relocation from euroa to tx (need advise) (Houston, Dallas: sales, renting)

[lem123]

hallo,
Me and my wife decided after serious consideration to leave europe and try a new life in the states. After some research (mainly www) we decided on tx, preferebly houston/dallas. I'm an IT-Engineer en my wife is a sales manager for a small firm. We always dreamt of living in the states, maybe live the american dream one day.

Sadly we have no direct relatives or friends in the area that can help us out with the needed information. Hopefully we'll be visiting houston and dallas this summer to see things for our self.

But for now i have a couple of questions and hope someone can help me with them.

1. Are there any neighbourhoods/areas with significant muslim communities in houston and dallas?
preferebly african-american as i am part-african myself. No need for a mosque in the backyard too, as i don't go that often becaus of work. Realy at the end of the day i'm hoping this way the chance of encountering racial and religious discrimination to be much less than here at home.

- We have a budget of 300.000 to 350,000 for a house, would this be sufficiant for a spacious house, say 3-4 bedroom (were planning on kids in the near future)?


Sorry for the crappy english, is not my mother tonque and thanks in advance.

[texas7]

Houston and probably Dallas are both fairly diverse cities but I don't think you'll find a particular neighborhood that is mostly african-american muslims - those families tend to be mixed in with the general population of everyone else and every other religion and non-religion.

[lem123]

@texas7 thank you for your reply. I didn't mean an area with majority of african-american muslims, i love diversity. It's not a must, its just that i thought i might feel more comfortable in a neighbourhood/area that has a significant muslim community that also includes african americans if there was any.

[Bily Lovec]

houston is one of the most diverse cities in the USA, jobs are good right now, expecially in the IT field, hopefully your degree will transfer over.

i would say you wont have any problem finding people of like interest here...

come on and welcome !

[chris_ut]

These guys might know: Islamic Education Center of Houston, Texas. Learn about Islam and Muslims

[flo2900]

How bout your immigration status? Do you have that taken care of? Cannot stay more than 3 months on a tourist visa and working is not authorised for tourists. Wondering if you knew all this.
Good luck and hope you can make it!

[sunny57]

As mentioned above Houston is a diverse city that basically welcomes all.

I'm not aware of any communities that are primarily muslim. Since Houston is such a large city you might want to focus on finding a community based on how far you want to commute to work. Best of Luck!

[karuna95]

I think there are quite a few observant Muslims in Houston, as evidenced by the several mosques around town. I would expect that the mosques are located in areas with larger concentrations of Muslims, i.e. in far southwest Houston. Not sure if there is a discrete community of African Muslims though. A prominent Muslim is Hakeem Olajuwon, a retired Houston Rockets player. Hakeem is from Nigeria, and has been a wonderful ambassador for basketball, Nigerians, Islam and Houstonians in general. Houston is a diverse city, with people from many countries, backgrounds and religions. There are many mosques, temples (Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish), and churches throughout the city.

I think there are many housing options with your stated budget. I would recommend finding a job first, renting a place for a few months, exploring the city, and then deciding where you would like to live. Given the traffic, I would also recommend living relatively close to where you work, unless you enjoy driving in lots of traffic.

Best of luck with your decision. Just post again if you have further questions.

[lem123]

Originally Posted by karuna95

I think there are quite a few observant Muslims in Houston, as evidenced by the several mosques around town. I would expect that the mosques are located in areas with larger concentrations of Muslims, i.e. in far southwest Houston. Not sure if there is a discrete community of African Muslims though. A prominent Muslim is Hakeem Olajuwon, a retired Houston Rockets player. Hakeem is from Nigeria, and has been a wonderful ambassador for basketball, Nigerians, Islam and Houstonians in general. Houston is a diverse city, with people from many countries, backgrounds and religions. There are many mosques, temples (Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish), and churches throughout the city.

I think there are many housing options with your stated budget. I would recommend finding a job first, renting a place for a few months, exploring the city, and then deciding where you would like to live. Given the traffic, I would also recommend living relatively close to where you work, unless you enjoy driving in lots of traffic.

Best of luck with your decision. Just post again if you have further questions.

thank you for your reply. I realise that is sounds as if i want to relocate somewhere with a predominantly muslim community, but that's not the case. I was more curious for if there was any, as i heard from people who have been to the states that in some cities you have some parts with a sizable muslim community. What got me thinking about these things is that we experience forms of discrimination on regular basis here, and would like to hopefully reduce that or avoid in a big place like houston/dallas.

En @Karuna, i do have some questions concerning the it-sector in these places, but maybe that better in another topic.

Everybody thank you for your input

[amyalta]

Do you have any family or other ties to the US, or is your job something which a US citizen cannot do? Unless one of these is the case, you will not be able to relocate easily. I am married to a US citizen and we have 3 US citizen kids together, all my family are in US, yet it still took me 5 months to be granted a visa. Please feel free to explore this further!