Monthly Archives: March 2022

The Greater Miami Area is the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the United States and has a population of 6.2 million people.  The metropolitan area is composed of Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County.  Its main cities include Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Hialeah, Miami Gardents, Coral Gables, Miramar, Davie, Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, and Boca Raton.  This is a diverse community where 40% of the population was born in another country, and it is one of America’s most important cities for international trade.  Miami is a business hub for the Latin American region and is often thought of as the unofficial “Capital of Latin America”.  While Spanish is often heard on the streets of Miami, you will also hear English spoken with a British accent since there are an estimated 400,000 UK citizens living in Florida.  Miami is the headquarters for several British companies such as Diageo, Bupa, Skyscanner, Virgin Voyages, and Lloyd’s of London.  The UK is the biggest foreign investor in Florida, and British individuals own hundreds of small businesses here, employing over 40,000 people across the state.  The UK is easily accessible from Miami through daily nonstop service to London Heathrow on American Airlines, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic. 

Philadelphia is the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania and is one of the oldest cities in the United States.  Founded in 1682 by Englishman William Penn, a social reformer and champion of liberty, he named the city Philadelphia using the Greek term meaning “brotherly love”.  Philadelphia has the nickname “City of Brotherly Love” and is nowadays more casually known by locals and non-locals alike as “Philly”.  The Philadelphia metropolitan area has over 6 million people and includes cities and towns in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, in addition to Pennsylvania.  The area is well known as a center of higher education and has more than 80 postsecondary institutions including Temple University, Drexel, Villanova, and University of Pennsylvania, whose Penn Language Center offer courses in Vietnamese.  Philadelphia was one of the main cities for Vietnamese refugees to establish new lives after they fled their country’s civil war in 1975.  There are now 20,000 ethnic Vietnamese living in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.  The “Little Saigon” neighborhood in South Philadelphia is the center of Vietnamese culture where local people can shop for products from Vietnam and enjoy Vietnamese food staples like bánh mì (sandwich), phở (noodle dish), and gỏi cuốn (spring rolls).

Atlanta has a population of over 6 million people, making it the 9th most populous metropolitan area in the United States.  Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, which is the 8th most populous of the 50 states.  The city and surrounding area—known as the Atlanta metropolitan area—is also the commercial capital of the Southeast United States.  The metropolitan area includes the municipalities of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Chamblee, Roswell, Alpharetta, Marietta, Duluth, Norcross, Tucker, Decatur, Mableton, Conyers, and others.  Atlanta has become a diverse and international city that includes a few thousand citizens of the United Kingdom among its residents.  Atlanta and the state of Georgia have a strong connection to the United Kingdom.  Georgia was founded in 1733 as a British colony by James Oglethorpe, a British soldier and member of Parliament.  Today the United Kingdom is a leading investor in Georgia, operating over 300 facilities and employing over 20,000 Georgians.  The city of Atlanta is seen by many British companies as being a strategic foothold to the U.S. market.  British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Delta Airlines all have nonstop service to London Heathrow from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.  Virgin Atlantic also offers nonstop service to Manchester.

Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States and is an important global city that attracts visitors from all over the world.  The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area—which includes the District of Columbia and parts of Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia—is America’s sixth-largest metropolis and has a population of 6.3 million people.  Cities within this area (apart from the District of Columbia) include Bethesda, College Park, Frederick, Gaithersburg, Rockville, and Silver Spring—all in Maryland—along with the Virginia towns of Alexandria, Annandale, Arlington, Fairfax, Reston, and Falls Church, which is home to Eden Center, the largest Vietnamese business district on the East Coast.  The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area has the fifth-largest population of Vietnamese in the United States, numbering over 80,000 residents.  The Vietnamese that initially came to Washington, D.C. were refugees from their country’s civil war, and many of them fought alongside the American military or had relationships with the U.S. government.  Another wave of Vietnamese immigrants resettled to the United States—these were known as “boat people” and would go on to build the Vietnamese business districts (known as “Little Saigon”) found in major American cities like Washington, D.C.

Greater Houston is the fifth most-populous metropolitan area in the United States and has a population 7.2 million residents.  Greater Houston encompasses nine counties and includes the cities of Sugar Land, Baytown, Conroe, Pasadena, Pearland, Galveston, and The Woodlands.  Houston is one of America’s most ethnically diverse cities.  With over 145 different languages being spoken here, it is no surprise that Houston has plenty of great restaurants offering delicious cuisine from all over the world.  Houston even has a coffee shop (Bluestone Lane) that borrows from the Australian coffee culture that is becoming popular around the world, along with an Australian themed brewery (Platypus Brewing) that serves meat pies.  There are an estimated 2,000 Australians living in Houston and the city is home to the Australian American Chamber of Commerce Texas, which helps facilitate business relations between our two countries.  There are several Australian companies with offices in Houston such as BHP Petroleum, Worley, Petrosys, and others that deal in the energy industry.  Houston is also home to The Australia and New Zealand Society of Texas, which celebrates annual events like Australia Day.  United Airlines has direct flights to Sydney from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. 

Detroit is the largest city in the state of Michigan and the second largest metropolitan area in the Midwest.  Detroit is better known by its nickname “Motor City”, or “Motown”, because of its prominence as the global center of the automotive industry.  Although the city has certainly had its share of ups and downs, Detroit remains an important and influential American city.  The Detroit metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, has a population of 4.3 million and includes the towns of Dearborn, Royal Oak, Auburn Hills, Livonia, Southfield, Rochester Hills, Pontiac, Sterling Heights, and Warren—an important community for immigrants from Bangladesh.  The town of Hamtramck is another important town for Bangladeshi people and is home to “Banglatown”, a Detroit neighborhood with several Bangladesh restaurants, grocery stores, and clothing shops.  Bangladesh immigrants first came to Detroit in the 1930’s to find jobs in the auto industry, but in the past 20 years the population has grown rapidly thanks to the area’s low housing costs.  There could be as many as 25,000 Bangladeshi people in Metro Detroit and double that number throughout the state of Michigan.  Detroit is home to the Bangladesh Association of Michigan and there is a Bangladesh Student Association at Wayne State University.

San Francisco, known as the “City by the Bay”, is one of America’s most famous and beautiful cities.  Located in Northern California, San Francisco is just one of the many cities that together make up the San Francisco Bay Area, or Bay Area for short.  The 14-county combined statistical area (that comprises the Bay Area) has nearly 10 million people, making it the fifth-most populous region in the United States.  The Bay Area includes cities such as Oakland, Berkeley, Vallejo, Concord, Pleasanton, Fremont, San Jose, San Mateo, Palo Alto, and San Rafael.  The economy of the Bay Area is one of the most vigorous and entrepreneurial on the planet.  San Francisco has attracted engineers from all over the world, including those from Australia.  The United States has a close relationship with Australia and offers its citizens a preferential visa (the E-3 visa) that provides opportunities for Australian engineers and scientists a pathway to work for Bay Area life science and information technologies companies.  There are about 25,000 Australians living in the Bay Area and the city of San Francisco is home to the Australian American Chamber of Commerce and several Australian social organizations and clubs.  United Airlines offers a daily flight to Sydney, Australia from San Francisco International Airport (SFO).