By Alex Pearlstein, Director of Projects.

  

In an interesting confluence of events, the 2010 World Cup began the same day the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the United States will soon be a “minority majority” country, with non-whites comprising over 50 percent of our population. Many of these minorities are represented by ethnic groups originating from all countries of the globe. It’s trite to say that the U.S. is a “nation of immigrants,” but it’s true nonetheless. My family emigrated from Poland, Russia, Czechoslovakia and probably a few other countries that we don’t know about. My wife’s family is from Scotland with maybe a dash of Cherokee mixed in for good measure.

Much has been written about the desire of the so-called “creative class” to live in diverse, tolerant communities; it’s one of the principal chapters of the Gospel According to Richard Florida. I don’t deny that perspective and, in fact, share it. I like to experience different cultures, whether it’s through food, festivals, entertainment or conversation. There was a Greek festival in Des Moines last weekend; an Asian celebration the week before that. Both were a lot of fun and added some prestige to my waistline.

Most people probably don’t think of Des Moines, Iowa as a “diverse” place, but it has a surprisingly varied population mix. Iowa was the first and most aggressive state to welcome Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s, then settled waves of Bosnian, Sudanese, Somali and other refugees. Here are a few last names from Des Moines Roosevelt High School’s graduating class of 2010: Arellanes-Hernandez, Asjes, Azam, Bondarenko, Bui, Civsa, Dubinovic, Duong, Durmisevic, Flores, Fujita, Habib, Hadzic, Hassan, Ibarra-Gonzalez, Igbokwe, Jok, Karamuja, Mitrofanova, Nagi, Nguyen, Noor, Omerasevic, Pham, Rodriguez-Gutierrez, Salic, Syed-Mohammad, Vasiljevic, Yunuszoda, Yussuf. That’s just a sampling. Roosevelt, by the way, is the top rated high school in all of Iowa.

Another community with a surprising melting pot of immigrant cultures is Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a recent Market Street client. Two principal refugee-relocation organizations operate out of Sioux Falls, recently named one of America’s “new Ellis Islands.” The city’s public schools reportedly contain children from 95 countries speaking 120 different languages. A challenge for educators to be sure, but a challenge they’re meeting head on and winning. They’ve embraced diversity as a benefit, not a deficit, as has the region as a whole. Sioux Falls has an active multi-cultural center and a city-sponsored Diversity Council that hosts and coordinates an annual diversity conference. The theme of the 2009 conference was “Embrace Equality: Creating an Inclusive Community." In our conversations with Sioux Falls residents, businesses and elected officials, respondents almost universally named diversity as one of the area’s strengths. Sioux Falls, it should be mentioned, is one of the country’s mid-sized “shining stars” and a community with a very bright future. Meanwhile, a city like Cleveland that ceased to become an immigrant destination is now actively trying to attract them to stem ongoing population losses. A city or region that doesn’t seek to leverage diversity as an economic and community development strategy is operating an outdated growth model. The writing is on the wall and it’s being translated into many languages.

So, as our nation roots on the U.S. squad as it battles in the World Cup in South Africa (another nation benefitting from embracing its diversity after a notable failure in that regard), millions of Americans will also be cheering for another country, the land of their ancestors. No nation in the world can claim so many dual affiliations; that’s what makes us unique and such a dominant global economic and cultural force. At the local level, that is also what can help us thrive.