April 16, 2014

Asians hate Miami

About three decades ago, a good friend of mine was sent by his company in Los Angeles to their Miami office for a couple of years. He reported back that was striking difference between the two warm-weather cities was the lack of Asians in Miami. 

That's still true: the 2010 Census found that Miami was 1.0% Asian, while the entire state of Florida was 2.4% Asian. That's the opposite of most places in America where urban areas are more Asian than the state as a whole.

It would be interesting to have a map of Oligarchic Money -- i.e., where in America do well-connected overseas insiders buy real estate to launder their money. For example, Latin American drug money gets parked in Miami. In LA, the Shah of Iran's pals started buying into the Hollywood Hills in around 1974, as did Arabs. On the other hand, there are very few rich Mexicans in Los Angeles: rich Mexicans go to Miami and (surprisingly) San Antonio.

Rich Chinese have been buying into San Marino and other places in the San Gabriel Valley since the late 1970s, but there are only a tiny number of rich Japanese (i.e., not Japanese-Americans) in Southern California. The Japanese love to visit Los Angeles -- when I was at UCLA a third of a century ago, Japanese tourists bought up most of the souvenirs at the UCLA bookstore -- but rich Japanese mostly live in Japan.

A lot of Israelis seem to park their money in Los Angeles. I've mentioned many times all the Eastern Europeans who have moved into Los Angeles, but I can't tell if there are many oligarchs the way wealthy Russians are common in London. Many look more like the flathead boyfriends / managers / bodyguards of blonde aspiring starlets / models / whatevers.
       

74 comments:

Anonymous said...

what Asian, in their right mind, would want to live in Nuevo Habana?

Unknown said...

Yes, Asians hate Miami. And Russians hate El Paso. So what?

Pete Helgason said...

the culture is different in Miami. Lack of a creative class - very macho, hard partying, weight-lifting obsessed etc. All areas which the asians tend not to care much for.

Anonymous said...

Well other than Key West it is the farthest point in the US from Northeast Asia.

anonymously anon said...

Asians in Florida are probably still mostly urban, just not in Miami. Orange County (Orlando) is 4.9% Asian. Duval County (Jacksonville) is 4.2% Asian. Alachula County (Gainesville) is 5.4% Asian.

It's not Florida, it's Miami specifically that's not drawing Asians. I don't think many non-Hispanic whites are moving there, either.

Average Man said...

I've only been to Florida once when I was a boy. Somehow I got the impression, through the media, friends, etc., that while it's the sunshine state, Florida was very drab/not "cool". When I think of Florida, images of little old ladies with blue hair playing bridge, Latinos slinging cocaine, oil spilled-filled beaches, and the "wrong kind of white people" fill my head.

On the other hand, even though I've been to California several times, and should know better from experience; it still seems like a cool place to me. I think of things like: Hollywood, Silicon Valley, jet fighters, sunny beaches filled w/beautiful women, etc. These things are very exciting and seem more futuristic. I know that it's not true (I've been to LA to see the reality). Culturally, California crushes Florida.

I imagine a lot of Asians see things in a similar light. California has world class universities, the tech sector of the world, "close" access to Asia. Florida has... help me out here people.

Anonymous said...

my gut reaction was there may be some kind of asian-hispanic dislike, but if they are apparently in the so-cal cities that would squash that theory.

Anonymous said...

I don't think there are very many hyper-wealthy Russians in America, period, beyond Jewish tech billionaires who grew up here (Brin, Koum the Whatsapp guy, et cetera). There are large Russian-Jewish communities in both LA and San Francisco, but they're generally middle-to-upper-middle class professionals. Most Russian oligarchs prefer London, Paris, the French Riviera, Cyprus, Israel (for the large number of Russian oligarchs who qualify for citizenship there, it doubles as a safety hatch). As you'll notice, with the exception of London, these places are warm, which makes sense when you're Russian. When Russian billionaires do go to America, they go to Miami, which again, is warm. Rustam Tariko and Vlad Doronin both have mansions on Star Island.

Anonymous said...

I've been told (anyone who lives there can confirm or refute this) that Miami is the best Hispanic city in the US. Meaning any and all top services required are provided in Spanish.

This probably makes it a lot less unique than in the past, but Miami used to be famous for being a city in which you really didn't need English at all.

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

Rich Chinese are buying into Irvine and Newport Coast as we speak.

You can often see them wandering around the beaches and shopping plazas with a dazed look on their face.

Spike Gomes said...

I've noticed that myself when visiting my uncle in Alhambra: FOB East Asians and SE Asians seem to get along in mixed neighborhoods with Mestizo Hispanics better than either do with Native born whites or blacks. What's up with that? I mean L.A's Koreatown is just mindblowing in that regard.

Anonymous said...

"""my gut reaction was there may be some kind of asian-hispanic dislike, but if they are apparently in the so-cal cities that would squash that theory.""""

Maybe its another asian-(another group) dislike.

Anonymous said...

Most Asian Floridians I know live near Orlando or in the northern part of the state. Immigrants go where the jobs for their education type are, and that is usually Texas or Georgia rather than Florida.

There's no real anti-Asian bias in Miami, it's more of a lack of tech sector jobs. Actually, Miami's climate is similar to Asian locales like Singapore.

Anonymous said...

Florida has... help me out here people.
4H Heat Humidity Hurricanes and Homoptera(bugs)

Anonymous said...

http://robertreich.org/post/82938136466

Anonymous said...

My daughter attended a Florida Montessori school from nursery through 8th, and each of her classes had many Asian and Indian kids. 5% general population seems about right; nowhere near the California percentage. I'm sure a great deal of that has to do with proximity to Asia. Florida is full of Europeans; again, due to proximity. It takes fucking forever to fly from London to San Francisco.

I've lived in both California and Florida. One thing Florida has is truly enjoyable beaches. The oil spill thing is over-hyped; the vast majority of Florida beaches are pristine and beautiful. Sarasota beaches have acres of soft, white sand that is cleaned everyday, and water that is like swimming in an endless, warm bathtub. The water in California is freezing. I could never really relax and enjoy myself swimming there.

California has Florida beat on every level that a striving person cares about, but it's also full of unbearable poseurs. It was my impression living there that the laid back aspect was a farce, if it ever existed; a thin veneer of cool concealing a million Ari Golds. Florida is more of an ending place than a beginning place, and most people are happy to just flip flop around being exactly who they are, which I prefer at this stage of life.

Anonymous said...

At the level of "lower rich" [eg people that make tons of moeny but basically still need to work for a living] many of them are in "high delta" fields. Small business owners, contractors etc.
Both FL and TX have EXTREMELY favorable bankruptcy laws towards the filer. Perhpas the two best states in the US to file bankruptcy are TX and FL. FL has an unlimited homestead exemption, for instance, and TX does not permit wage garnishments.
So it may be as simple as the people attracted to Florida expect lots of variance in their income [eg NOT asian surgeons] whereas the people attracted to LA don't care

Anonymous said...

But 'hate'?

Discard said...

Anon at 8:49 PM: Hispanics and Orientals don't care for each other, one group being peons and the other overseers, but they don't seem to have any deep hatred either. The Chinese simply look down on the Mexicans and leave it at that. The Chinese are taking over the formerly Mexican areas of the San Gabriel Valley, since there's not room enough in the formerly White areas to hold them all. The Mexicans don't like that, but they can't treat the newcomers like they do unwanted Blacks. Any Mexican gang attacks on Chinese would bring on a merciless response from Chinese gangs.

Anonymous said...

A Japanese friend spent a semester in Miami and hated it.

Complaints seemed to center on frequent gunshots at night, bad drivers, and racist bank tellers, for some reason.

Reg Cæsar said...

Culturally, California crushes Florida. --Average Man

The old joke is that Florida is "a California without ideas".

Mountain Maven said...

FL is too far away + Asians are super clannish and there is not a critical mass there + no tech jobs.

Anonymous said...

Well, I am ethnically Asian, though mostly profession-class coastal Californian. I liked visiting Miami in my younger days. The biggest attraction was (is) the huge number of gorgeous young women going about with their ample assets spilling out front and back.

Uncle Peregrine said...

I imagine most Asians don't want to have to deal with the Spanish language to do business.

I did see this article that gave a stronger case than I expected for Florida being the greatest state.

Reason #20 "The Morikami Museum is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to the living culture of Japan."

But there are probably more Japanese visitors than residents.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/florida-best-state_n_4981731.html

Anonymous said...

From Brooklyn NY I think what Miami lacks is large numbers of poor Asian slave laborers. Here in Brooklyn we have Asian high IQ types living in complete poverty collecting cans from my garbage for the deposit.

Brooklyn (Chinese) stabbing suspect did it because his life was miserable: cops

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/stabbing-suspect-cousin-kids-dad-staying-family-article-1.1498147#ixzz2z7fLZiwe

Oddly similar case involving a Bangladeshi, who also have all their poor relations here in Brooklyn.

Cops eye tenant in grisly death of landlord

http://nypost.com/2014/01/07/cops-eye-tenant-in-stabbing-death-of-landlord/

Dave Pinsen said...

Here's a chart showing how many houses in Miami and other US cities you could buy for the price of one house in London.

Whiskey said...

New York City does well with Chinese money, as does London and Vancouver.

The idea is to mix with other big money people, which Miami lacks, and park money in a "safe" place that has a good record of keeping real estate values and protects property rights (the cash stashed in an apartment purchase won't be seized tomorrow by the authorities via complaints back home).

Irvine and other parts of Orange County are massively Chinese now, notable in just the last twelve years or so.

Florida is filled with drug money, I think Steve did a post on that a while back, on Florida's "mysterious" recovery in the 1980s hahahah. Not of interest to oligarchs or the lesser mini-royalty of China. They'd rather be meeting Bill Gates kids. Or Donald Trump's grand kids.

Anonymous said...

It's the humidity.

Anonymous said...

Lexus cars, Suzuki and Honda motorcycles, Honda Civics, Toyota Camrys and Priuses, Sony, Bitosushi (sorry Mr. Wolfe) and LG electronics, Kia cars, and Huawei phones are all well represented in Miami. Many of the vehicles floating on Bridgestone tires.
Asian corporations probably have a colonial-like attitude toward Miami, similar to what they feel towards several Central and South American Cities where they sell their products to locals who apparently cannot reproduce them in quality or price. They may not wanna live there all that much, but they will take the locals $.

Anonymous said...

Try this: http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html

The map is interactive and shows racial distribution (1 dot = 1 person).

The larger pattern appears thus:

1. Rural areas are almost completely white and devoid of any color (exception in the South).

2. Hispanics have largely replaced blacks as underclass in many urban areas. They are heavily concentrated in the Southwest and, increasingly, in the South, but missing from upper Midwest, the Pacific Northwest and upper New England.

3. Asians are concentrated in growing cities and suburbs and are heavily intermixed with whites and, to a lesser extent, Hispanics. (this confirms the Pew Study that Asians are the most likely to live in neighborhoods with non-Asians, presumably whites -- they are the least likely to be "clannish" in residential terms). They are increasingly in number in the sun belt where the economic growth and jobs are.

4. Blacks are still present in some rusting Northern cities but are being replaced by Hispanics in gentrifying or tech-heavy cities. The exception is the South where they are present in large numbers, including in rural areas.

If present trends continue, whites will continue to occupy vast swathes of low density areas. Urban areas will be split between white-Asian areas and Hispanic uncerclass areas and blacks will be incresingly segregated in the South.

Now take a look at this article from The New York Times from about 15 years ago: The Beige and the Black:

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/16/magazine/the-beige-and-the-black.html

Pretty good prediction.

Anonymous said...

They don't like getting tan!

Anonymous said...

The Tiger ethnics are looking to climb the economic ladder. That's tough in a city with a large low-wage economy, a Spanish-speaking business-political oligarchy, and lack of affordable housing a non-dangerous neighborhood.

poolside said...

Lots and lots of Chinese in Houston. My kids' high school was 60 percent Asian (Chinese and Indian). Weak football program; great band.

I recently helped a family member find a rent house here. Just about every one we looked at had a Chinese landlord, many of whom could barely speak English.

Most of my neighbors are Chinese or Indian, and many of the families are multi-generational.

I see the ancient old Chinese ladies walking up and down the street with their umbrellas every day, passing the Muslim women all wrapped up.

Yee haw! Ain't Texas great??

Harry Baldwin said...

"...rich Japanese mostly live in Japan."

The rich in many countries feel like they need an escape plan for when the SHTF. If you're Japanese you don't have to worry about that. The best place to be when the SHTF is in Japan, where everyone just pulls together and helps out.

Flavia said...

Almost no Orientals in Miami. And the few I see (in like playgroups are whatever) are usually some herb's immigrant wife. We are FULL of Russians and Ukranians though. Like FULL. Playgrounds here are like 50% nannies, 50% Russian moms. The Hispanics live inland.

Otis said...

Weighing in from Miami here (I live in Coral Gables). U of Miami has tons of Asians. Not sure why that is, but driving through campus there are noticeably more Asians than elsewhere in south Florida.

Interestingly there are also a lot of - seriously - Chinese Jamaicans here. By "a lot of" I mean "more than I'd have expected...which was zero" of course.

I was talking to one the other day - he's a finance guy who moved to the US in the early 70s -but his family still in Jamaica is in the flower export business. He said a lot of Chinese-Jamaicans left for the US when Michael Manley started being friendly with Castro and they figured "here we go again".

I've met four or five Chinese-Jamaican guys, kids playing baseball with mine, that sort of thing. They're all married to non-Chinese women (one Filipina, the rest various latina brands).

It's hilarious watching a Chinese guy speaking that Jamaican patois. I asked this guy "can you speak that Jamaican gibberish?" and he said "fuck yeah mon" and started jabbering away like Bob Marley. His wife was laughing, I was just standing there stunned.

Anonymous said...

As one who visits Florida at least twice every year to visit my elderly mother, it has nothing to recommend itself other than the sun. Given it's reputation for vibrancy, though, one would be shocked at the lack of dark faces on the Gulf Coast about a half hour north of Tampa where my mom lives; her local Dunkin' Donuts usually has 8 people working in the morning and they're all white.

My younger brother lives in the next town over, and his kids actually add to the diversity, as he married a lovely girl of mixed Cuban-Korean derivation. She in great demand in the Florida job market, as she's a smart Asian-looking woman fluent in Spanish.

My youngest brother actually grew up in Florida; my dad retired young and they moved to FL when my brother was 13. He was his high school valedictorian and hung out with the locals he described as "Florida smart", the 100-110 IQ white kids who make up so much of the state college and university system in FL. He's currently terminally unemployable in Florida (double major in philosophy and film), is married to a young cellist and lives in the only town in Florida where I could stand to reside, the Orlando suburb of Winter Park. Winter Park is 86% white and is anchored by the rapidly-expanding Rollins College, a lovely downtown and the old Florida money "Vias" District.

Juxtapose that with a place like Belle Glade in Florida, where 13% of the population is white. It has the second highest rate of violent crime and the highest rate of AIDS infection in the country. It is also the birthplace of more than 30 NFL players.

And that's one of the biggest differences between Cali and Florida. Florida is still the Old South and pretty segregated.

Otis said...

Anonymous said...”A Japanese friend spent a semester in Miami and hated it. Complaints seemed to center on frequent gunshots at night, bad drivers, and racist bank tellers, for some reason”

I’m curious where he lived. Miami is pretty segregated and the “gunshots at night” are mainly in the black areas (Liberty City, Miami Gardens, Overtown).

Miami PD as well as those in the surrounding cities are run by 3rd generation Cubans who never got the white guilt memo. They can be pretty hard on the blacks if they need to be. In the wealthier cities west of the bay (Coral Gables, South Miami, etc) three or four “urban youth” walking around will definitely be stopped and asked what they’re up to by some cop named Gonzalez or Hernandez or Cortinas. And the usual complaining by “black leaders” will be ignored. Those early '80s Hurricanes football players still complain about showing up in Coral Gables to play for U of Miami and being irritated by the "slow rolling" police cruisers with the windows down, just keeping an eye on them.

Your friend was absolutely correct about the drivers – complete mayhem. Though I can’t imagine that bothers Chinese – their driving is even worse.

I can't speak to the bank tellers.

Anonymous said...”It's the humidity.”

Right. Because Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore are so temperate.

d..... said...

@Spike,

I can't answer your question, but briefly, in Manhattan, Chinese business owners (restaurants, laundries mostly) employ Hispanic labor exclusively. The Chinese bosses don't seem to mind learning Spanish, at least to bark out orders.

"It would be interesting to have a map of Oligarchic Money..."

It would.

Also: maps of top 10 land-owners. John Malone is now #1 (2.2m acres), passing Ted Turner.

Top 10 Jewish billionaire locations.

Top 10 rich guys in Montana and the Dakotas, compared with Top 10 rich guys in New England. And so on.

Top 10 richest gays. Who will they leave their money to? They don't all buy babies via surrogates.

Hacienda said...

Rich Chinese are buying into Irvine and Newport Coast as we speak.

You can often see them wandering around the beaches and shopping plazas with a dazed look on their face.
---------------------------

I saw a rich Chinese kid on a skateboard drinking a soda whlle being drawn by his dog in Hancock Park.

He kinda had a dazed look too. But then all rich people in Southern California do. Look at em. Check out the Grove.

Mike said...

I lived with the Russians in West Hollywood for years. Most are poor, are experts at US welfare systems and they emigrated as Jews fleeing persecution from the USSR. Amusingly, they are not Jewish and are anti-semitic when drunk.
There are very, very few of the Hollywood tough guy Russians. In fact I have never met one in Los Angeles. Talk to the sheriffs in WEHO and they will confirm there are very few Russian tough guys in the city.

The Z Blog said...

Oligarch money is flooding into South Florida real estate. I have a friend in the business and he does business almost exclusively with rich eastern Europeans. They buy up condos, mostly.

Anonymous said...

The American tax regime has become more and more oppressive with every new President. Bush I was way worse than Reagan and Clinton much worse than Bush I. Bush II introduced all kinds of nasty requirements on Americans working abroad and Obama has so far been the worst of all.

It is a matter of time before the US Government starts going after rich foreigners who have their money in America. If I was a rich Ruskie, why the hell would I keep ANY money in America when there are Dubai, Switzerland, Monaco, Hong Kong and Singapore to choose from? (Not to mention that many of these are also closer)

Anonymous said...

I live in Miami, and I don't think we have any/many rich Mexicans.

Not only do I not see rich Mexicans with my own eyes, but there are not any good Mexican restaurants and even chain restaurants like Taco Bell and Chipotle are comparatively sparse.

Presumably, if rich Mexicans were living amongst us in Miami they would found/purchase quailty Mexican restaurants.

What we do have in Miami are rich Carribbean/central/south Americans. A lot of rich people in these countries buy condo in Miami as a hedge against domestic instability. There are plenty of Brasilian/Argentinian steakhouses, many Spainish style tapas restaurants, and lots of Peruvian ceviche places that double as some of the best places to get sushi in town. (which is possibly sad if you are used to real Japanese sushi). For comparison in fast fiod,miami based fast food chain Pollo Tropical has an entirely Latin menu with zero Mexican themed dishes.

There are a lot of Poor Mexicans 30 minutes south of Miami in Homestead.

Anonymous said...

California has Florida beat on every level that a striving person cares about, but it's also full of unbearable poseurs. It was my impression living there that the laid back aspect was a farce, if it ever existed; a thin veneer of cool concealing a million Ari Golds. Florida is more of an ending place than a beginning place, and most people are happy to just flip flop around being exactly who they are, which I prefer at this stage of life.

Yes, you're right about that California type. The insufferable, cutthroat ambitious poseur type.

Florida doesn't have these types, and has genuinely laid back types. On the other hand, Florida has a lot of people who seem to have moved there and live there just because they don't give a shit. About anything. About life in general. I'm not talking about older retirees who've earned their right not to give a shit. I'm talking about younger and middle aged people who seemed to have moved there and lived there because they don't give a shit and so they can be dirtbags year round in the warm weather.

helene edwards said...

Elmore Leonard had the best description of Florida:

"They had the pale pasty complections of year-round Florida residents."

Anonymous said...

I spent about a year, off and on, working in a noncollege town in Montana. Almost every resident was non-hispanic white. I didn't hear any racial remarks at all (including multiple bar conversations).
Mostly, they are very pro-gun and then they don't care what others do.

I think I saw one black and 5 Asians there for the whole year. 3 of the Asians were specialists at the local medical center (natch) and the other 2 were running the Chinese restaurant.

I saw no 1st generation Mexicans or Central Americans, yet my hotel room still got cleaned and the restaurant tables got bussed.

E. Rekshun said...

...rich Mexicans go to Miami

You might be thinking of rich Colombians, Venezuelans, and (in the '60s) Cubans. I lived in Miami throughout the '90s and visited four weeks ago. I never saw a Mexican in Miami. And, yes, no Asians either.

E. Rekshun said...

Alachula County (Gainesville) is 5.4% Asian.

My University of FL MBA program was more than 10% Chinese.

E. Rekshun said...

..rich Mexicans go to Miami...

On second thought, there are some Mexicans south of Miami in Homestead picking crops, but they're dirt poor.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...”It's the humidity.”

Right. Because Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore are so temperate.


Let me spell it out. Asians (or at least many of them) come from humid climates which they are not too fond of, so they prefer to stay in a dry (yet warm) place like coastal CA.


I spent about a year, off and on, working in a noncollege town in Montana. Almost every resident was non-hispanic white.

I guess it depends on what part of MT you were in. The "diversity" seems higher around Yellowstone NP. Apart from staying in a hotel managed by an Asian, I passed through Bozeman, which looked like it was filled with Mexican farmhands.

International Jew said...

Florida Asians are oddly under-over-represented among National Merit Semifinalists in Florida. (Google "2014 national merit Florida"). I say "under-over" because they do appear to be more than 2% of the total, but mot by much. Nothing like their dominance in California (making the adjustment in my head). The only cities with a lot of Asian names appear to be Gainesville (UofF) and Plantation (near Ft Lauderdale). They are quite scarce in Orlando, where their overall population is relatively high.

That's an interesting list for other reasons. There are quite a few Spanish surnames--but matched to almost all Anglo first names, suggesting 3rd generation Cubans perhaps.

Finally, George Zimmerman's hometown, Sanford, has quite a few kids on the list (suggesting it's not the dump I assumed).

Harry Baldwin said...

John Malone is now #1 (2.2m acres), passing Ted Turner.

John Malone is one of those billionaires who thinks the US is in for a major crisis.

Anonymous said...

San Antonio isn't that surprising. It's the closest non-border US city to Monterrey. LA, for instance, is very far from the moneyed parts of Mexico.

Anonymous said...

As someone from the NYC area who has semi-retired to a barrier island off Sarasota, I think Anonymous at 9.48pm has it right.

On the beach, especially on a barrier island, FL is nice even in the summer (while being hot, humid and horrible just a few miles inland). In contrast, the beaches in California are not very nice, unless you are a surfer. On my business trips to San Diego, I used to think it was so pretty, but Sarasota and Naples have it beat in terms of physical beauty. In addition, Sarasota and Naples do not have the Mexican gang elements you often see on CA beaches.

People who have not been to Sarasota may also be surprised to learn that it has one of the best museums outside NYC, and a very active arts community, even though it has a very large retiree population.

Jefferson said...

I saw a lot of Asians in Universal Studios and Disney World, I even had a one night stand with a Filipina woman that I met at a night club in Downtown Disney. But outside of the popular tourist areas, I rarely saw Asian faces in the part of Florida where the everyday locals live.

A lot of Asians like to vacation in Florida, especially in Orlando. But very few Asians actually want to live in Florida.

Anonymous said...

To Otis said:

I have met two Chinese-Jamaicans in my life. Both were as rude and in your face as black Jamaicans are. It was a bit strange seeing an Oriental talk and act like that. Maybe it is a cultural thing. Or maybe Jamaica is just a bad place, Karmically-speaking.

Anonymous said...

From having been down there, most of Dade County's 3% (the county has a higher total than Miami itself, since there are a few more Asians in the suburbs) are South Asians.

Anonymous said...

a bit o/t, but on Chinese in Jamaica vs Chinese Jamaicans :

http://www.stabroeknews.com/2013/news/regional/07/14/chinese-under-siege-in-jamaica/

"Many of the Chinese businessmen come to Jamaica with a culture of not opening bank accounts"

aka a culture of not paying taxes, as a result of which they are informally "taxed" by both criminals and police. The settled Chinese think this gives them a bad name.

"This noncompliance with the formal tax system by expatriate Chinese business persons have earned the ire and wrath of what is called the ‘Jamaican Chinese’ many of whom openly comment on the added pressure that they face and have to deal with, because of the modus operandi of the Chinese expatriates.

“We are Chinese, we are Jamaicans and we do business along the official lines as set out by Government. There are policies we don’t agree with, but in the main we comply by paying the various taxes and simply follow the law. When others do not comply, we feel the heat and are oftentimes labelled as being unpatriotic,” one prominent Jamaican Chinese entrepreneur told the Sunday Observer."


E. Rekshun said...

People who have not been to Sarasota may also be surprised to learn that it has one of the best museums outside NYC, and a very active arts community, even though it has a very large retiree population.

What's up w/ the small Amish population in Sarasota?

Housing seems relatively expensive in Sarasota, but oh yes, the beaches are wonderful; especially Siesta Key. The beaches are more populated by retirees; while the rest of Sarasota not so much - plenty of business and some corporate jobs. The winter snowbirds jam the place up a bit.

I had a good time last month catching an Orioles v. Red Sox spring training game in Sarasota.

Camlost said...

Speaking of Florida, I'm still waiting for MSNBC to suspend Chris Matthews for his 2008 "cracker counties" comment during the elections - you know, since MSNBC is so against racism, and all of that.

The Gulf Coast of Florida is decent, cheap and relatively safe because it has few blacks, bluntly speaking. Tampa-St Petersburg metro is only something like 8% black, as compared to the 30-50% rates you'd see in Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, Birmingham, Houston, etc.

Dave Pinsen said...

Florida was the setting for the two best true crime movies of this century, Bully, and Pain And Gain.

Anonymous said...

a bit o/t, but on Chinese in Jamaica vs Chinese Jamaicans :

Most Chinese Jamaicans are not really Chinese. They're like mulattoes.

Big Bill said...

Excerpts from Zev Chafets 1990 book about Detroit:

http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2013/07/rush-limbaugh-zeev-chafets-and-devils.html

historical mysteries said...

there are only a tiny number of rich Japanese (i.e., not Japanese-Americans) in Southern California

As a product of the L.A. elementary school curriculum I'd love to make a Manzanar joke here, however the true apex of kaisha involvement on the Yankee westside came during the Japan Inc. fad, e.g. foolishly buying MCA along with whatever crap Hollywood studios were on the block, and thus coincided with a less than fun period for Japan's economy. I guess it wasn't until the second time we dropped radioactive California assets on them that they learned their lesson.

laboratory of democracy said...

Florida was the setting for the two best true crime movies of this century, Bully, and Pain And Gain.

Sure, but it was also the setting for "Spring Breakers" and "Striptease" (and for wholly fictional crooks, the vastly overrated "Out of Sight")

Pochinko said...

My guess is that Asians are able to more easily work the systems in California than in Florida. For starters a new Asian would find that there are more people of their same race there, and they love plugging into racial networks that benefit them (seems whites of Christian background are the only ones 'forbidden' to do this). But even without this, the Cuban-dominated networks of Miami would not be as easy to break into for an Asian as would be a situation like LA where there are many different ethnic networks going on.

Cubans are also brighter than the Mexicans in California, so may provide more competition, though Hispanics are only part of the story. And, Spanish may be more of a lingua franca in Miami than in California, which would also serve to keep out Asians.



M said...

Florida Asians are oddly under-over-represented among National Merit Semifinalists in Florida. (Google "2014 national merit Florida"). I say "under-over" because they do appear to be more than 2% of the total, but mot by much. Nothing like their dominance in California (making the adjustment in my head). The only cities with a lot of Asian names appear to be Gainesville (UofF) and Plantation (near Ft Lauderdale). They are quite scarce in Orlando, where their overall population is relatively high.

Elite migration.

The randomly selected East Asian average is close to the East Asian American average (only a little lower), but even though the elite families don't make much of a dent on the average, they give the East Asians (already smarter at math and equivalent on verbal) a disproportionate advantage on the high end (Ivy League, National Merit, International Mathematical Olympiads, etc.).

And such East Asians go to New York and California.

Anonymous said...

San Antonio isn't that surprising. It's the closest non-border US city to Monterrey.

The Bushes were (are?) bankrolled by a rich Mexican from Monterrey named Ernesto Ancira.

Anonymous said...

y guess is that Asians are able to more easily work the systems in California than in Florida. For starters a new Asian would find that there are more people of their same race there, and they love plugging into racial networks that benefit them (seems whites of Christian background are the only ones 'forbidden' to do this). But even without this, the Cuban-dominated networks of Miami would not be as easy to break into for an Asian as would be a situation like LA where there are many different ethnic networks going on.

How did Asians "break into" CA in the first place then?

Anonymous said...

And such East Asians go to New York and California.

Increasingly Northern Virginia rather than New York and California.

Don't ya know the best public high school in the country is Thomas Jefferson in Annandale, VA? (Annandale is NoVA's "Koreatown.")

And I write this as a graduate of Stuyvesant HS, the premier "specialized" magnet school in NYC.

International Jew said...

Hmm, maybe so.

I was really hoping Steve would have something to say, what with the interest he showed some months back in the demographics of natl merit semifinalists in California.

Well, here's a theory that doesn't require any qualitative difference between California and Florida Asians: where Asians are a bigger fraction of the overall testtaking population, the NMS cutoff rises (and indeed it's 8 points higher in CA now), and the higher it goes, the greater the ratio of areas under the tails of the bell curves of Asians and Whites.

Then again, it could be something else ;-)

Anonymous said...

Surprised it wasn't mentioned but rich Asians go to Hawaii and Guam. Folk forget Hawaii is basically Far Far Eastern Asia.

Anonymous said...

Just to let you know, Filipinos tend to be more welcome in Miami because they are like Hispanics, culture-wise, than any other Asian. The climate and architecture in Miami is similar to that in the Philippines which is why a lot of Filipinos would be found there.