# Ancestry of American Cities...thank you world!



## bob rulz (Oct 20, 2005)

bay_area said:


> Samoa and Tonga are huge LDS countries.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Okay, that all makes sense then. Thanks for the clarification! Do you know why Salt Lake City would have such a high concentration of Armenians, then? We're #24 on that list, which isn't incredibly high or anything, but it still seems odd to me.



bay_area said:


> In fact I see Salt Lake overtaking all other US Cities as far as Brazilians in the coming decades..it wouldnt surprise me one bit. Not to mention Chileans(Chile is more LDS percentagewise then the US)


Wow...that would be pretty cool, personally. Yay for diversity!


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## AndySocks (Dec 8, 2005)

bob rulz said:


> Okay, that all makes sense then. Thanks for the clarification! Do you know why Salt Lake City would have such a high concentration of Armenians, then? We're #24 on that list, which isn't incredibly high or anything, but it still seems odd to me.


I think for much the same reason there are so many Togans... close to California. Any groups that are very numerous in LA but not in NY or Chicago probably give smaller western cities a boost by sheer influence. Likewise, the smaller metros of the northeast will have more Puerto Ricans than much larger cities throughout the rest of the country. What's in Hartford that attracts more Puerto Ricans than LA, an MSA 13x larger? My family would probably joke "less Mexicans", but seriously, nothing really, just the way migrations patterns work.


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## bayviews (Mar 3, 2006)

bay_area said:


> bob_rulz,
> There are 900,000 Mormons in Brazil and growing fast-its perfectly conceivable that many of them will want to migrate to SLC. There are 51,000 Mormons in Tonga(out of 102,000 total population)-it was all but assured that many Tongans would find their way to SLC.
> 
> The Census is waayyy off on Islanders but the unofficial guess that my cousins and I came up on our family website for Tongans is..
> ...


BayArea, since this has come up, might be helpful if you could share a bit more history on the Tongan immigration to the US. There are resouces about the Samoans including one on the communities in California, but not much out on the Tongans. You hear about Tongans only when something happens like that tragedy in San Mateo County a few months ago. 

I know that Samoans came in largely with the Navy & settled in the ports like San Diego, LA, & San Francisco in the 1950s, where they settled in Potrero Hill, The Tongans came later & basically bypassed the city for San Mateo County. Were they attracted to jobs at SFO? Also a smaller population in Oakland & in Contra Costa County, especially around Martinez. 

Tongans are obviously part of the exodus from the Bay Area to Sacramento & certainly to Salt Lake City, obviously due to the strong Morman pull. I've noticed that Tongans are becoming somewhat niched in the moving business, so maybe that also shapes the migration? 

But there aren't a lot of details, which means that Tongans tend to get confused with Samoans.


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## Red_Gravel (Jul 28, 2006)

> You hear about Tongans only when something happens like that tragedy in San Mateo County a few months ago.


That was last month wasn’t it? My condolences go to any Tongans on this board.



> I know that Samoans came in largely with the Navy & settled in the ports like San Diego, LA, & San Francisco in the 1950s, where they settled in Potrero Hill, The Tongans came later & basically bypassed the city for San Mateo County.


I hear that the most common ticket out of the Samoan Islands (nowadays) is the army (and the NFL  J/K). There is currently an all-Samoan US Army unit serving in Iraq. My dad (retired army) told me several have died in battle. 



> But there aren't a lot of details, which means that Tongans tend to get confused with Samoans.


Here in West Texas, you'd be lucky to find someone that knows what either one is. When I tell people that I'm Samoan, they assume I'm talking about that country in East Africa run by warlords with malnourished natives that look like they are suffering through a nazi concentration camp. You know, the first country that comes to mind when you think "3rd World" besides Bangladesh? A lot of people assume I'm Mexican here in Lubbock not just because I was raised in El Paso and speak Spanish, but because a lot of people here don’t know our countries exist. I would love to live in an area where you don’t have to explain where Samoa or Tonga is. It gets so annoying at times I just tell people I’m Mexican.


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## Red_Gravel (Jul 28, 2006)

Oh, I did the Census for Samoans and Tongans in Lubbock (we know each other).

Lubbock: 2


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## bay_area (Dec 31, 2002)

bayviews said:


> BayArea, since this has come up, might be helpful if you could share a bit more history on the Tongan immigration to the US.


its a long story...LOL

here's the jist.

Tongans first foray outside of the kingdom was to New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and the UK. Because of Tonga being part of the British Commonwealth, there wasnt a lot of attention given to the US by Tongans. Until The Mormon Church started gaining momentum in Tonga and people wanted to know more about the US. In the 1950s, The Church College of Hawaii(Today known as BYU-Hawaii) started accepting students from The South Pacific. They opened 2 feeder schools from whence they could award scholarships. One in Samoa at Pesega and one in Tonga called Liahona. Tongan students came to Hawaii by cargoship in the late 1950s. The church helped them get permanent status in the US and many would work 3-4 jobs to sponsor their entire family to the US. Others applied for Visa through the US Embassy in Fiji and were given entrance to the US that way. 



> There are resouces about the Samoans including one on the communities in California, but not much out on the Tongans.


Tongans are far more introverted as a culture then much of the rest of Polynesia. There is a very vibrant Tongan scene in the bay area-the King of Tonga has a mansion in Hillsborough(named Tau'akipulu) and its one of two official residences he has outside of Tonga-the other is in Auckland.
Tonga's only US Consulate is located on Union Square on the 6th floor of the Tiffany Building. Tongans have websites and newspapers and radio programs in virtually every major city in the west-there are also lots of public access cable programs and all sorts of ways we keep in touch with each other. Tonga's Natl Radio News is broadcast in SF and Honolulu every week etc. There are Tongan businesses in many places and lots of stores that serve tongans almost exclusively.



> You hear about Tongans only when something happens like that tragedy in San Mateo County a few months ago.


yeah, or some NFL draft or when some kid commits a crime.



> I know that Samoans came in largely with the Navy & settled in the ports like San Diego, LA, & San Francisco in the 1950s, where they settled in Potrero Hill, The Tongans came later & basically bypassed the city for San Mateo County. Were they attracted to jobs at SFO?


Correct. Tongans never had critical mass in the city proper but they do in Millbrae, San Bruno, South City and San Mateo. The first Tongan family immigrated to The Bay Area in 1956 and settled in San Bruno(they were Mormons who first settled in hawaii)The head of this family was a mechanic at Pan Am and worked at SFO. subsequently hundreds of Tongans at SFO and LAX found their way to airport jobs because of him. Funny how things work out. Today Redwood City, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto and San Carlos have lots of Tongans as well. San Jose has a relatively fast growing Tongan population today. Tongans from all over the world are flocking to the Bay Area to work as live-in nurses and nannies. I know ladies that make $5 thousand a week just taking care of the children of some of the biggest people in Silicon Valley. Polynesians are quite gentle when it comes to taking care of the elderly and children-we treat them as if they were our own-literally. Its not always perfect but word of mouth has kept rich silicon valley people coming back time and time again. You go to a tongan wedding or birthday party these days and its not uncommon for some little white or asian baby to be frolicking about with the tongan kids and 9 out of ten times he's the child heir to some net fortune(LOL)In fact, that lady who died with the royals was working in the US as a live in caregiver-she was a lady-in-waiting back at the royal couples house back in the kingdom and they let her leave to find a life for herself. sad really how that turned out but she's one of thousands of tongans(especially from NZ) who look at the bay area as the land of milk and "M"oney thesedays.



> Also a smaller population in Oakland & in Contra Costa County, especially around Martinez.


This is another area where the Census is very wrong. Oakland has the largest Tongan population of any single city in Northern California-period. The first Tongan family came to Oakland in 1965 to be near the Mormon Temple that opened there a year earlier. They didnt work at the airport but instead they were contractors and landscapers. Oakland was also cheaper then the peninsula, even back then, and so lots of Tongans who belonged to other churches moved to Oakland as well. Tongans in Oakland can be found along Macarthur Boulevard from Park Bl to High Street. Also in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 100s(avenues) in East Oakland. Whenever there is a need for Tongans in the bay area to raise money or collect for something back in the kingdom-Oakland always commits the largest sum-soundly.

From Oakland, Tongans began moving to Concord, Pittsburg and Richmond. Not to mention Vallejo and Hayward. Oddly, Tongans from San Mateo County are selling their 900K shacks on the peninsula and buying huge houses in Pittsburg and Antioch. A lot of Tongans have become more successful and moved to the Oakland Hills or Dublin-Pleasanton. A new trend has emerged in the past 2 years. The Town of Patterson in Stanislaus County has lured about 100 tongans away from Oakland and this push to the valley is growing
-out there, apparently $500,000 still buys a big house-who knew such things existed? 

There is a lot of work to be done with Tongan youth but that's another story.



> Tongans are obviously part of the exodus from the Bay Area to Sacramento & certainly to Salt Lake City, obviously due to the strong Morman pull. I've noticed that Tongans are becoming somewhat niched in the moving business, so maybe that also shapes the migration?


Tongans in Salt Lake are extremely high profile. Whereas Tongans here are lost in the salad bowl so to speak,over there-we stand out. As a result, Tongans have been more apt to participate in the process as far as going after aid for various community programs. Here, people mainly look within for help.



> But there aren't a lot of details, which means that Tongans tend to get confused with Samoans.


One thing. People are always saying that Tongans and Samoans dont get along. I have never experienced this in my entire life. We intermarry so often I dont know why anyone would think that we hate each other-LOL



Red_Gravel said:


> Here in West Texas, you'd be lucky to find someone that knows what either one is. When I tell people that I'm Samoan, they assume I'm talking about that country in East Africa run by warlords with malnourished natives that look like they are suffering through a nazi concentration camp. You know, the first country that comes to mind when you think "3rd World" besides Bangladesh? A lot of people assume I'm Mexican here in Lubbock not just because I was raised in El Paso and speak Spanish, but because a lot of people here don’t know our countries exist. I would love to live in an area where you don’t have to explain where Samoa or Tonga is. It gets so annoying at times I just tell people I’m Mexican.


yes, yes and yes. People think Im Mexican all the time-or Isreali, or Turkish etc. Frequently if I go into a store people start speaking to me in spanish-but I speak it so I play along(LOL and they are none the wiser)

dont feel so bad about there being only 2 in Lubbock, when I was living in small farm towns in Southern Brazil, Im positive I was the only poly within the 1000 mile radius...or at least it felt that way. LOL


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## bay_area (Dec 31, 2002)

Red_Gravel said:


> That was last month wasn’t it? My condolences go to any Tongans on this board.


thanks...that's life tho. all we can do is live it while we have it.

Here are some pics from the funeral once the bodies arrived in Tonga
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=387047


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## jbkayaker12 (Nov 8, 2004)

As for Filipinos huge presence in California it is the nearest stop in mainland United States for people migrating from the Philippines. One of the founding fathers of Los Angeles is also of Filipino lineage.The Filipinos also has a huge presence if not the largest Asian minority in Hawaii. They came to work in the plantation fields in Hawaii. We also have a sizable presence in major cities back east in particular the states of New Jersey and New York. Filipino medical professionals in particular our nurses are well sought after in the United States hospitals, if I'm not mistaken 75% of nurses in the United States are of Philippine descent. It is already a tradition in the Philippines to have a relative or a family member taking up a nursing course. Also Filipinos has a huge presence in the armed forces of the United States.

Our tradition of having a close knit family is also a factor in maintaining our sizable presence in some cities all over the United States but the biggest factor I believe is the similarity of the states of California and Hawaii to our home country that makes it very desirable for Filipinos.


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## bob rulz (Oct 20, 2005)

AndySocks said:


> I think for much the same reason there are so many Togans... close to California.


Really? Armenia actually seems like it would be closer to the East Coast.


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## bob rulz (Oct 20, 2005)

bay_area said:


> Tongans in Salt Lake are extremely high profile. Whereas Tongans here are lost in the salad bowl so to speak,over there-we stand out. As a result, Tongans have been more apt to participate in the process as far as going after aid for various community programs. Here, people mainly look within for help.


That's definitely true.

I guess it says something that here nobody mixes up Tongans or Samoans with Mexicans or some other ethnic group.


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## bayviews (Mar 3, 2006)

bay_area said:


> its a long story...LOL
> 
> here's the jist.
> 
> Tongans first foray outside of the kingdom


Very interesting, thanks for filling in more of the details of the Tongan immigration. Albeit in much smaller numbers, Samoans & Tongans in the West seem a bit akin to Puerto Ricans & Dominicans in the East in terms of the overlapping settlement patterns & how the more recent & smaller group often gets confused for the more established & larger group. But really great to see both Pacific Islander groups moving forward together to build their communities.


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## klamedia (Nov 21, 2005)

Gonna have to search for a breakdown of Latin American ethnics as well as African. LA would have been mentioned multiple times in the overall population diversity chart if the Latin American population was broken down as well i.e. El Salvadorian, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan was represented. Also has a somewhat large population of Ethiopians.


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