Hey gang. So I haven't heard anybody discussing immigration or cultural diversity on any of the WNY threads and it's something I think is possibly vital to the success of WNY cities in the future (if these cities keep shedding u.s-born individuals at the rate they are currently we're going to need some folks from abroad to fill the void). I also get the impression that people from the coasts view WNY cities as made up of exclusively white ex-factory workers and it would be nice to hear some local refutations of those assumptions. So I'm wondering, to all you other fellow WNY-ers:
Out of the three major cities in Western New York (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse) which one do you think has the most vibrancy in terms of cultural/ethnic diversity? I know that there are readily available statistics to support this, but sometimes numbers can't really capture whether a city has growing, thriving and visible communities of people from all over the globe. How evident is it in your city that there's a lot of immigration going on? For example, in my neighborhood in Rochester there are Ukrainian, Vietnamese and West Indian (Caribbean) shop owners, and the 2000 census stats say that over 100,000 people (10% of the Rochester Metro area) speak a language other than english at home. How's this compare to neighborhoods and language/immigration stats in Buffalo/Syracuse?
And
which city has the best example of an 'ethnic' neighborhood? In Rochester, I know of a couple areas like Upper Falls where there is a large enough dominican or puerto rican population for stores and resturaunts to post signs, menus etc. in spanish as well as english. There's also some significant concentrations of Ukrainians and Turks in the north side and Irondequoit, and i've heard that there's a big West Indian community in the 19th ward- some of the heritage festivals like the Puerto Rican fest on Joseph Ave and the West Indian festival are held (i think) in areas with a lot of people from those regions of the globe. Mind you, I'm not really talking about
historical ethnic enclaves here (like syracuse's little italy, East Rochester "Little Italy" or historic polonia in Buffalo) but more interested in
neighborhoods with current, growing communities of foreign nationals/immigrants.
Which city is the largest destination for people coming to the U.S (out of Buf/Roc/Syr?) So I've heard that Rochester (sorry folks, that's just where I live so it's where most of my examples come from) has the largest foreign-born population of any Upstate city by volume, not percentag, but I'm not sure (Like most people my natural assumption would be that buffalo has the most foreign-born individuals of the three cities). Anyone care to guess, and speculate as to which city will be the biggest magnet for immigration in coming years?
Finally,
How do you think WNY cities in general compare to other cities around the US in terms of diversity and immigration? Being in the shadow of NYC I think most people would never guess that Buffalo, Rochester or Syracuse would be hot destinations for immigrants but I'm starting to doubt that assumption myself. In my city I'm constantly meeting people, LOTS of people, from rather obscure places (Coite d' Ivorie, Armenia, Laos, and Florida to name a few) and I've heard that even old Syracuse has actually been the site of a program resettling bosnian refugees or something like that. What are your thoughts?
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