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An 'ethnic enclave', or 'ethnic neighborhood' is a neighborhood, district, or suburb which retains some cultural distinction from a larger, surrounding area. Sometimes an entire city may have such a feel.

Contents

About

Types of enclaves

Chinatown

Little Italy

Irishtown

Greektown

Japantown

Little Saigon

Little Manila

See also

About

These areas are mostly populated by recent immigrants who have voluntarily chosen to cluster together. There is usually a geographical concentration of residents, businesses and community institutions of a single ethnic group. Historically, the clustering may have been involuntary, as an 'ethnic or racial ghetto', due to housing discrimination which prevented members of ethnic, or religious minorities from settling in other parts of town.
To city residents who are not part of the community, the area is usually a dining and shopping destination and source of "authentic" ethnic food and groceries, such as Chinese cuisine in Chinatowns and Italian restaurants in Little Italys.
Certain ethnic enclaves may also be promoted as tourist attractions for revenue, sometimes by community business leaders. Services and goods in the area are oriented toward the ethnic group, and the lingua franca for business and social exchanges in the area is the native language of the group. Street signs and business signage may be in the native language or in multiple languages, such as street signs in English and Chinese in Chinatowns. English is also used when conducting transactions with customers outside—even within (especially with American-born descendants of ethnic immigrants) —the ethnic group.
Ethnic enclaves may also be sources of imported goods not easily found or sold in mainstream American retail outlets; for example, Japanese-language popular culture items such as anime may be sold in Little Tokyo, a wide range of ginseng and herbs as well as Hong Kong cinema Video CDs can be purchased in Chinatown and Bollywood blockbuster DVDs can be found in Little India. Enclaves are also sources of ethnic language media and these often provide a different scope of coverage than with mainstream news sources (that might otherwise give scant or no coverage to certain events), such as Chinese-language newspapers (for example, the World Journal) and Yiddish-language newspapers. The ethnic media might focus closely on events in the country of origin and within the ethnic enclaves themselves (such as political rallies in Chinatown) and satellite immigrant communities.
Jewish enclaves may be enclosed in an eruv while Muslim enclaves may have loudspeakers to announce the calls to prayer.

Types of enclaves

Chinatown

A 'Chinatown' is a section of an urban area containing a large number of Chinese people or Chinese run commercial activities within a city that is not in China. Chinatowns are most common in Southeast Asia and North America.
Many Chinatowns have a long history, such as ''Shinchimachi'', the nearly three-century old Chinatown in Nagasaki, Japan, or Yaowarat Road in Bangkok, which was founded by Chinese traders more than 200 years ago. Other Chinatowns are much newer: the Chinatown in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. formed in the 1990s. Most Chinatowns grew without any organized plans set in place, while a very few (such as the one in Las Vegas and a new area outside the city limits of Seoul, South Korea to be completed by late 2005) resulted from deliberate master plans by the Chinatown community overlord (overseer) (sometimes as part of redevelopment projects to better the location). Indeed, many areas of the world are embracing the development and redevelopment (or regeneration) of Chinatowns, such as in Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. In Italy right-wing ideology and anti-Chinatown sentiments have made efforts at such redevelopment more challenging.

Little Italy

'Little Italy' is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated (or formerly populated) primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry. It can also be the name of a specific Italian neighbourhood.
Some Italian neighborhoods may have other names, but are colloquially referred to as "Little Italy".

Irishtown

'Irishtown' in Ireland, during the medieval era and later, native irish people were prohibitted from living inside the walls of most cities and towns. The areas they lived in outside the walls became known as Irishtown, and this survives in many modern placesnames in towns and cities like Athlone, Clonmel, Dublin, Kilkenny and Limerick.

Greektown

'Greektown' is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated (or formerly populated) primarily by Greeks or people of Greek ancestry. It can also be the name of a specific Greek neighbourhood.
Some Greek neighborhoods may have other names (such as Little Athens in Toronto).

Japantown

Main articles: Japantown

'Japantown' is a common name for Japanese American or Japanese Canadian communities in big cities. Alternatively, Japantowns are called ''Little Tokyos'' or ''Nihonmachis'' (日本町 ''or'' 日本街) or ''J-towns''. Liberdade is the Japanese district in São Paulo, Brazil. It has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.

Little Saigon

'Little Saigon' is a name given to any of several overseas Vietnamese immigrant and descendant communities outside Vietnam, usually in the United States. There has been relatively little direct immigration to the United States from the northern portions of Vietnam.

Little Manila

Main articles: Little Manila

'Little Manila' (also known as 'Manilatowns' or 'Filipinotowns') is a community with a large Filipino expatriate and descendant population. Although Little Manilas are very rare, and if there is one, is pretty small. This is in part because most Filipino-Americans live in diverse suburbs or in another ethnic enclave.

See also

★ Barrio - Hispanic American neighborhoods and communities.

★ Inner city - usually has multiethnic and diverse sections.

★ Koreatown - ethnic Korean districts or neighborhoods.

★ Little India (location) - made up of East Indian groups.

★ List of named ethnic enclaves in North American cities

★ Little Canada - sections populated by French Canadians.

★ Block Settlement - the rural equivalent to an urban ethnic neighbourhood.

★ Little Haiti

★ French Quarter (disambiguation) - French neighborhoods in the United States