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There is also something to be said for have less diversity but a much deeper uniform culture; versus a more diverse place with less depth in terms of local culture. I don't believe one is better or worse than the other, just different, and both can be interesting in their own ways, and variations do exist. The most interesting places I've been in my life have actually been quite monolithic but deep & rich in local culture. Major English speaking cities with different new immigrant groups seem less exotic to me personally. I'm probably just used to it being raised in Toronto and living in major US cities.
Good points. I am pro-diversity but I do recognize that having as much diversity as possible in a given place is not an essential good and a state of grace that every single place must aspire to.
Less diverse and even non-diverse places should not necessarily be condemned for being what they are. The reasons for being the way they are are often complex as well.
I think the US has a lot of mexicans, puerto ricans and central americans... if you didnt count those three, you'd find South Americans barely make it to under 1% of US population.
and in Canada they are even less rare
The New York metropolitan area has a lot of Peruvians and especially Ecuadoreans. I believe over 350,000 Ecuadoreans in the area. In fact, while most of the Hispanics in New York are Carribean, about 1/3 are South American, a pretty respectable percentage for such a remote and overlooked part of the U.S. ;-)
And my neighborhood in particular has a lot of Brazillians. They are replacing Italians who immigrated here in the 1950s and are moving on.
I think the US has a lot of mexicans, puerto ricans and central americans... if you didnt count those three, you'd find South Americans barely make it to under 1% of US population.
and in Canada they are even less rare
I am not sure if this is what you are saying, and I apologize if I am reading this wrong, but...
I did not know there was a minimum level of acceptable representation for South Americans outside of their home continent?
If that's the case then I would make the observation that French Canadians are massively unrepresented in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, Adelaide, Australia and Minsk, Belarus... and in London, Ontario and St. John's, Newfoundland!
I think there are benefits to diversity but I also don't think the benefits are linear in terms of numbers. I fail to see how a city that is 50% diverse or foreign born is necessarily better or more interesting than a city that is 40% or 25%. I don't think you can cross compare this way in isolation. That is why diverse cities are diverse cities to me, the incremental benefit is not that large after a certain point. That being said, NYC, Toronto, LA, SF, and possibly Houston are the top tier in terms of diversity in that it is very noticeable. But I would still say many other major cities also qualify as diverse like DC, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago, etc.
I wouldn't put Houston in the "top tier." DC is probably more diverse than Houston and Chicago likely is as well.
I wouldn't put Houston in the "top tier." DC is probably more diverse than Houston and Chicago likely is as well.
I hear you, that's why I said "possibly" because I don't think it's quite there with the likes of NY or Toronto but it does seem to be diversifying like mad and might be in the top tier one day.
I bring up Houston up a notch because there are plenty of articles out there like these that discuss the racial/ethnic diversity of the city.
I've also been there a couple of times and it does feel quite mixed up with plenty of east Asians, south Asians, African American, African black, Latinos and with whites making up just 40% the population. I know it may not be as diverse in terms of breadth of foreign languages spoken compared to NYC or Toronto but there sure are a lot of different colours and cultures in that city if one looks at diversity that way. Two years ago when I was doing a road trip through Texas, I saw tonnes of interracial couples in every major city. Diversity as a concept did not feel like a big deal there.
Diversity is impossible to measure. In order for one city to be MORE diverse than another, you would need a representation of ethnicity X in that city that is NOT represented in another city. If a major western city can claim that they have at least one population that is present in their city and not in another city, then they would win the diversity prize.
Diversity is impossible to measure. In order for one city to be MORE diverse than another, you would need a representation of ethnicity X in that city that is NOT represented in another city. If a major western city can claim that they have at least one population that is present in their city and not in another city, then they would win the diversity prize.
I could totally get behind this thinking. Its really tough to find large communities that are not present in most of these cities in the US and Canada. I wonder how many people it takes to be considered an actual "community"? Seriously though it just shows how regular diversity is these days.
Last edited by edwardsyzzurphands; 02-19-2015 at 03:53 PM..
I could totally get behind this thinking. Its really tough to find large communities that are not present in most of these cities in the US and Canada. I wonder how many people it takes to be considered an actual "community"?
I've been looking around at definitions, and there is no strict number of people you can ascribe to a community. A community can technically be two people.
I am not sure if this is what you are saying, and I apologize if I am reading this wrong, but...
I did not know there was a minimum level of acceptable representation for South Americans outside of their home continent?
If that's the case then I would make the observation that French Canadians are massively unrepresented in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, Adelaide, Australia and Minsk, Belarus... and in London, Ontario and St. John's, Newfoundland!
Quebec =/= an entire continent
since we're talking about diversity, I am pointing out that there are rarely any south americans in canada and pretty much most of the US
people say latino and think mexican, forgetting mexicans and south americans are completely different peoples and cultures....
take mexicans away you'll realize there is virtually next to none communities from any south american nationality in north americas.
According to the US census South Americans make up less than 0.7% of the US population and in Canada the number is even less!!!
both countries USA and canada do have ****loads of chinese, indians, mexicans and philipinos though (that is the north american diversity) in other words.... having a ****load of mexicans doesnt equal having latin american diversity, nor having cities completely saturated with chinese and indians make toronto and vancouver international cities full of diversity!!!
since we're talking about diversity, I am pointing out that there are rarely any south americans in canada and pretty much most of the US
people say latino and think mexican, forgetting mexicans and south americans are completely different peoples and cultures....
take mexicans away you'll realize there is virtually next to none communities from any south american nationality in north americas.
According to the US census South Americans make up less than 0.7% of the US population and in Canada the number is even less!!!
both countries USA and canada do have ****loads of chinese, indians, mexicans and philipinos though (that is the north american diversity) in other words.... having a ****load of mexicans doesnt equal having latin american diversity, nor having cities completely saturated with chinese and indians make toronto and vancouver international cities full of diversity!!!
Mexicans make up the bulk of the Latino population in the US, which makes sense since they border each other. The two most populous states in the US have huge Mexican communities, so that also adds to it.
There are large US cities that have small Mexican populations in comparison to their other Latino communities. In Miami Mexicans rank 8th after Cubans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. In NYC Mexicans are 3rd, after Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. In Boston Mexicans are 5th after Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Salvadorans and Guatemalans.
There are also large Brazilian communities that are South American, but do not fall under "Hispanic" on the census. Miami and NYC have large Brazilian communities and Eastern Massachusetts has the largest Brazilian population outside of Brazil in the world.
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