Illustration: Luo Xuan /GT

When people go and live overseas, they tend to surround themselves with relics and reminders of their old lives. Feeling, in the words of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, "like a stranger in a strange land," they try to make the alien landscape as familiar as possible.

Immigrants often create miniature versions of their homeland in their adopted home. It is understandable. Being used to a particular way of life, food, clothes and so on, they want to carry on in the same way rather than make a radical change to their lifestyle.

So it is that foreign enclaves come into existence. Expats worldwide like to eat their own food, speak their own language, and buy their own national products. Thus, they come together in communities, building up little quarters that resemble what they are used to.

In Europe, the Jews were long famous for sticking together as they wandered the continent to make a living.

Unfortunately, this sometimes led to resentment and unforgivable persecution from some of their hosts, the most extreme case being the Holocaust.

Nowadays, some of the most notable foreign quarters in many Western cities are the so-called "Chinatowns." Famous examples include the ones in San Francisco and New York, but there are smaller versions in cities such as London and Manchester.

A remarkable feature of Chinatowns is that they are attractive to the host nation. The Chinese communities not only work together to build their lives but also provide valuable services to the host country, like restaurants and markets. Rarely is there a conflict with the locals. Chinatowns are seen as welcome additions to cities, adding an exotic character and charm to otherwise nondescript downtown areas.

In Europe, there are other groups of immigrants who build up towns, but few are as successful or accepted as the Chinese. For instance, in recent years, Polish immigrants in the UK, while they have largely been peaceful and hardworking, have inspired resentment among the locals, who see them as interlopers out to take their jobs. It is this that has, in part, fuelled the desire to leave the European Union among large sections of the British population.

Of course, the British tend to forget that they also sent scores of migrants to foreign countries. Apart from colonizing Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and South Africa, Britons have also set up their own communities in other host countries such as Spain, which is attractive because of its sunny weather.

These new British towns are generally accepted by their Spanish hosts because they bring in money and business. But they are not seen as attractive places to visit, except by the British. They are basically "little Britains" outside the British Isles: functional as far as Brits are concerned, but offering nothing to anybody else.

Thus, if one were to rank foreign enclaves based on their contribution to the host society and economy, Chinatowns would certainly appear at or near the top of the list. They are seen as tourist attractions in their own right and their people as quiet and industrious. Long live Chinatowns!

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.