of other citizens. I don’t think you’ll find that to the same degree anywhere else.