The vast majority of new immigrants and native-born New Jerseyans traced roots to Europe until well into the latter part of this century. But today, New Jersey is the most ethnically diverse state in the nation.
Many towns report dozens of foreign languages spoken in homes.
Main Street in Hackensack, Bergenline Avenue in Union City, and Anderson Avenue in Cliffside Park are among numerous downtowns that boast businesses owned by Italians, Cubans, Colombians, Indians, Koreans, and Pakistanis, to name but a few. New Jersey's global populace puts the state at the frontier of the nation's growing diversity, which President Clinton predicted would spur America's Third Revolution. Perhaps more than any other state, New Jersey offers a case study as the nation enters a new millennium in which minorities are expected to become half the U.S. population. But national patterns of immigration have always manifested themselves in New Jersey in a much more intense fashion. In general, New Jersey residents have managed the diversity in their midst well.