Diversity

Pho shops and Vietnamese businesses are popping up in Madison Heights like dandelions. What gives? Metromode looks into why the unlikely stretch between John R and Dequindre is turning into Metro Detroit's de facto Little Vietnam.
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Doctor Meets Screen in "Ocean of Pearls"

By: Ellen Piligian, 8/6/2009

The word medicine stems from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing. In his examination of the achy U.S. healthcare system, Metro Detroit physician and film director Sarab Neelam finds cultural identity and healing through art with his award-winning feature film debut, Ocean of Pearls.
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Michigan Masala

By: Tanya Muzumdar, 7/23/2009

The recent Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire reminds us that the Indian subcontinent, with a population of nearly 1.2 billion, occupies a rather large corner of the world. It also represents a growing demographic in Metro Detroit. South Asian culture as expressed through Bollywood films, dance and specialty foods has moved beyond local enclaves onto Main Street Michigan.
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A Soft Landing For Foreign Born Entrepreneurs

By: Michelle Martinez, 7/23/2009

It's a classic American story - immigrants moving to the U.S. and, through hard work and entrepreneurship, transforming both their lives and their adopted community. Some Metro Detroit business leaders are banking on that very same scenario to help evolve SE Michigan's economic landscape. (more >)

Can Immigration Loosen Our Rustbelt?

By: Terry Parris Jr., 5/14/2009

Fifty percent of the start-ups in Silicon Valley were founded by foreign-born entrepreneurs. Though it's the third rail for most political and community leaders, a new view of immigration may be exactly what Michigan needs to reinvent its economy. (more >)

Blog/Kurt Metzger

A celebrity demographer if there ever was one, Kurt Metzger, director of the Detroit Area Community Indicators System, is the go-to-guru for the latest trends in population flow. This week, Kurt holds forth on the importance of immigration to the region's vitality, right-sizing the city, and neighborhoods of opportunity. (more >)

Video/Dearborn's Arab-American Festival

How do you fit quarter of a million people onto 14 blocks of Warren Avenue? Ask the organizers of Dearborn's Arab American Festival, the nation's largest Middle Eastern gathering... and a shining reflection of the city's unique and growing diversity. (more >)