What you refer to is known as "chain migration" and it is a real thing in
ethnic history, but not always in food history. I would say that it applies
more to countries of origin that are or were very regionalized -- Italy,
Mexico, India -- as opposed to countries that were more culturally uniform
at the time of immigration -- Ireland, Germany, or Korea. Also, some ethnic
cuisines are widely understood from a restaurant menu which may be more
nationally uniform than the home food -- as with Chinese, Japanese, and
Indian food.

Rural settlements have been notable centers, especially for smaller ethnic
groups like Belgians in Door County, Wisconsin, but cities also have their
advantages in that specific market areas and neighborhoods can develop.

Some cultural institutions with attached food, such as Italian festas, can
preserve regional foods and identity in large cities with regionally diverse
Italian communities, say.

However, the respondents aren't wrong: The narrowing of any immigrant
cuisine -- as only the best and most useful and most evocative ethnic dishes
survive assimilation and loss of language -- means that regional differences
tend to blur in the US, and ethnic groups tend to become more inclusive, if
only because outsiders view Sicilians and Lombards and Abruzzeze as all
"Italians." And Gujaratis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, and Indo-Caribbeans as
all "Indians." After about three generations, with the home language or
dialect gone, immigrants themselves are apt to see themselves in broader
terms, even to take up "Pan-Italianism" or "Pan-South Asianism."


--
-Mark H. Zanger
author, The American History Cookbook, The American Ethnic Cookbook for
Students
www.ethnicook.com
www.historycook.com


"Olivers" > wrote in message
...
> An interesting discussion the other evening provided a great deal of
> support for a theory which I've not seen previously advanced in this
> group....
>
> Immigrants settling in areas of the US often represented small localized
> segments of larger ethnic groups, with the "Norwegians" in a particular
> county all originating in the same small community/area in Norway (or as
in
> my home town, with about 80% of the pre1960 Mexican American families
> originating from a small area of a single Mexican state).
>
> Therefore, many dishes which have been popularized as ethnic (in a broader
> sense) are as much community, area or even family origined (and of course
> subject to vastly altered results because of the need to substitute
> different ingredients in search of traditional foods).
>
> Comment....
>
> TMO