Quote:
Originally Posted by NY2Cairo
Hello,
My husband is from Cairo and a year ago I dragged the poor guy from one of the biggest cities in the world to Tucson AZ while I finished up college. Now Im almost finished and Im definitely seeing that he (we) need to move to a bigger city. I too would appreciate going someplace more metropolitan than Tucson but at the same time Im from Rochester, NY and NYC scares me. I want a place to raise kids but still diverse, preferably with a decent Muslim presence. Also, having a good job market that would cater to people with overseas and bilingual skills would be a plus (which presumably DC has!) So tell me about your city! Thank you.  |
Sounds to me like the DC area would be right up your alley. It lacks some of the sophistication of Rome or Paris, but it is quite clearly a world class city. It is remarkably diverse with the average crowd on the Metro looking a lot like a UN General Assembly meeting. Not uncommon to hear five or six different languages being spoken in a half-hour of walking around town, and some of those will be unfamiliar. Diversity tends to drop off the further away from town you go. By the time you reach the outer suburbs, 85-90% white would become typical. There are 60,000 registered Muslim voters in Northern Virginia. We have the fact that 90% of them voted for Jim Webb to thank for the Senate's presently being under Democratic control. They are however just one of many significant minority cultures. Fairfax and Arlington counties are home to many Muslims and there are 6-8 mosques and Islamic centers in the area. Both Fairfax and Arlington have excellent school systems (in contrast to those in DC proper) and a wide variety of family-friendly areas and neighborhoods to choose from. Fairfax County schools by the way distribute all of their official communications in five languages -- English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, and Urdu. Fairfax County, however, is also the richest county in the country, and Arlington isn't all that far behind, so the cost-of-living here will be higher than in Tucson. The median household income in Fairfax County is over $100K, nearly triple what it is in the city of Tucson, so regardless of the number of dollars you have, they will be competing against more dollars here than they do in AZ. Meanwhile, the job market here is both strong and stable. That doesn't guaranty that the job of your dreams will be low-hanging fruit, but there is a high demand for qualified people in a lot of disciplines. The role of bilingualism in gaining employment here would depend on which other langauge is involved. Croatian would not be that much of a plus. Arabic or Farsi would....
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