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While I appreciate the stunning diversity that exists in NYC, smaller cities in other parts of the country have also proved attractive to immigrants. In my hometown in Central Ohio, many immigrant groups have strong "enclaves" in neighborhoods across the city. In many smaller cities, immigrants are able to form strong neighborhood communities because housing is inexpensive and plentiful.

A dear friend who was from Yugoslavia and settled on 50th St. in Manhattan and then moved to Brooklyn used to say when a relative would move from an apartment in the city, "THey moved up state..." When asked what town or where up state? She would invariably say, "Queens."

I can remember moving to Rosedale Queens back in 1977 and it was all Italian/Irish. Now it is majority West Indian. Irionically St. Albans has a large Hassidac community in the Francis Lewis Blvd. area which used to be West Indian.

I've heard that Staten Island is 39% Italian. I'd call that an enclave!

On second thought, Albania and Italy are separated by both the Ionian and the Adriatic seas.

Lenny,

It's the adriatic sea

Albania is across the Ionian Sea from Italy. :)

About fifteen years ago I had to go to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to purchase an item I couldn't find anywhere else. I couldn't help feeling as if I was in another country. No one looked like me, and every newspaper was in Polish! It just didn't look or feel like the Brooklyn I thought I knew.

I still live in Brooklyn, but I don't know if Greenpoint still looks this way.