Both cities have a solid international presence, but which is more so? Think about what makes an international city to you and respond. I would base it off of the following criteria:
1) International trade in the metro area
2) International diplomatic missions in the metro area
3) Name recognition and media presence abroad
4) Foreign flag carriers at an airport
5) Size of Immigrant community
6) Diversity of Immigrant community
7) Number of international visitors
You may have other criteria and Im certainly open to hearing and discussing them. Based on the criteria Ive posted:
1) I want to say Houston because of the port and oil industry, but may be wrong. Atlanta's economy is much more diverse and they do have a huge presence in the German and Korean auto industry. I cannot say for sure.
2) Houston by a margin of 41 to 26.
3) In my opinion, Atlanta has better name recognition abroad in huge part because it is a more popular city. It was the center of the Civil Rights movement, its the HQ of Coke and CNN which are household names, and its a huge center of Black culture and radio friendly Southern Hip Hop which gets a lot of airplay in other countries.
4) Houston has 20 and Atlanta has 10.
5) Houston has roughly 1.5 million foreign born residents, Atlanta has about 755,000. For both Metro Areas, Mexicans are the largest ethnic group. If Mexicans are removed, Houston has about 880,000 foreign born residents and Atlanta has about 590,000 foreign born residents. In 2016, Houston received 37,777 international immigrants and Atlanta received 23,620. If Mexicans are removed Houston received 29,920 international immigrants and Atlanta received 21,428.
6) I would point to the thread below. It does show Houston as the more diverse:
//www.city-data.com/forum/city-...r-country.html
7) Excluding Mexico and Canada, Houston receives about 860,000 a year and Atlanta at 723,000 a year. Houston does receive more visitors from Mexico and Western Canada. They receive similar numbers of visitors from Eastern Canada.
Based on this, I point to Houston as the more international city, but if someone wants to point to other things as evidence for Atlanta, Im open.