According to the Greater Dallas Asian-American Chamber of Commerce there are more than 300,000 Asian-Americans in North Texas. They’ve been flocking here for more than a decade.
Masha Aziz of Bangladesh, who has been all over the U.S., now turning her hobby, photography into a business. She moved to Denton in 1995 to study at the University of North Texas. After getting her bachelors and masters in computer science she figured she'd leave. She stayed.
"I just felt really comfortable and Denton has a small town environment and there's a lot of green trees there and it's not very city-like so I just started staying in Denton," said Aziz who had a booth at the 24th annual Asian Festival in downtown Dallas Saturday.
The Asian population is increasing by leaps and bounds across the country, including North Texas. In Denton County the Asian population increased 150 percent the past decade according to census figures.
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In Dallas County it's 35 percent. That's where Polsak Sukying opened his Thai restaurant, Thai 2GO on Forest Lane a decade ago. He moved here 20 years ago at the urging of family that had already moved here.
"The weather is good. The climate is good. There's a lot of opportunity and it's growing," said Sukying.
Dallas' Asian American Chamber of Commerce says there are 23 unique Asian communities all over North Texas. But there are some common pluses about our area that keeps them coming.
"I think for the Asian Community it's very important to be able to start their own business,” said Irma Kusuma with the Chamber. “It's huge for us and also to be able to provide a really good education for their children and the fact that DFW Airport is very convenient for us to travel to Asia is a big draw as well."
Saturday's Asian Festival is a big draw downtown. A chance for native North Texans to get more familiar with the people and the culture they're only going to see more and more of.
