Privileged expats lead an alien life

When I was a reporter in Boston, I covered the city's exploding population of immigrants from Latin America. My articles centered on their lives there and how they did, or did not, coalesce with the local population.

I was fascinated with both the intangible and tangible aspects of their experiences: How did their culture intermingle with America's? What media did they consume? Where did they shop? Where did they socialize? What challenges did they face?

In the media and among social science scholars in the West, much research is dedicated to studying the nature of such communities.