Introduction of the Overseas Compatriot Community in the Southern United States
The Culture Center takes care of overseas community affairs under the supervision of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston, offering services to overseas communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Around 960,000 overseas compatriots live in the Southern United States, including early immigrants from Mainland China and those arriving after 1949 from Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. They often live in major cities, such as Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Little Rock, Jackson, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans.
Composition
In the Southern United States, there are about 218 overseas community associations, but only about half of them operate normally according to their charters. Most of them are established by recent immigrants. These associations range from social clubs, to chambers of commerce, to family organizations, alumni associations to charities and senior services. Among the most active are the Taiwanese Association of America, Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce, Joint Chinese College Alumni Association, Federation of Chinese Organizations of America in Houston, and Dallas Compatriot Social Club.
Mandarin Education and Cultural Events
There are 29 overseas compatriot schools in the Southern United States: 1 in Oklahoma, 2 in Louisiana, and the rest in Texas. Those in Houston and Dallas established the Overseas Compatriot School Association to facilitate large-scale cultural events and instruction training workshops. The schools in other areas hold smaller-scale cultural activities as well as hosting Mandarin lessons from time to time.
Businesses
The recent immigrants mainly engage in trade, real estate, banking, hotel and computer businesses, while earlier ones generally run restaurants. Immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos mostly conduct businesses in fruits, seafood and grocery wholesale. In the 1980s, Taiwanese businessmen began to join the financial industry, and now at least 3 Taiwanese banks are headquartered in Houston.
Update Date:
2023/11/29Back