Houston is America's most diverse city, and others are finally starting to notice

A quick look around Houston and one thing becomes obvious; the Bayou City is about as diverse as it gets.

It wasn't always that way, though. The metropolis on I-10 got started as a town catering to the oil industry, with white men doing blue-collar work in the energy sector.

Immigration and time changed things and created the city we know today.

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Now, with the immigration debate roiling, people outside of Texas have started to take notice of the changes here that caused Houston to pass New York seven years ago as the most diverse city in the country.

The Los Angeles Times posits that, by 2050, America will look a lot like Houston does today.

That would mean America would be a mix of white, Latino, black, Vietnamese and other immigrants sharing space, even if not all in the same neighborhoods.

You can read the Houston Chronicle's deeper exploration of the issue in The Million project on HoustonChronicle.com.

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And, the Times noted, Harris County is at the forefront of the change. It's a place where 51 percent of all those under the age of 20 are Latinos and 19 percent are African American.

How all this plays out in a state where the governor signed a bill (on Facebook live, no less) that potentially penalizes municipalities declaring themselves 'sanctuary cities' and a country where the president pledges to build a wall with Mexico remains to be seen.

But, it looks like Houstonians will have a front row seat to the show.

Scroll through the gallery to see where Houston's foreign-born population comes from.