I’m not sure that Americans really have the kinds of migration patterns that lend themselves to classic ethnic enclaves (which would imply multi-generational permanent settlement.) Americans that move abroad permanently seem pretty scattershot, and we don’t have much in the way of old colonial ties to focus that migration the way other westerners might. As such, I think that outside of military bases and Latin American retirement communities, American tend to get folded into the general “foreigner/westerner district.”
In Cameroon, to give an example, the area around the embassies has western supermarkets (popularly known as “white man stores”) and some western restaurants. It’s official name is Bastos, but it’s popularly known as “France.” It’s more French in flavor than anything else, thanks to post-colonial economics, but it folds in a pretty wide assortment of foreigners.
Likewise in Chengdu, China, there was definitely an area that catered heavily towards Americans- it has a Tex-Mex restaurant, an American junk food store, and a southern BBQ restaurant. But it was considered to be a general foreigner zone, and not really specifically American.
I’m living in Shanghai right now, and the expat population is very densely clustered into one or two places.
My first few weeks here, I saw only a handful of expats in total. Seriously. (I live and work in pudong)
Then, when I came across the main expat area, it felt like I was on a US college campus: at least 90% expats, and much more Western style shops and streets.
I don’t know if the locals have a nickname for this area. I’ll report back later.
Actually, much of the population of Colon speaks English as a first language, since they are descendants of immigrants from the British West Indies (mostly Jamaica and Barbados) who came to work on the Canal in the early 1900s. They are known in Panama Afroantillians. There wouldn’t have been many white Zonians hanging out in Colon itself, although there were several towns in the Zone just outside it (Cristobal, Margarita).
That was true in the past, and it’s still true in the more secular areas - my parents’ friends from Haifa are a gaggle of Americans, Bits and Aussies. The accepted term here, incidentally, is “Anglosaxim”.
However, there’s been a huge amount of religious American immigration over the past 30 years ago, so much so that it’s pretty much overwhelmed the old Anglosaxim communities in places like Jerusalem. As of now, the English-speaking communities in these areas is almost exclusively American.
Israelis don’t really do that. You have plenty of towns and neighborhoods that are dominatde by immigrants from some country or another, but generally speaking, they don’t get renamed as a result.
The area around Grosvenor Square in London, where the US Embassy currently resides, is known as ‘Little America’, although this is more to do with political connections to the area than expat residents (John Adams lived here, Eisenhower had his base here etc). These days if a US visitor asked to be introduced to an area heavily populated with American expats, I would point them to Kensington (which also has a lot of French, for some reason).
It’s natural for national communities to gather together - if you’re moving to a new city, you’re going to ask people you know where to live. These people are often your own nationality, so hence you all end up in the same part of town. Virtually every country in the world has its own ‘patch’ in London.
Why would you expect to find “comments about the situation in the Middle East” in this thread about neighborhoods of American expats in foreign cities?
Perhaps I wasn’t clear: there are American expats living in the Middle East. Are they scattered throughout the population or concentrated in American neighborhoods?
Interesting. Not to hijack, but my wife’s extended family are still there and, as far as I know, they speak little English. My wife certainly knew no English before coming to the States as a teenager in the early '80s.
One of my wife’s cousins visited us in May. I don’t know if she speaks English, but she spoke Spanish exclusively to me and my wife, so I assumed she didn’t. I guess I should have probed her…I’ll ask my wife when I get home tonight.
I still don’t agree with this idea that Americans/Europeans usually assimilate. In many Asian cities I’ve stayed in, there is often a big cluster of expats, with western shops serving them.
On a somewhat related note, I have been on a few US military bases in Japan and several places in Europe. They are amazing for how much Americana they manage to transplant: the buildings, the roads, the food, the entertainment. You could definitely be fooled that you were in the US. (note though, I have not been on a base in an active war zone: I would imagine that would be a different story).
I am not criticizing this, just questioning the assertion that americans rarely form a clustered community with a clear American culture.
I suspect the answer lies in a certain class distinction. If migration is largely non-skilled and lower class, congregation is almost certain to appear as the communities seek to defend their interests. Where migration is professional and middle class this happens less.
I point to the fact that there is persistent movement of British skilled workers to the US which leads to little congregation save local ‘British’ bars covering a whole city. Brits tended to drift to the same areas as other skilled professionals and integrate well- there is no such category as British-American Children maintaining their heritage in later life, nor is there any history of previous congregation of immigrant Brits over the last 150 years. Same goes largely for other communities with no large working class migration- France, Spain etc. For the Irish it is different in that most US cities have active and long standing Irish communities.
Similarly, most American migrants are professional and tend to avoid heavy congregation unless security is an issue, preferring to live in other general professional class areas.
One exception is Earls Court in London which is little Australia- many long term Aussies live there following on from being there (or their predecessors being there) for many decades. And it is a pretty good area for skilled professionals to live anyway.
Yep, none of my friends and family have followed me to China, but I am surrounded by Chinese that want to follow their families and friends to America or Canada.
There is an area in Manama, Bahrain, near the base, that has a high density of Americans. A street in that area is nicknamed American Alley, primarilly because of all the American fast food joints there.
Correct (in general). That’s basically why there are so many Chinatowns in US cities, but so few Japantowns. (I’m only aware of one, in San Francisco, and it’s really just a sham – a few restaurants, but hardly any Japanese residents.)