How diverse is Miami really? (homes, public school, taxi driver)

[der titan]

When I visited Miami, I couldn't notice much diversity in terms of cultures. The only 3 languages I heard being spoken was Spanish, Taxi drivers who speak French Creole and barely English. When I went to the grocery store everyone also spoke Spanish and people were wondering why I couldnt speak Spanish because for some reason they thought I was of latin american origin.

When I read the 'diversity or no diversity' thread, I see that most of my claims are backed by statistics which show that while Miami may have a different diversity of LATIN AMERICANS, they lack diversity in other groups.

Are my experiences correct? How diverse is Miami of OTHER cultures besides the Latin American cultures?

[FlyMIA]

Originally Posted by der titan

When I visited Miami, I couldn't notice much diversity in terms of cultures. The only 3 languages I heard being spoken was Spanish, Taxi drivers who speak French Creole and barely English. When I went to the grocery store everyone also spoke Spanish and people were wondering why I couldnt speak Spanish because for some reason they thought I was of latin american origin.

When I read the 'diversity or no diversity' thread, I see that most of my claims are backed by statistics which show that while Miami may have a different diversity of LATIN AMERICANS, they lack diversity in other groups.

Are my experiences correct? How diverse is Miami of OTHER cultures besides the Latin American cultures?

Man this topic has been discussed so much but one of the things I hate when people say exactly that. So Miami has large populations of just about every Latin American country here. Right? How many countries is that. Each and every one of those countries is (get ready crazy word) DIFFERENT. I know you said besides for Latin American cultures but they are very different, we can't group them together. If you think that having large communities (compared to most of the US) of just about every country in latin america is not diverse I don't know what is. You do think people from Ireland, Australia, US, Canada, Belize, South Africa and the UK are different right? They all speak english but they are different.

So besides for Latin Americans and Haitians what does Miami have?
Large Russian Population, there is a little Moscow area in Sunny Isles
Large South African population. 2nd largest in the US, they speak english so you probably did not notice them.
Over 6,000 Nigerians call Miami home.
Large Italian and French population, Spanish population too (from Spain)
Huge Brazilian population.
Large Jamaican population.
A pretty good sized Eastern European population too
Of course we can't forget about all the Germans that live here or have homes here.
Oh yea and South Florida is home to the countries largest Finnish population.
Oh and one more, there are TONS of Canadians down here. Many have winter homes here. In the winter the 2nd most popular license plate you will see here after Florida is plates from Quebec.

A few weeks ago while in line at the grocery store there was me (American born, Cuban/German parents) A hispanic family, A Jamaican woman, a Haitian Cashier, a man from Nigeria. I know about the Jamaican and Nigerian because they had a conversation about where they were from. Oh and also a woman speaking German to her child.
Enough diversity?

The list of countries which I know people from is pretty large. Yes Miami does lack a large Asian population. However there are still something over 40,000 Asians in the metro area it is not small.
Just for future reference of me and to show a small/random population in Miami metro from going to high school in Miami and people who live here I know people from:
Canada, Mexico, Venezula, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Panama, Spain, France, Italy, UK, South Africa, Russia, Lativa, Honduras, Chile, Bahamas, Nigeria, Israel, Norway, Denmark, Philippines, Japan, Poland, Germany, Uruguay, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece

So yea, find me many cities not just in the US but around the world where someone can meet people from all over the world like that in normal interactions, not even in a business setting. I am talking people born in those countries and now living in Miami too. Not that their grandparents were born there.

[der titan]

Interesting thoughts there, thanks.

[WINTERFRONT]

This thread always haunt us back.

[Tiger Beer]

The forum just wrote 14 pages on this exact topic from October 10th (2011) until about a week ago. It's on the second page of the forum

Right here:
//www.city-data.com/forum/miami...diversity.html

[MiamiRob]

Fly Mia your post is spot on! How diverse is Miami? The Miami-Dade county Public school system has identified 72 distinct languages that it's 300,000+ students are able to speak and comminicuate in.

[Edu983]

Miami is an American melting pot. All American nationalities are found here + Africans, Asians, and Europeans.

[roadtrip75]

Originally Posted by Edu983

Miami is an American melting pot.

A melting pot is by definition the polar opposite of diverse.

[Manolón]

Then a "salad bowl"..

[boxus]

Originally Posted by Edu983

Miami is an American melting pot. All American nationalities are found here + Africans, Asians, and Europeans.

You can say that with every major city.