Monthly Archives: April 2022

New York is America’s most-populous city, and its metropolitan area has over 20 million people.  New York City contains the five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx.  The New York metropolitan area includes New York City, Long Island, and the Mid and Lower Hudson Valley.  It also includes several large cities in New Jersey such as Newark, Edison, Elizabeth, Paterson, Jersey City, and Hoboken, along with cities in Connecticut such as New Haven, Bridgeport, and Stamford.  New York is one of the most important economic regions in the world and has the highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the United States.  New York is considered “Capital of the World”, not only due to its economic power, but also as headquarters of the United Nations, it is a center of diplomacy and culture.  It is also one of America’s most important centers of Hispanic culture and influence.  There are an estimated five million Hispanics in the New York metropolitan area, including about 150,000 Cubans (either born in Cuba or having Cuban heritage).  New York and Cuba have a deep history that goes back to the sugar trade starting in the 18^th century.  New York has long been a home for many of Cuba’s thought leaders, businesspeople, athletes, and artists. 

Charlotte is the 23rd-most populous city in the United States and is the most populous city in the state of North Carolina.  The Charlotte metropolitan area is a sixteen-county region that stretches into the state of South Carolina and includes the towns of Concord, Gastonia, Huntersville, Kannapolis, Indian Trail, Mooresville, Monroe, Salisbury, Matthews, Statesville, Rock Hill (SC), and Fort Mill (SC).  Known as the Queen City, this metropolis of 2.6 million people has been one of the country’s fastest-growing cities the past two decades.  Charlotte’s youthful population, low cost of living, and geographic location in America’s Sun Belt, have made it an attractive destination for business investment.  It’s also become a popular destination for relocation from other parts of the United States as well as for immigrants from other countries, including newcomers from East Asia.  There are a few thousand Chinese living in the Charlotte area, some of whom originally immigrated to America from Taiwan.  The city is home to the Charlotte Taiwanese American Association, a cultural and social organization hosting annual events like Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival.  There is also the Charlotte Chinese School where children can learn Traditional Chinese, which is still used in Taiwan today.  Charlotte area colleges and universities like Queens University, UNC Charlotte, and Davidson College offer courses in Mandarin.

Seattle is the largest city in the state of Washington and is also the largest city in America’s Pacific Northwest region.  Known as the “Emerald City”, Seattle is situated in a magnificent natural environment along the Puget Sound, surrounded by evergreen forests, mountains, and water.  The Seattle metropolitan area (the fifteenth-largest metropolis in the United States) has a population of 4 million people and includes the cities of Tacoma, Bellevue, Kent, Everett, Renton, Kirkland, and Redmond.  The area is home to several famous companies such as Nordstrom, Costco, Amazon, Microsoft, Expedia, Redfin, Zillow, and Starbucks.  This base of companies makes Seattle an attractive destination for jobseekers from around the world, including workers from India specializing in information technology.  There are now over 75,000 Indians in the Seattle metropolitan area, and they make up nearly half of the city’s foreign-born technology workers.  Indian culture runs deep in Seattle, which is home to several organizations representing the various ethnolinguistic groups of India such as Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, and others.  Ties between Seattle and India will be further cemented with the introduction of a nonstop flight to Bangalore on American Airlines starting October 2022.  

Greater Boston is the eleventh-most populous metropolitan area in the United States with a population of 4.9 million people, and includes towns such as Cambridge, Brookline, Quincy, Brockton, Lynn, Newton, Waltham, and Medford.  Boston is one of America’s oldest cities and has a rich history that attracts over 20 million tourists each year.  Known as the “intellectual capital of the United States”, Boston is a center of education that has more than 350,000 college students from around the world, including students from Vietnam.  Schools like Boston University, Northeastern University, Harvard, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology all have Vietnamese student organizations.  The city of Boston has about 15,000 ethnic Vietnamese and there are well over triple that number living in the Boston suburbs and state of Massachusetts.  There is a “Boston Little Saigon” cultural district in the Fields Corner neighborhood of Dorchester that is a great place for local Bostonians to enjoy Vietnamese restaurants, cafes, and markets.  This area is also home to the Vietnamese American Community Center, which serves as gathering point for civic and cultural activities.  The city plays hosts to Tet in Boston, an annual event celebrating the Vietnamese Lunar New Year that attracts over 10,000 attendees.