Discussion of which cities and parts of the US have seen large numbers of immigrants from one particular ethnic group. Many of these places have names like “Little Italy”, “Little Tokyo”, or “Chinatown” because many people from one group settled there. Other groups are more spread out and are associated more with large ancestries across an entire state.
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48 Comments
North Carolina has the most people with Scottish ancestry!
My home town, Silver Spring, Md (in Montgomery County) is an enclave for Ethiopians, Eritrean, and Somali. There is so many East Africans here that I didn’t realize they virtually don’t live anywhere else in the US until I was in high school. It’s a bubble of diversity. That’s one of the things that made growing up in the DC suburbs so great, you get a look into so many cultures.
In grade school, a large portion of my friends and girlfriends I’ve had were East African. Great people and the girls are so beautiful. If you ever find yourself in Silver Spring, I urge you to stop by an Ethiopian or Eritrean restaurant and try their delicious food
Loved this one. Would definitely watch more on this topic.
Hi Kyle! Thank for the video, very interesting. Just two things to specify:
[1] A significant portion of the "frenchs" in Maine are not from France nor from Québec, but from New-Brunswick. This is specially true for Madawaska, the people living there are Brayons a sub-etnhic group of Acadians (they are also known as Land and Foreest Acadians ).
[2] It turns out that most of the "frenchs" in St-Martin parish belongs also to a subethnicgroup of Acadians: Cadians (most commonly spelled in english as Cajuns ). They are the descendants of the Acadians expelled from Acadia after the british conques, so they ae not from France nor from Québec.
Making a video about Acadians would be a nice idea!
El Salvador also has huge concentrations in the MD suburbs of DC (MoCo and PG). We’re really such an incredibly diverse area in the US and I feel like that’s slept on.
I find it so interesting that the various ethnic groups of immigrants move to places in the U.S. that usually resemble the natural geography and climate of their homeland.
As you said, you can’t mention every ethnic group with a U.S. presence, but I wanted to give a shout-out to the Basques in the Boise area, who maintain a really cohesive identity even as many participate integrally in the city’s business and civic life.
You didn't mentions the Syrians
There are 4 areas with Danish populations that I'm aware of, but im sure I'm missing so. Southwest Iowa, a small pocket in Central Nebraska (Dannebrog), southeastern Wisconsin (Racine), and Solvang, CA.
On map under England, much of the southeast people say their ancestry is "American".
Took a Human Geography class in late 90s. And it seemed kinda weird then and still does now.
Why do people say this?
Actually how Chinese is divided as it’s mainland Chinese which speak mandarin while those from Hong Kong and Guangzhou speak Cantonese. The Chinatown areas are almost entirely Cantonese speakers. Though the places like San Gabriel and flushing are entirely mandarin speakers. It’s just different ideas and how people are.
I loved this video! Gotta shout out my hometown New Britain, CT. Known for it's very high percentage of Spanish-speaking and Polish-speaking families. There's a Little Poland neighborhood that the president of Poland recently visited. I even taught at the schools there for a bit and was surprised to see text books written in three different languages – English, Spanish, and Polish. I love hearing about all the other enclaves around our melting pot country!
You missed people that claim Spanish heritage. Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado have a lot of people that Identify as Spanish ethnicity, and they hate when people mistakenly call them Mexican(american.)
Staten Island – The borough has the highest proportion of Italian Americans of any county in the United States. About 200,000 residents claim Italian heritage (55%).
I feel like it would be worth noting the Mexican population, even if we are often taken for granted as the de facto immigrants of the US. I find it interesting how we have such huge populations all across the country despite being on the southern border.
Another group of note are the Bukharans, a Jewish community from central Asia, especially Uzbekistan. As many as 100,000 live in the US, with a high concentration in the Forest Hills section of Queens.
Lutefisk and "UFF DA" are Norwegian, not Swedish! The Swedes eat surstromming! You didn't mention Switzerland, in Wisconsin the Green County flag has a Swiss cross and a town named New Glarus. There's lots of Danes in Wisconsin, also Luxembourgians, there's a town named Luxemburg.
A lesser known ethnic group that you forgot to mention is the Maltese population! They're mostly concentrated in Detroit, with groups in New York as well!
Thanks very much! Very interesting!
It's interesting that I subconsciously knew most of these.
Millbourne, Pennsylvania (sheikh indian and bangladeshi)
Wonderful, as always. I am curious about Liberian refugees.
Literally everyone in Wisconsin has Dutch or German ancestry.
There’s a large population of Burmese in Dallas-Fort-Worth, where I’m from. Wikipedia says second largest next to Minneapolis-Saint-Paul. I go to this area of Fort Worth to eat and buy tea, and there are mechanics, a laundromat, restaurants, etc. with signs in Burmese script. Pretty cool, and great food.
Thanks, Kyle. Great diversity lesson even for someone from an extremely diverse state (me). My heritage flags are: 🇺🇲🇬🇧🇩🇪🇸🇽
I'm from the Fall River/Bristol County area of Massachusetts, and there definitely are a lot of Portuguese immigrants there. My mother is half Portuguese. Most of the Portuguese immigrants in the area come from the islands of the Azores rather than mainland Portugal. From what I understand, the reason is that during the time of the 19th Century whaling ships, whalers would stop in the Azores to resupply and pick up crewmembers. Rather than going back to the Azores, they would go with the ships back to SE New England, send for their families, and settle there.
What about Welsh ancestry?!
Kyle, could you make a vídeo about Welsh descendants in US?!
The Jamaican population is high in New York City, Philadelphia, Miami, and even in the Canadian city of Toronto.🇯🇲
Lots of Moroccans in Suffolk County, MA if you ever do a part 2.
Kyle… Sorry again for being tio much curious, but:
Could it be possível to make a video about ancestry in Tennessee (the state where you teach for so many years – if I am not wrong).
What about your original region in California?
By the way, what are your own ancestries? English? Irish?!
"Nice, nice, very nice. So many different people in the same device."
Kurt Vonnegut
Glad to see you included the Kurdish (Little Kurdistan) of my hometown, Nashville, Tennessee.
Living in Toronto, it's crazy to realize that for almost every one of these ethnic groups, there is an ethnic enclave within the city where they have settled. Being one of, if not the most diverse city in the world, there are so many enclaves it can be hard to keep track of. Off the top of my head, to name just a few, we have: Corso Italia (plus the second largest concentration of Italians in North America after New York just north of the city in Markham), Little Portugal, Little Manila, Greektown, two Chinatowns, Little Moscow around Bathurst and Steeles, Little India, the pretty heavily Punjabi areas around the Harbourfront (which is to say nothing of Brampton, outside of Toronto), Little Tibet, Koreatown, Little Ukraine around Bloor and Roncesvalles, the primarily Jewish neighbourhood of Forest Hill, Little Jamaica, the primarily Somali neighbourhood of Rexdale, Corktown became the site of most Irish immigration, the mostly Persian neighbourhoods in the north of the city, the primarily Latino neighbourhoods near York University and to some extent Kensington Market downtown… It's pretty much the world in a city. You could walk around the entire planet in about a day if you really tried.
For German Americans you could’ve just said the upper Midwest lol everyone there has at least some German ancestry.
Interesting that you could et through this video with absolutely no reference to the seven (or is it six or is it nine? – who knows) million illegal aliens who have been welcomed across the southern border and distributed across the nation. What's up with that?
Surprised Lowell, MA didn't get a mention especially for Cambodia. Also lots of Dominicans downriver in Lawrence.
What about mexicans ? I guess that's a hard one because they have illegally invaded and are overrunning multiple states.
I would point out that Michael Bilandic, mayor of Chicago from 1976 to 1979, was Croatian.
Really interesting video! And I figured the Greek one would be Tarpon Springs. It's a great place to go and hang out at, and Greek influence is around every corner.
NYC has so many ethnic areas, with authentic cuisines.
I live in a suburb of Dallas and we have people from every corner of the world here. Uniquely, there’s actually a sizable Tongan community, who primarily live and work near the DFW airport, probably to easily travel to and from their homeland. It’s really cool to have such a diverse population. There’s so many interesting people to meet and talk to, no to mention foods to try!
Great video – thanks.
Chicago has the 2nd largest Polish population. Warsaw has the largest.
I like this s excepts Jews are not an ethnic group. We are a religion even if we don’t identify as such.
An interesting map at 4:00: Largest White Ancestry Group. All the blue indicate their ancestry as "American". If by American, they mean born in America, then most of the country should be blue since most of us were born in America.
Odd how most of the blue is in the lower "red" states. Does this mean they are more American than me?
Is this video sped up slightly?
Detroit really is such a diverse place! In the Detroit enclave city on Hamtramck, it used to be mostly polish, now its most Arabic. It’s an awesome lil city, so many different cultures squeezed so close together!
For Chinese immigrants, Flushing in NYC definitely deserves a mention alongside the Bay Area/LA. And then Vancouver for Canada.