Does a city having a large ethnic community make it well known in its "old country"?

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by JManc

I wonder if the Houston-Greece connection is due to ship channel and Galveston since the Greeks are heaving into shipping.

Historically yes. Many first generation immigrants were sailors and the positions that supported it and lived in the Ship Channel/Galveston area. The next generation moved to Montrose and 3rd ward in the mid 20th century. Lots of wealthy Greeks now.

[goldeneyed]

Originally Posted by JManc

I wonder if the Houston-Greece connection is due to ship channel and Galveston since the Greeks are heaving into shipping.

Houston isn't really known for their Greek community in North America or Greece.

I think the answer to the original question really depends on which cities the ethnic communities in the old country left behind.

I'm from a village just outside of Sparta, Greece, which is a city of 10,000 people, in a region of 90,000 people. Most people in that region of Greece will know that Montreal has a large Greek population, whether or not they have relatives or friends there themselves. But there's hundreds of villages in the south of Greece (Peloponissos), and sometimes people who left these villages went to lesser known cities in the US or Canada.

Half the people from the village of Nestani went to Chicago for exemple. People there will know about Chicago, Toronto, New York, Boston and Montreal having big Greek population. But people from other villages like Vlachokerasia, Karyes and Kastri went to places like North Carolina, South Carolina, Pittsburgh and Saskatchewan. So if you ask the big majority of people in the south of Greece if they know about these three places, almost everyone will say no. But people from those specific villages would know.

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by goldeneyed

Houston isn't really known for their Greek community in North America or Greece.

I think the answer to the original question really depends on which cities the ethnic communities in the old country left behind.

I'm from a village just outside of Sparta, Greece, which is a city of 10,000 people, in a region of 90,000 people. Most people in that region of Greece will know that Montreal has a large Greek population, whether or not they have relatives or friends there themselves. But there's hundreds of villages in the south of Greece (Peloponissos), and sometimes people who left these villages went to lesser known cities in the US or Canada.

Half the people from the village of Nestani went to Chicago for exemple. People there will know about Chicago, Toronto, New York, Boston and Montreal having big Greek population. But people from other villages like Vlachokerasia, Karyes and Kastri went to places like North Carolina, South Carolina, Pittsburgh and Saskatchewan. So if you ask the big majority of people in the south of Greece if they know about these three places, almost everyone will say no. But people from those specific villages would know.

I agree, I was just telling anecdote related to my family and my hometown.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Do Europeans view their cities as segmented as we do in North America? When I think large European cities, I think of them much more as one entity and unified. Moscow is Moscow and Paris is Paris for the most part. Apart from the distinction of the old vs. new city, they are very singular.

I cannot say about Moscow, but Paris isn't just Paris. It is the Marais, Montmartre, Montparnasse, the Latin Quarter, the Rive Gauche, Bastille, Ile de la Cite, etc.

[Emprise du Lion]

I'd be curious if St. Louis is well known in Bosnia. It has the largest Bosnian population in the United States.