# Interesting non-indigenous minority groups around the world **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234 "2010-02-24T04:46:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/1 "2010-02-24T04:46:59Z")
I’m interested in hearing about lesser-known, non-indigenous minority groups around the world. The “minority” status can be ethnic, linguistic, religious, or cultural. If there was an identifiable historical event at work in creating this group, all the better. So for example, (aside from the fact of being well-known) the Cajuns in Louisiana would qualify: they’re a distinct minority that came about as a result of being kicked out of Acadia. Other examples: For a while there were communities of [Polish-Haitians](http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090724095446AAwBpAr), the legacy of Polish mercenaries hired by Napoleon who decided to switch sides. By now these have all apparently completely assimilated or emigrated. The [Transylvania Saxons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvanian_Saxons), descendents of medieval German knights (and, according to legend, descendants of the children stolen away by the Pied Piper of Hammlin!), and living in little walled cities that look like they’re plucked straight from Bavaria. After the south lost the American Civil War, some southern slaveholders picked up stakes and moved to Brazil, where slavery was still legal. A few of their descendants still speak English and gather together for old-style southern barbecues. [cite](http://www.researchonline.net/sccw/brazil2.htm) And finally the [Patagonian Welsh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonian_Welsh), descendants of settlers of a would-be New Wales, still holding out down there in Argentina. Any other interesting examples? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/2 "2010-02-24T16:31:34Z")
There are lots of Mennonites in Latin America, with the largest group being in [Paraguay](http://gosouthamerica.about.com/cs/southamerica/a/ParMennonites.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/3 "2010-02-24T16:42:10Z")
My late grandmother was originally from [Frenchville, PA](http://vorlon.case.edu/~flm/flm/Frenchville/Frenchville.html), a tiny, isolated settlement of French-speakers. Unfortunately, there’s not much left of the old place, not that it was much to begin with–the article I’ve linked mentions four family names, and my grandmother’s is one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/4 "2010-02-24T17:29:55Z")
There are [Greek-speaking villages](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griko_language) in southern Italy that are left over from the colony established in the 8th century BC. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/5 "2010-02-24T17:37:40Z")
I was surprised to find out that there is a sizable Jewish community in Calcutta. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/6 "2010-02-24T17:53:09Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I was surprised to find out that there is a sizable Jewish community in Calcutta. There are Jewish communities all over the place, but the historical Jewish community in India is actually in Cochin, in Kerala. It’s quite a bit smaller than it was in Ye Olden Times, though. When I lived in Israel I met people who were descended from Jewish groups I’d never even considered the existence of. Like, I had a friend who was a Kurdish Jew. Ethiopian Jews are another really interesting group. (They never had the Talmud when they were in Ethiopia, so their religious practice is very…Biblical.) I’m very interested South Americans of Japanese descent, also. An anthropology professor I had when I was an undergrad studied Japanese-Brazilians who had gone to Japan to work (it’s quite easy for people of Japanese descent to get a work visa), and he talked a lot about their experiences. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/7 "2010-02-24T17:54:41Z")
Pakistan has a small colony of people decended from [Africans](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1869876.stm). ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/8 "2010-02-24T18:05:44Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > There are Jewish communities all over the place, but the historical Jewish community in India is actually in Cochin, in Kerala. Ah, thanks. The reason I’ve heard of them is that I once got an Indian cookbook. Apparently what we westerners think of as Indian food is really Anglo-Indian. This cookbook had 6 other cuisines. Some of them looked positively Chinese influenced. The Jewish recipes were really interesting. They almost seemed like typical kosher deli dishes, but with a lot more cardamom and turmeric. ---
**Author:** ![SaxFace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SaxFace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaxFace)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/9 "2010-02-24T18:11:20Z")
I am one of ~2 million people who speak Latvian, but there is an even smaller minority in Latvia: [Latgalian language - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latgalian_language) I have a friend who has learned it. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/10 "2010-02-24T18:11:50Z")
I (like many Americans, I’d suspect) am descended from [Volga Germans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_germans), an enclave of ethnic Germans who lived in Russia until WWII. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/11 "2010-02-24T18:14:20Z")
I learned about the [Koryo-saram](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koryo-saram) while watching the figure skating last week, one competitor was described as Korean-Kazakhstani, which led to some googling. They were displaced by Stalin from the Soviet-North Korean borderlands in the 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/12 "2010-02-24T18:20:29Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > There are Jewish communities all over the place, but the historical Jewish community in India is actually in Cochin, in Kerala. It’s quite a bit smaller than it was in Ye Olden Times, though. The Cochin Jews are the famous ones but there are numerous coastal Jewish communities which predate Jewish settlement of Cochin. The main difference is that most of them no longer exist, or at least no longer have sizeable Jewish presences. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/13 "2010-02-24T18:47:37Z")
Brazil is chock full of these groups although at this point they all identify as Brazilians. The OP identified the [Confederados](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados). There are the [Pomeranos](http://www.pomerano-es.com.br/) in Espirito Santo, Brazil. Some of their more isolated communities in the State are still mostly German speaking. Brazil also had until fairly recently a good number of Italian communities where Italian was spoken although they mostly disappeared in the 40s when the government started a campaign against non-Portuguese languages. My grandparents spoke a dialect of Italian when my father was small despite already being the second and third generations of their families in Brazil. (They were also completely fluent in Portuguese, although my grandfather always used the Italian word for pineapple as opposed to the Portuguese version.) ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/14 "2010-02-24T18:49:29Z")
The Parsis of India (Persian Zoroastrians who fled persecution by the Moslems during the 10th century A. D.) would qualify. They are currently concentrated in Bombay/Mumbai, and number about 70,000. Here is the Wikipedia entry: > **[Parsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsi)** > > Parsis (/ˈpɑːrsiː/) or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of the Persian Empire (part of the early Muslim conquests) in order to preserve their Zoroastrian identity. The Parsi people comprise the older of the Indian subcontinent's two Zoroastrian communities vis-à-vis the Iranis, whose ancestors migrated to British-ruled India from Qajar-era... ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/15 "2010-02-24T18:55:43Z")
Sticking with India (sort of), over a third of the population of Fiji is of Indian descent - the British took them as indentured workers, and more were encouraged to migrate there later on. This is quickly changing, though as the increasingly unstable political system and anti-Indian prejudice among ethnic Fijians force more and more ethnic Indians to leave. Vijay Singh, the golfer, is of such stock. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/16 "2010-02-24T20:24:25Z")
Lessee… the Japanese-Brazilians have already been mentioned. Near [Gimli, Manitoba](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli,_Manitoba), there is a substantial Icelandic contingent. The village of [Wilno, Ontario](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilno,_Ontario), was settled by Kashubian Poles. And of course Toronto has all sorts of minority groups, but one of the most unexpected is the large Tibetan community. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/17 "2010-02-24T20:28:35Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Ah, thanks. Well, I don’t know where all of the Indian Jews are these days. Like plenty of other Indians, it’s possible that they’ve moved to larger cities like Calcutta, Delhi, Bangalore, or Mumbai for economic reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/18 "2010-02-24T20:44:28Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Ah, thanks. > > The reason I’ve heard of them is that I once got an Indian cookbook. Apparently what we westerners think of as Indian food is really Anglo-Indian. This cookbook had 6 other cuisines. Some of them looked positively Chinese influenced. The Jewish recipes were really interesting. They almost seemed like typical kosher deli dishes, but with a lot more cardamom and turmeric. Do you remember the name or author of this cookbook? It sounds like something Mr. Neville and I would love. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/19 "2010-02-24T20:55:05Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Do you remember the name or author of this cookbook? It sounds like something Mr. Neville and I would love. Believe it or not, I [do](http://www.amazon.com/Varied-Kitchens-India-Anglo-Indians-Darjeeling/dp/0871314762). Wow. $140 for a new copy? Now I wish I hadn’t lost mine. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234/20 "2010-02-24T20:55:49Z")
They’re well-known in the area, but most people outside the Beltway probably don’t know about the very large Ethiopian community in DC. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-non-indigenous-minority-groups-around-the-world/530234.md?page=2)