There’s nothing like the feeling of walking through an unfamiliar city and turning the corner to discover that you’re in a whole new world. In San Francisco, a venture onto Grant Street will land you in Chinatown, a labyrinth of fish markets, tea shops, and stores selling shark fins. In Los Angeles, the streets of Koreatown are lined with tofu restaurants and karaoke halls. Even in my Midwestern hometown of Toledo, the storefront signs in one neighborhood are in Polish and the bakeries all sell freshly made paczki.
Many cities have hidden ethnic areas, bustling commercial and cultural centers for immigrants, natives, and tourists alike. Chinatowns or Little Italies are common enough, but some cities host surprising concentrations of people from all corners of the world.
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
Next to New York’s Coney Island lies Brighton Beach, a neighborhood where the sidewalk food carts sell caviar and the elderly residents drink vodka on the boardwalk. Sometimes called Little Odessa, Brighton Beach was originally settled by Russian and Ukrainian Jews fleeing persecution in the USSR, but the neighborhood got its major immigration boost after the fall of communism, and now the area is full of people from many of the former Soviet republics. In Brighton Beach, you can find traditional Russian bathhouses and upscale restaurants that still present lavish stage shows, as well as pulsating European-style nightclubs where the young people wear designer clothes and speak an unmistakable mix of Russian and Brooklyn slang. It has its own newspapers, its own radio stations, and its own considerable share of old men who alternately play chess along the boardwalk and take dips in the Atlantic while wearing very small Speedos.
Liberdade, São Paolo
If your trip to Brazil leaves you with a hankering for sushi, São Paolo is the right place to be, because the city is home to the largest community of Japanese immigrants outside of Japan. The immigrants started coming to Brazil in 1908 to work on coffee plantations, and established themselves near the center of the city. In 1973, the city replaced the streetlamps with traditional Japanese lanterns and has continued to embrace the development of Japanese schools, temples, and markets, even going so far as to erect a Museum of Japanese Immigration. Liberdade may be dominated by Japanese inhabitants, but it still also reflects the culture of Brazil, a concept the residents call Brazilidade” Restaurants serve yakisoba noodles with a glass of cachaça, and “Asian” bakeries sell Japanese sweets alongside traditional Brazilian bakeries. Phone booth stickers even advertise japonesinhas, geisha-style prostitutes.
Kreuzberg, Berlin
A run-down district near the former Berlin Wall is not where one might expect to find an enormous concentration of Turkish immigrants. Turks began arriving in Berlin (as well as the rest of Germany) after World War II, when the postwar devastation required the country to import guest workers to rebuild. Owing to the relative freedom of Germany, many ended up staying, settling in the Kreuzberg district, and starting their own businesses, from Turkish restaurants to import-export business specializing in Middle Eastern goods. The area also attracts its share of young artists and musicians, and the neighborhood was a fixture in the 1970s punk scene, when Iggy Pop and David Bowie performed at club SO36. Nowadays, the streets are lined with food stalls selling döner kebabs and other Middle Eastern delicacies. One feature of the neighborhood is the preponderance of outdoor markets, including the Maybachufer, which is the largest in the city. It takes place on weekdays and offers everything from baby clothes and toys to vegetables to prepared foods produced in local Turkish kitchens.
Southall, London
Since the time of the Raj in the nineteenth century, England and India have had a special relationship. London in particular is known for having a thriving population of Indian and other South Asian immigrants, and the largest community of them is in Southall, West London. Besides a large number of vegetarian and halal food stands and restaurants, there are Indian supermarkets, clothing stores, and jewelers. The neighborhood features two Hindu temples, ten Christian churches, three mosques, and ten Sikh temples, one of which is among the largest outside of India. It’s even possible to get by in Southall without speaking any English, as most street signs, tube stations, and storefronts feature multiple languages. Some establishments along the Broadway, Southall’s main thoroughfare, even accept rupees. Because of the neighborhood’s diverse South Asian population, the 2002 movie Bend It Like Beckham was filmed in the area.
Greek Precinct, Melbourne
This Australian city hosts the second-largest Greek population in the world. Located in the middle of Melbourne and centered on Lonsdale Street, the Greek Precinct hosts the Melbourne Antipodes Festival, which is held annually to coincide with Greek National Day on March 25. September features the annual Greek Film Festival, and at other times of the year, the Hellenic Foundation for Culture and the Hellenic Museum of Melbourne provide locals and tourists with the chance to dance the Zorba and experience other aspects of Greek culture. During the day, the neighborhood is the civic center for Australians of Greek ancestry, and at night, it comes alive with late-night restaurants serving souvlaki and baklava to barhoppers.
These ethnic areas provide much more than just a chance to buy authentic curry or borscht in an unexpected place; they’re a little window into other cultures, and they show us how immigrants have settled and integrated into other countries. A visit to these vibrant districts is like two vacations in one.