Unit 1: World’s Biggest Melting Pot

Narrator: In today’s global village, multiculturalism is normal. But one neighborhood in particular claims to be one of the most diverse places in the world. Welcome to Queens, New York. Man: How are you doing? What’s happening? We’re all immigrants. Who understands an immigrant better than an immigrant? Narrator: Almost half of the population of Queens was born in another country. Its residents come from 100 different nations and they speak almost 150 different languages. No racial or ethnic group is a majority here. There may be other neighborhoods with even more foreign-born residents, but only here do we find so many different cultures, nationalities, and ethnicities all in one place. Woman: I know that, you know, I’m from Madras, the southern part of India. My parents live there and my grandparents live there. Woman #2: My mom’s from South Korea. And on my father’s side, I am German, Irish, English, and I think a little bit of Native American, but that part I’m not sure. Woman #3: My great-grandfather was Puerto Rican and his parents were Puerto Rican and so on and so forth. So, as far as I know, we’ve always been Puerto Rican. And I feel connected to that and when I look in the mirror I see that and I see my grandmother and my great-grandmother. It’s something that I cherish and it’s something that I’m very protective of. Woman #4: So you have Eastern Europeans. You have Hispanics. You have Turkish. You have Arabic. I like that. I like that very much. Narrator: A 2001 study measured diversity using a simple idea. How likely is it that two randomly selected people have different backgrounds? In their study, Queens scored highest in the United States. As the most diverse community in the most diverse country in the world, it’s a fair claim. But even if there is no way to prove that it’s the most diverse place in the world, Queens, New York, is a great example of a melting pot.