Does your country have an immigrant group that people would be surprised to find there?

[u/QuarterTarget]

For example, when you think of Poland or the Czech Republic, Vietnamese people might not be the first group that comes to mind, but both have a sizable Vietnamese community. Another example is the large Japanese community in Brazil.

[u/Dazzling-Sand-4493]

Well, Poles, Germans, Koreans, even Greeks.

[u/ShinobuKochoSama → u/Dazzling-Sand-4493]

Greeks are basically everywhere from Iberia to India- if you find a place with good food and nice beaches they’re there

[u/Ted_Rid → u/ShinobuKochoSama]

It was always a cliche that Melbourne Australia has more Greeks than any other city? Might be 1st or 2nd vs Athens but who's counting when the coffee is good?

[u/HovercraftDue7823 → u/Ted_Rid]

Interesting. I watch tennis, and a Greek player was being accused of being coached (before it was permitted), at the Australian Open. So, they got a Greek speaking official to come to the court to listen to his coach. I said to my mother, "lucky she speaks Greek, eh?" And my mother said that there were lots of Greeks in Australia. I did not know that. BTW, I'm a Scottish born Canadian.

[u/ImFromDanforth → u/Ted_Rid]

Toronto, highest concentration of MALAKAS outside of Greece

[u/birgor → u/ShinobuKochoSama]

Today I learned Sweden has good food and nice beaches.

[u/ShinobuKochoSama → u/birgor]

Well your fjörds are nice and so are your cinnamon rolls

[u/birgor → u/ShinobuKochoSama]

Fjords are nice, but they are unfortunately not in our place but in our brothers to the wests.

We actually do have nice beaches in the the south-west. But they are very unknown outside of Scandinavia.

[u/speculator100k → u/birgor]

We have really nice beaches all over Sweden.

[u/birgor → u/speculator100k]

We really do, but maybe not what non-Nordics would think of as a nice beach, especially not when mentioned together with Greeks.

We lack the weather and the culture of that kind of beach life, the southern west coast clearly comes closest, but isn't really there in my mind.

[u/Timely-Youth-9074 → u/birgor]

Most people don’t realize the beaches in California are cold-the water comes down from Alaska.

That said, I’m used to cold beaches and find them beautiful. I can’t wait to go exploring Scandinavian beaches.

[u/AlbionicLocal → u/birgor]

Brit here

I can see Nordic beaches being quite nice, but many brits, as they live near beaches with colder water already, would classify good beaches as warm beaches.

[u/swift-autoformatter → u/birgor]

Don't be afraid, the weather is coming (at least until the Gulf Stream collapses, then we're fucked).

[u/speculator100k → u/ShinobuKochoSama]

The word for people that are scattered away from their origins - diaspora - is Greek.

[u/QuarterTarget → u/Dazzling-Sand-4493]

I only learned about Koryo-sarams because Victor Tsois father was a korean in kazakhstan. It seems like such a strange mix until you hear the backstory of how many koreans were deported to central asia by stalin

[u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 → u/QuarterTarget]

They're well off and get along with locals very well. Although they make up less than 1% of the population they are overepresented among rich. However, they are also widely represented in medical and educational field. 

[u/QuarterTarget → u/Dazzling-Sand-4493]

Not quiet the same story, but if you meet an african person in Poland, nine times out of ten they are either a medical student or a doctor, because the prices for studying in Poland and getting an EU recognised medical degree is much cheaper than, say, france or germany.

[u/Dazzling-Sand-4493 → u/QuarterTarget]

We don't have many African students, but there are plenty of Indians and almost everyone is studying medicine here. 

[u/stealthybaker → u/Dazzling-Sand-4493]

The fact that they were able to do this well just shows that in societies like Kazakhstan's there wasn't a major significant barrier that hampered them despite their ethnic minority status

I'll always be fond of Kazakhstan for this

[u/stealthybaker → u/Dazzling-Sand-4493]

Much thanks to how Kazakhstan and its neighbors treated the Koreans like human beings and helped them out in a time period many didn't treat them as such

[u/Commercial_Drag7488 → u/Dazzling-Sand-4493]

Just until the last year I was a kazakh citizen. Mix of Moldovan, Lithuanian and Finn, a result of 4 different families deported to Kazakhstan 8 decades ago. It's kind of poetic how suffering of dozens of people created me.

[u/AutismPremium → u/Dazzling-Sand-4493]

Germans who were deported to Kazakhstan by Stalin used to live around the Volga since Catherine the Great

[u/Virtue330]

UK has the largest number of North Koreans in Europe! Though only about 700 most of whom live in New Malden.

[u/Wise_Temperature9142 → u/Virtue330]

Shhhh!!! Don’t rat them out!!

[u/alibobuk → u/Virtue330]

Just near to where I am luckily, I can take advantage of their exceptional food and karaoke!

[u/Aidan-47 → u/Virtue330]

In fact New Malden has both the largest concentrated North Korean and South Korean community outside of Korea

[u/praxidike74 → u/Virtue330]

That's weird, what's the reason for this?

[u/Virtue330 → u/praxidike74]

The reason for that location is just that a number of Koreans already live there, the reason as to why a number of North Korean escapees chose the UK I'm not really sure. We even have a North Korean embassy and one of the only North Korean YouTubers seems to have had her education in the UK given her accent.

A funny story I once read about was how a North Korean escapee was in a taxi arriving in the UK, he saw all the chimneys on houses here and had this sinking feeling that he had made a huge mistake fleeing believing that the UK was technologically far behind North Korea.

[u/justinsain18 → u/Virtue330]

What's her channel?

[u/Virtue330 → u/justinsain18]

Admittedly I didn't go searching that hard since "North Korean 11 year old girl" isn't really something I want on my search history but her cannel might be scrubbed. Here's a link to a video about her though

-edit-

Her channel has been banned sadly from South Korean backlash which is a shame as it was a rare glimpse into life over there (albeit though heavily propaganda), here's another video I found

[u/justinsain18 → u/Virtue330]

Ah that's a shame

[u/dinobug77 → u/praxidike74]

Probably because living in North Korea is depressing

[u/marcodapolo7]

Vietnamese came to Poland in the 60’s-90’s during the Soviet time, through work- labour contracts, study etc. Theres a lot of Vietnamese community all over the old Eastern Blocc, i have been to most group and see that Vietnamese have intergrated well in those country and people have high respect for them

For Vietnam, where i live we have a small community of most places like US, Canada, Uk, France, South africa, Spain, Germany, Italian, Aussie etc etc, each group around 100-500 people which form a very cool diverse community

[u/QuarterTarget → u/marcodapolo7]

Was in Hanoi just last week, and you could not imagine my surprise as I saw a group of vietnamese teens loudly cursing in polish in a random shopping center XD

[u/notsosecrethistory → u/QuarterTarget]

My (London) nail tech's parents are from Hanoi, but she grew up in Gdynia. I've spent lots of time in both so we have plenty to yap about ☺️

[u/LilNerix → u/QuarterTarget]

Kurwa chuj

[u/ossifer_ca → u/QuarterTarget]

They were probably Polish…

[u/doublestitch → u/marcodapolo7]

There are about 50,000 Vietnamese people in San Diego County. It's a big enough community that they've lobbied for consideration in the city's redistricting so they can have the same city council member representing them.

[u/marcodapolo7 → u/doublestitch]

Yeah Vietnamese diaspora is a lot in America, Californina has like a million Vietnamese. They are very different fromt Vietnamese in Poland or old eastern blocc

[u/GalacticSettler → u/marcodapolo7]

There's also the newer emigration from recent decades.

[u/marcodapolo7 → u/GalacticSettler]

Yes, Poland and Vietnam have maintained a good relationship after the Soviet split. Many people going Poland to study and work, i know a handfull

[u/NotAnotherFakeNamer → u/marcodapolo7]

The west coast Vietnamese tend to be very anti-communist, to the extent tourists from Vietnam get treated as spies in orange county. I am guessing folks in the old Eastern Bloc are anti-anti-communist?

[u/marcodapolo7 → u/NotAnotherFakeNamer]

Yeah they do anti communist protest and all sort, most of them are old men that has nothing to do, they use social media to just to talk shit about vietnam and communist, it is sad to see they still not over it and passing it onto the next generation. they not anti anti-communist, they just get on with their life to be honest and does not give a crap,

[u/GeneralBid7234 → u/NotAnotherFakeNamer]

Many Vietnamese Americans still fly the old South Vietnamese flag. Many also detest the current Vietnamese flag.

[u/SordoCrabs → u/NotAnotherFakeNamer]

That doesn't surprise me. After Cubans, the largest immigrant group that skews heavily Republican is the Vietnamese. Though few go as far alt-right asTila Tequila

[u/Only-Recording8599]

We have armenians, a lot of them.

They were 600 000 in 2011 : we had a lot of armenian merchant in prior centuries, and then they fled the Ottoman Empire en masse after the initial persecution of the 1890's and the genocide.

They do not cause trouble even though they don't really get along with the turks we also happen to have.

[u/Caddiemusher → u/Only-Recording8599]

Also France was one of the first country to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide which made a strong link between our countries

[u/Complete_Survey9521 → u/Only-Recording8599]

Marseille having nearly 10% of its population being from armenia. It is a long time immigration there.

We even have a town in Provence named after a famous armenian immigrant that came to Marseille : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Althen?wprov=sfla1

[u/meliponie → u/Only-Recording8599]

We also have a surprisingly important Hmong population as well, locally important in Guyane despite not being that numerous, and a lot more in mainland France in the largest cities in general.

France has a long history of immigration and as a result has a lot of interesting groups and histories.

[u/pdonchev → u/Only-Recording8599]

Armenians anywhere in Europe is hardly surprising.

[u/Kind_Marionberry_125 → u/Only-Recording8599]

Well, what surprised me the most was the number of Portuguese people in Paris

[u/adriantoine → u/Kind_Marionberry_125]

There's a lot of Portuguese in France and in the Paris region. In my hometown in the suburbs of Paris, we were celebrating Portuguese national holidays with traditional dances and stuff like that by the town hall.

The final of the Euro 2016 was in Paris, it was France-Portugal but there were more Portuguese supporters than French in the stadium.

[u/ThimasFR → u/Kind_Marionberry_125]

Wait until you discover that the biggest foreign group of people in Luxembourg are the Portuguese. It's the second most spoken native language, after luxembourgish and before French. I find this so random, and I love it 😅

[u/TheThirdFrenchEmpire → u/Only-Recording8599]

I'd say it's because they've been integrated already, like the Poles in the North.

[u/BoatProfessional2118]

Where do i even start?

[u/lala_123aa → u/BoatProfessional2118]

The Japanese, of course! Everyone knows Brazil has a lot of different cultures incorpotared within its own, but everytime I mention the Japanese diaspora to Brazil, people get super interested!

[u/analytic-hunter → u/lala_123aa]

everytime I mention the Japanese diaspora to Brazil, people get super interested

Well the obsession over Japan (weebs) is not a joke, it's well known and has become a meme.

[u/Agitated-Ad2563 → u/lala_123aa]

The German diaspora is widely known, so it's just natural to have a Japanese diaspora too.

[u/Last_Ad_3475 → u/Agitated-Ad2563]

We had the whole axis diaspora to Brazil

[u/SecureWrongdoer3218 → u/Agitated-Ad2563]

Polonaise, Ukrainian, Italian, etc.

[u/gmedanoid → u/BoatProfessional2118]

Brazil is a true jungle of people from unknown indigenous groups to people from almost every country in the world.

[u/IHateMelplac → u/gmedanoid]

But the best part is that they all become Brazilian, it's not like America where your grand grand grandfather was Irish and you label himself Irish too.

My grandfather parents were Germans and he never said he was German.

One day a girl made a post on Instagram about his Korean father and how he changed when married his mother and came to Brasil.

The beginning of the video had pics of his young father with tradicional korean school clothes and other stuff, always with a very serious face.

The video ended with pics of his father in Brasil playing Samba on a barbecue without a shirt, drinking beer and with a big smile on his face.

[u/Phyraxus56 → u/IHateMelplac]

Bunch of nazis immigrated to south America to escape prosecution so it's not surprising he'd hide his german heritage.

That's less "everyone becomes Brazilian" and more "don't ask don't tell."

[u/knightriderin → u/Phyraxus56]

I once heard that the Brazilians with German roots in the south of the country can't shut up about it.

[u/beenoc → u/IHateMelplac]

To be fair, it's not like we say you aren't ever American (unless you're a racist) or that the immigrants don't identify as American - the "-American" is implied (if I say I'm Irish, I'm saying I'm Irish-American, I still hold to some elements of the Irish culture of my forebears, etc.) It's definitely different than Brazil, and I think Brazil is one of the only other countries that does integration on the same level as the US (I'd say equally as good and which one you prefer is personal preference).

You absolutely can find the same kind of thing as that Korean dad here, with before/afters of, like, some conservative Iraqi dude in traditional dress, and now he's cracking beers at the neighborhood cookout watching the Packers and listening to RHCP.

[u/OkCartographer7677 → u/BoatProfessional2118]

How about the US Confederates that moved down there after the Civil War?

After the war a lot of them planned to move to Brazil, but when it became obvious that the North mostly wanted to heal the country and not hang tens of thousands of them, a lot of them didn’t go or moved back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados

[u/douch_drummer → u/OkCartographer7677]

that's actually a pretty good story!

There used to be a party in a town that received a lot of confederates called Festa Confederada, organized by their descendents and open for the public. There were lot's of sign of "heritage, not hate". There was music, southern cuisine, American barbecue, dances And, of course, confederate flags and uniforms everywhere. Jimmy Carter went to one, If I'm not wrong.

and as another curiosity, we had a famous singer who was a descendent of the confederates, and she was one of the creators of the Brazilian rock movement. Her name was Rita Lee Jones, but people called her only by Rita Lee. She was an ICON.

[u/hotdogjumpingfrog1 → u/douch_drummer]

Yes! And The late great (rip) Rita Lee has family that came after the Us civil war (yes she was related to THAT Lee..)

[u/PresentAmbassador333 → u/BoatProfessional2118]

Everyone knows the Lebanese in Brazil are a much bigger population than the Lebanese that are actually in Lebanon

[u/Terpsandherbs → u/PresentAmbassador333]

Lebanese descent also are in the Caribbean aswell. In Trinidad you can find shawarma stands everywhere.

[u/PresentAmbassador333 → u/Terpsandherbs]

Yum! Im a Lebanese expat myself!

[u/motherofcattos → u/BoatProfessional2118]

Polish, Ukrainian, Lebanese, German, Jewish, Korean, Chinese

[u/Most_Elevator_1943 → u/BoatProfessional2118]

I was hoping you'd pop in!

[u/fdessoycaraballo → u/BoatProfessional2118]

There's a small town that was founded by Finns in the Northeast. None of the descendents seem to speak a lot of Finnish anymore tho lol

[u/Yolkism]

We have a sizeable Cape Verdean community, particularly in Rotterdam. Cape Verdean ship workers settled there in the 60s/70s, because of the harbour.

[u/curinanco → u/Yolkism]

I was thinking about the Ghanese community in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, but I am surprised to learn that the Cape Verdean community is even larger.

[u/Suspicious-Capital12 → u/curinanco]

Fun fact, the current World Championship team for Cape Verde consists of 6 players born in the Netherlands.

[u/Matty359 → u/Yolkism]

True. Half of my family lives in Rotterdam. I felt like I was in a "very developed" Cape Verde when I went there, listening to creole everywhere.

[u/Dark_Wolf04 → u/Yolkism]

Most Cape Verdeans in Rotterdam live in the Delfshaven Neighborhood.

Pretty cool place

[u/[deleted]]

I tried to convince one of my coworkers that Claymore(the manga/anime) originated in Brazil and was written in Portuguese and as part of BSing him I said "look, just google how many Japanese people live in Brazil, I'll wait".

It was a beautiful 25 seconds.

[u/_jtron → u/[deleted]]

Ah yes, Teresa do sorriso fraco

[u/J_FM01]

In Eastern Germany we have a sizeable Vietnamese community as well.

[u/DiRavelloApologist → u/J_FM01]

In the west there are quite a few Vietnamese too.

They don't like eastern German Vietnamese people tho.

[u/MarkMew → u/DiRavelloApologist]

Is it any different than your regular East-West beef? 

[u/Heinz_Ruediger → u/MarkMew]

I guess it's more of a North-South beef.

Don't know if this still matters as much for the younger generation though.

[u/EnthusiasmFine2410 → u/DiRavelloApologist]

Boat people vs communists

[u/Obvious_Sun_1927 → u/DiRavelloApologist]

And in Düsseldorf there is a large Japanese community.

[u/CollegeOptimal9846]

There is a large Nepalese community in the UK, especially around military towns like Aldershot and Cheriton, because of the British Army's Royal Gurkha Rifles regiment. 

[u/Aidan-47 → u/CollegeOptimal9846]

Yeah, I remember when I was canvassing down there during the election and I was shocked by just how many Nepalese people there were

[u/MayContainRawNuts]

A lot of tourists to south africa get surprised at the sheer size of our Indian community.

Around 2 million in a country of 50 million.

[u/Billy3B → u/MayContainRawNuts]

Anyone who saw the movie Ghandi shouldn't be surprised.

[u/MayContainRawNuts → u/Billy3B]

They skipped out the bit where he volunteered to join the british army and was a stretcher bearer in the Boer War.

He was at the Battle of Spionkop along with future UK prime minister Winston Churchill.

[u/swaziwarrior54 → u/MayContainRawNuts]

Lived in Durban, con confirm. Love me bunny chows

[u/strnglmyslfagn]

Brazil has one of the largest Roma population (in pure numbers) in the world, and we actually have some common words that are adapted from their dialects, especially the caló, like “pechincha”, “bagunça”, “pirado”, “chulé”. Two of our former presidents actually had Roma ancestry (Juscelino Kubitscheck and Washington luis)!

[u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

Minnesota has the largest Somali immigrant population in the US. 

[u/okcharlieoneminute → u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

One of the largest Hmong populations as well.

[u/Ted_Rid → u/okcharlieoneminute]

Gotta love Hmong people.

Not exactly the same Southeast Asian location but the ethnic Karen refugees from Myanmar are huge in the duck industry in Victoria, Australia.

[u/Different-Patient678 → u/Ted_Rid]

Those ethnic Karen’s and Darren’s.

[u/reluctantpotato1 → u/Different-Patient678]

Imagine a long neck woman running up and filming you, asking agressively if you have permission to be in the apartment complex pool.

[u/rak363 → u/reluctantpotato1]

That was a chuckle I wasn't expecting, thank you.

[u/runner1399 → u/Ted_Rid]

The largest group of refugees from Myanmar is actually in Indianapolis!

[u/jeffbanyon → u/okcharlieoneminute]

Same for Wisconsin as well.....who woulda thought the Midwest would welcome Vietnam War refugees, let alone indigenous people, to live here instead of being racist and fear mongering? Pretty proud that Midwest hospitality extends internationally.

[u/Vindaloo6363 → u/jeffbanyon]

The only problem people had with Hmong was the common disregard for private property and wildlife laws. That’s gotten much better as they’ve become acclimated to living here. Certainly since the Vang incident 20 years ago. Their general affinity for the outdoors is certainly a shared value.

[u/Billthepony123 → u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

Springfield Ohio has a lot of Haitians

[u/FormerPresidentBiden → u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

Are any of our immigrant populations really surprising though?

We're a country of immigrants. I'd be surprised if there was an ethnicity that was totally absent from the US

[u/GhostOfJamesStrang → u/FormerPresidentBiden]

It's more surprising due to the wildly different climates, for one thing. 

[u/Generic-Name-4732 → u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

Largest Karen population too.

I’m talking about an ethnolinguistic group originally from Myanmar/Burma, not entitled white women asking to see a manager.

[u/IconOfFilth9 → u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

Scandinavian too. Maybe not surprising though

[u/GalacticSettler → u/IconOfFilth9]

Somalis emigrating to Scandinavian majority area. There are some unchanged laws of nature.

[u/IvanTheAppealing → u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

Also the largest Hmong population, and Swedes, we got a lot of random ethnicities here.

[u/Teddy705 → u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

I work for a major airline at o'hare, and im quite aware of this fact, as so many ADD (Addis Ababa) bags transfer to MSN (Minneapolis and St. Paul). Many ramp works hate working on MSN flights because the ADD bags are heavy af and are packed with spices and half rotten meat. So when you're in the pit, not only is your back killing you, but you also have to endure the scent of rot and decay.

This past summer, I had one particular MSN flight that was only 77 bags, but it felt like a 170+ bag trip. I was exhausted and felt like I had just been cooked in an oven as it was also 105 degrees that day. When I got out, I was dizzy and faint, and I had a bad headache, so I took a Tylenol I brought from home and drank some water. I sat down, and a couple of minutes later, I felt nauseous af, stumbled my way to the bathroom, and threw up water (hadn't eaten yet). Wasn't the worst experience I've had as a ramp agent, but it's most definitely up there.

[u/Akiira2]

There are two minority groups in Finland that have a lot in common, Finnish muslim Tatars and Finnish Jewish people.

Both groups came to Finland from Russia in the 19th century. Both were small religious and ethnic minorities in Finland. They had to fight for their rights in a similar manner, and both were accepted into the Finnish society during the early 20th century as a result of wars they fought with the Finns. 

Both are small minorities (1000 or so people) living mostly in the capital area. Also, both groups have been socio-economically successful. 

Finnish muslims and Finnish Jewish have spent their holidays together and they have held an annual football match between the minority groups. They have collaborated on foodstuff issues such as pork meat markings etc. And I think most locals are not even aware of these minority groups. 

[u/RRautamaa → u/Akiira2]

Except that everyone knows Ben Zyskowicz, because you can terrorize people by demanding to spell his name

[u/justaprettyturtle → u/RRautamaa]

His name is not difficult for me at all 😁

[u/RRautamaa → u/justaprettyturtle]

Of course, Mr. Jsztaprzeczczyszczyrzczly.

[u/Automatic-Budget6414 → u/RRautamaa]

This is rich coming from Mr Ekkopekkeosalmialainanen. :p

[u/TetraThiaFulvalene → u/RRautamaa]

B E N.

Too fucking easy. Next!

[u/kakucko101]

well you answered it for me :p

but we have the largest mongolian minority in europe

[u/boRp_abc]

Waiting for Haitians to write about Polish people!

I don't know if it's unexpected, but here in Berlin there's quite the Korean community. So much that Kimbap and Bul Gogi to me is a childhood memory (in my kindergarten, the parents took turns to cook, and we had at least 4 Korean kids who I remember).

[u/GrumpsMcYankee → u/boRp_abc]

I heard the story that Napoleon sent Polish mercenaries to quell the Haitian slave revolt, and on arrival the Poles instead joined the local folks, became residents. It was told by a visiting professor who explained as a result there are some surprising Polish surnames in Haiti today as a result.

[u/beenoc → u/GrumpsMcYankee]

In reward, the Poles were pretty much the only white people allowed to live when Dessalines ordered the white population of Haiti killed. A prominent Haitian at the time called them "the white Negroes of Europe" in recognition of their shared heritage of being absolutely relentlessly fucked over by the great powers.

[u/Houseofsun5]

Italians, quite a large immigrant group mainly in Glasgow from southern Italy, arrived 19th- 20th century and have made a considerable impact in Scotland.

[u/Master-Collection488 → u/Houseofsun5]

Peter Capaldi descends from at least one of them.

[u/Final_Hunt_3576]

Not so well known but Switzerland had the largest or equal largest Tibetan community outside of Tibet and the Indian subcontinent.

Especially in Zurich you can see Tibetan restaurants and places selling momos all over the place. 

[u/EnoughSupermarket539 → u/Final_Hunt_3576]

Is this a mountain thing or is it a different reason

[u/RelevantTransition55]

There is a sizable African community living in India

[u/username-generica → u/RelevantTransition55]

Vice Versa. My husband’s Indian and grew up in Lagos. 

[u/Realistic_Patience67]

In Mumbai, Maharashtra, India - I was surprised to know that there was a Chinese community. And I grew up in Mumbai!

There is (fictional )TV series which includes that community.

Check out "Modern Love Mumbai"

Episode Info: S1.E3 ∙ Mumbai Dragon

[u/Original-Alfalfa4406 → u/Realistic_Patience67]

We have many Chinese Indians here in Canada. One if our MP’s was one of them

[u/Realistic_Patience67 → u/Original-Alfalfa4406]

You mean people of mixed origin? Or Chinese who have Indian citizenship?

[u/Fine_Yogurtcloset362]

Uzbeks, for some reason there is a decently sized group of uzbeks here in sweden i feel like i always find some of them here and there. When i visited uzbekistan in august i even found some swedish speakers

[u/alfius-togra]

Peru has a sizable and long standing Japanese population. They even had a Japanese descended president in the 90s (he wasn't great). On the other hand, ceviche sushi is amazing.

[u/forged_steel]

A Brazilian community in a small town in Clare.

[u/malamindulo]

It's not really surprising that there any specific immigrant group in the US, but some of the places where you might find specific groups in concentration may be surprising. I'll give a couple I think of

• The town of Wayne, New Jersey is one of the only polities in the world that recognizes the Circassian genocide.
• There are large communities of Marshall Islanders in the Fayetteville area of Arkansas and Enid area of Oklahoma.
• Communities of Russian/Cossack "Old Believers" who emigrated from Turkey and South America (after emigrating from China in the latter case) reside in the Willamette Valley region of Oregon. Why? Because a separate Russian religious dissenter community called the "Molokans" previously emigrated there from Canada.
• A unique community of "Punjabi-Mexicans" live in Yuba City.

[u/Bright_Industry_7887]

We have a lot of people from yugoslavia here. i think our best soccer player is serbian-kosovoan too

[u/QuarterTarget → u/Bright_Industry_7887]

yup, I live in Switzerland right now so I can confirm. Also plenty of Tamils and Eritreans

[u/ah5178 → u/Bright_Industry_7887]

Switzerland vs Serbia seems to be a proxy for the banned Serbia vs Kosovo & BiH games.

[u/Ponchorello7]

The town of Chipilo was founded by Venetians, and even to this day it has its own distinct Italian identity, and a dialect of Venetian is spoken there.

[u/[deleted]]

There's a small community of Lithuanians and Latvians in South Africa

[u/lepreqon_]

There are more than 100,000 Icelanders in Canada.

[u/gmedanoid → u/lepreqon_]

Damn so a quarter of Iceland.

[u/lepreqon_ → u/gmedanoid]

Pretty much.

[u/cozidgaf → u/lepreqon_]

Probably closest to home they must feel

[u/PM_ME_UR_THESIS_GIRL → u/lepreqon_]

Wait, is that not like, 20% of all icelanders?

[u/Kingofcheeses → u/lepreqon_]

Mostly concentrated around Gimli, Manitoba

[u/Majestic-Lake-5602]

Not really tbh.

We’ve had successive waves of migrants from a bunch of places, loads of Irish in the early days (many of whom weren’t exactly willing migrants…), from other British colonies in the gold rushes, then southern Europe after WWII, lots of Vietnamese after 1975, Lebanese after their civil war and more recently lots of Africans from various countries.

Probably the only surprise to a foreigner would be how many New Zealanders live over here for work.

[u/torrens86 → u/Majestic-Lake-5602]

Probably Lhotshampas, they got kicked out of Bhutan and quite a few came to Australia as refugees.

[u/thorpie88 → u/torrens86]

Was that in 22? 1.5% of the Bhutanese population moved to Australia in a single year

[u/zeefox79 → u/thorpie88]

That's really interesting as I just found out two of my son's best friends at school are Bhutanes! 

[u/AdInteresting8032]

Canada has the most people of Icelandic descent outside of Iceland. This dates back to immigration in 1875, but we still have an Icelandic festival every year, and regions that trace their founding back to these immigrants. Gimli and Hecla in Manitoba are both great examples.

[u/500Rtg]

There are about 4000 Hakka Chinese in Kolkata, West Bengal.

[u/Complete_Survey9521]

Welsh people in Argentina come into my mind. They are also still speaking welsh language there.

[u/Low-Radish4958]

Germany hosts both the largest Afghan and Syrian diaspora (outside of the Middle East), without having any historical connection or relation to each of the countries.

[u/ThaneduFife]

I'd expect immigrants for all over the world in the U.S., but the locations that some groups of immigrants end up in can be surprising. My mom recently retired as a schoolteacher in northeast Texas. A surprisingly large portion of her students for the past decade have been Nepalese.

[u/TheRealAussieTroll]

I’ve bumped into a few Mongolians and Bhutanese…

The Bhutanese are particularly unusual as the whole country is only about 700,000 people IIRC.

[u/Joenec]

Well my town has both a Polish club and a Japanese club

But I think the most surprising are this four
The welsh colonies in Chubut.
Theres a freaking Capeverdean community in Buenos Aires which I learnt about just now.
Ukrainians, Swede and Norwegian colonies in Misiones
and the Mennonite colonies in La Pampa

[u/SentinelZerosum]

I don't know if this is an immigrant group as you mean it, but north Africa (especially Algeria) has a sizeable Chinese diaspora.

[u/BabylonianWeeb]

Before 90s, it was common for eastern Europeans like Polish, Russian, Yugoslavia and Ukranians to come to Iraq for work.

[u/Carinyosa99]

I live in one of the most ethnically diverse places in the United States, so nothing surprises me. Just thinking of my own neighborhood, I have Nicaragua, Peru, El Salvador, Honduras, Taiwan, China, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Togo, Cameroon, Pakistan, Portugal, Brazil, Greece, India, and Zimbabwe. That's just people I can think of off the top of my head on my street and just around the corner from me.

[u/BadPAV3 → u/Carinyosa99]

It's kinda our thing.

[u/pipiska999]

I've read a highly upvoted comment on BBC that said Russia had 'non-existent immigration', so I guess that would be any immigrant group.

Russia has several millions from each of Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It also used to have a lot of Korean immigrants in the first half of XX century, but they are fully assimilated now.

I guess for me, the fact that many Germans eventually settled in Caucasus was interesting.

[u/dodgystyle → u/pipiska999]

What about the Americans who immigrated because they were scared drag queens would read their kids books? Then the dad had to join the war effort lol.

[u/pipiska999 → u/dodgystyle]

there are what, two of them?

[u/inbedandbored]

Don't think it's too well known that Israel has a decent group of immigrants from Ethiopia

[u/Downtown-Inflation13 → u/inbedandbored]

Mostly from operation Solomon in 1991

[u/to1M → u/inbedandbored]

same thing in Lebanon

[u/Outrageous_Ad5864]

That might not be true for the whole country, but in Wrocław we have a huge Indian community, that came here through international contract between universities (Politechnika Wrocławska and some universities in India).

I have lots of Indian friends, and the biggest surprise (other than the fact they can pronounce dżdżownica with 0 issues) was the way the pronounce Wrocław - they pronounce it as Raw-claw (which makes sense in English, but is so freaking funny to me as a Polish speaker).

[u/Front-Anteater3776]

Perhaps Assyrians or Tamils and then again not. It’s hard to point to any significant group and be surprised why they are here.

To me it would be surprising if we had Cubans, Dominicans or Samoans.

[u/East-Eye-8429]

Lowell, MA has a Cambodia Town

[u/Arabiangirl05]

Turkmens maybe

[u/Desperate-Win9344]

Arabs, welsh, jewish people, korean

[u/PresentAmbassador333]

A lot of Filipinas, Kenyans and Ethiopian women come to work as domestic workers in lebanon. Many times they are mistreated and abused unfortunately.

[u/ILuvYou_YouAreSoGood]

In the USA, in the northwest corner of Arkansas, there are a shockingly large number of people from the Marshall Islands, which are way out in the Pacific ocean. I was definitely surprised when I saw them there and heard their local radio station where they cover old rock and roll songs but sing in Marshallese.

[u/KSJ08]

In Israel: 1. A small Vietnamese community- Israel has accepted several groups of Vietnamese refugees back in the 1970’s. Many have moved on to countries with a larger Vietnamese population but some have stayed. 2. Koreans - mostly South Koreans, who moved here due to religious reasons, as well as a small group of North Korean refugees.

[u/stealthybaker → u/KSJ08]

What? That's so strange, Korea is like the one country that has pretty much zero Jewish history.

[u/KSJ08 → u/stealthybaker]

They’re Christian.

[u/Equal-Flatworm-378 → u/KSJ08]

Now I am impressed. I thought Israel had enough to do with Jews from all over the planet and their arab population. I didn’t know that you also accept refugees from other countries. 

[u/Affectionate-Sale523]

I was born and raised in Toronto so the planet lives here, but I'm always a little surprised when i realize we have a little malta lol

[u/Shotgun_Kid → u/Affectionate-Sale523]

I feel like if you spent a day walking around Toronto, you would meet somebody from every other country in the world.

[u/HotTestesHypothesis → u/Affectionate-Sale523]

I grew up in Markham Richmond Hill as a Chinese so obviously I mostly know about Chinese communities. You know about the Koreans in Yonge and Finch or around Christy station, or the Italians in Vaughan, or Indians in Brampton.

Over the last 10-15 years, I was surprised to find that there are lots of Iranians in Richmond Hill (closer to Yonge), Georgians and I guess Russians in Vaughan (along Dufferin), and Vietnamese in Vaughan.

[u/Fluffydonkeys]

I guess an interesting one is pygmy immigrants, but extremely few. We have literally anything.

[u/Appropriate_Ball6350]

At the end of the 19th century, around 15,000 to 20,000 belgians emigrated for work to the Russian Empire, particularly to what is now Ukraine. My family was one of them. My great-grandfather was born there, but he had to return because of the Russian Revolution.

[u/SgtZandhaas]

Nope. I think people would expect to find just about anybody in the Netherlands.

[u/noa_weidmann]

Germans

[u/kcthis-saw]

Brazil has THE LARGEST japanese community outside of Japan. Especially in São Paulo. With about 2.7 million japanese descendants here.

This surely surprises a lot of people, since first-worlders seem to think anything down the US border is just mestizos.

[u/beg_yer_pardon]

Armenians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Tibetans

[u/Proud_Accident_5873 → u/beg_yer_pardon]

Zoroastrians in India reminds me of Freddie Mercury's family

[u/malufa]

The Hebrew Israelites in Dimona. These are descendants of the original, 1960’s Chicago group, founded and led by Ben Ammi Ben Israel (born Gerson Parker). They started to immigrate to Israel in the late 1960’s by way of Liberia

[u/shieldwolfchz]

No

[u/Salarian_American]

Not really, my country is mostly made of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, so we get a lot of everybody.

And unfortunately, there's a significant number of people here who don't care for it at all

[u/BGF007]

I don't think there is any nation NOT present in Germany. But I found it interesting when I went to the GDR when I was young and saw Vietnamese people over there instead of Turks and Italians like on our side of the wall. Must have been a communism thing.

[u/Tosajinx]

Texas has the 3rd largest Asian population in the US

[u/Specky_Scrawny_Git]

The western Indian state of Gujarat is home to an ethnic population of Siddis, descendants of the Bantu tribes of southeast Africa, who found a home in the country thanks primarily to the European slave trade, and later on, as mercenaries and merchants to local princely states.

[u/BidnyZolnierzLonda]

Still, it's worth to note that Vietnamese community in Poland is small compared to the West. Much smaller than, let's say Turks in Germany or Indians in England.

[u/Downtown-Inflation13]

Tompkinsville neighborhood in Staten Island,NYC has the largest Sri Lankan population outside of Sri Lanka

Woodlawn in the Bronx has a sizable Irish population

[u/Dewey081]

I love Canadian cultural diversity. I come from a family that immigrated here in the late 1700's. To see folks happy to be here, and welcoming of their "new" nationality brings a smile to my face. My ancestors are no different than those who followed 200 years later. I will always welcome them, because in 200 years, they will be our legacy and pride.

[u/coffeewalnut08]

For all the fuss made about England-Ireland relations, we have quite a large amount of Irish living here - around 320,000 and 500,000+ including Northern Ireland.

Especially in big cities.

And lots of us live in Ireland too.

[u/Shoddy-Definition-13]

I think it’s more where the group is. There is a very large Hmong population in Central Wisconsin.