Besides having an attractive climate and a huge market with access to Pacific Rim countries, L.A. is a magnet for foreign investment because so much of the world is already here.
Indeed, L.A. County is home to at least a half-dozen ethnic communities with the largest populations outside their native lands and another four communities with the largest populations in the U.S.
L.A. County has more people of Mexican descent than anywhere outside Mexico, more people of Korean descent than anywhere outside the Korean peninsula, more Thais, more Filipinos, more Guatemalans and more Salvadorans than anywhere outside those countries, according to the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission.
“If L.A. is not home to the largest number of ethnic communities with the largest populations outside their native lands, then it’s very close,” said James Allen, professor of geography at California State University Northridge.
The county also boasts the largest U.S. populations of Iranians, Cambodians, Japanese and Romanians. There are also major concentrations of Armenians, Russians, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, British and Canadians, just to name a few.
In all, there are more than 100 languages spoken in L.A. County and more than 80 languages spoken in Los Angeles Unified School District schools.
All of these ethnic communities make L.A. the rival of any great global city, from London and Paris to Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Hong Kong, Allen said.
By far, Mexicans constitute the largest foreign-born community in L.A. County about 1.5 million people, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. That was about 16 percent of the county’s entire population in 2000. Next are the Salvadorans (252,000), followed by Filipinos (202,000), Chinese (196,000), Guatemalans (150,000) and Koreans (145,000).
These figures are just the people born in those countries who have moved here; all of these communities are even larger when second and third generations are counted. With so many large ex-pat communities already here, it’s no wonder that they serve as a draw for direct foreign investment in the region.
“All of these ethnic communities have ties to their homeland,” said Bee Canterbury Lavery, former chief of protocol in the administration of the late Mayor Tom Bradley.
In the case of the immigrants from Mexico and Central America, the investments largely flow out of Los Angeles to those countries in the form of remittances, though in recent years there has been some investment from Latin America in L.A.
In the East Asian communities, the flow is both ways, with immigrants investing back in their homelands and wealthy businesspeople in these homelands investing here.
Howard Fine
