Looking for a little cultural diversity? Residents of metro Atlanta need search no farther than their own community to find a range of experiences with global influences.

Need an infusion of Thai cuisine? Interested in learning German? Ready to get down with some serious salsa music? How about learning the inside story of the civil rights movement?

No matter what ethnic experience you’re after, chances are excellent that you’ll find it in Atlanta. It’s also a good bet that you won’t find the same options available in, say, Birmingham.

“It’s fascinating to compare Atlanta to Birmingham,” said Bart Lewis, chief of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s research division. “Back in the 1950s, anyone with any sense would have picked Birmingham as the city most likely to succeed because of its industrial base. But the way they handled the race problem, compared to the way Atlanta did, is why Atlanta is much more successful than Birmingham.”

So that catchy phrase, “The City Too Busy to Hate,” has in fact become the city’s welcome mat, opening the doors to a myriad of races and cultures who feel comfortable calling Atlanta home.

“I do think our community is a microcosm for diversity in America,” Lewis said. “And a big part of that comes from Atlanta’s willingness to deal with diversity. That’s not to say that no intolerance exists, but we are more willing to accept people of more races and ethnicities than many other places in this country.”

Since the early 1990s, Atlanta has met an onslaught of newcomers from diverse backgrounds that began to build before the 1996 Summer Olympic Games and mushroomed afterwards. The fact that Atlanta is home to such a booming ethnic population can be traced back not only to the city’s history as a cradle of the civil rights movement, but to the area’s strong economy.

“It would be a very different situation if we had an economy that was going nowhere and then all of a sudden, Hispanic immigrants moved in and took jobs away from people who were here,” Lewis said. “But in an economy such as ours, the influx of these people isn’t seen as a detriment.”

For many immigrants, the region’s overall quality of life is the main reason for settling here.

“Yes, it is the economy, but there’s also a quality of life here that brings a greater influx of people,” said Maritza Pichon, executive director of the Latin American Association. “It’s also family connections. The Latino community has been among the fastest-growing in the area in the last two years because of all those things.”

For some immigrants, the reason to make their home in Atlanta is as simple as the enjoyable weather.

“It’s nice that we have four seasons that aren’t really cold or really hot,” said Chiawon Kim, director of the Center for Pan-Asian Community Services, who works with Asians arriving in Atlanta from around the world as well as other parts of the country. “Then you have the housing: It’s much cheaper here than on the West or East Coast. The churches here are also important; there are many places where they can easily socialize and get information about the community.”

Immigrants who come to Atlanta are also good about helping their fellow countrymen connect to the community, said Kim said.

Pichon, who was born in South America and grew up in Miami, sees the Latino community connecting in almost every county of the metro area.

“When I arrived here years ago, I remember looking for links to the Spanish-speaking world and there was one paper,” she said. “Now, there are about 25 periodicals that are Spanish-speaking outlets.”

One fact that all various ethnic groups agree on is that Atlanta’s diverse population explosion shows no sign of slowing.

“Just in the 1990s, we saw a net increase of about 600,000 whites, 400,000 blacks, 100,000 Hispanics and 100,000 Asians,” Lewis said. “And I see more of the same in the future. The economy and the retirement of the baby boomers will require us to import more workers, particularly in lower-income jobs.

“This argues that we’re going to continue to see increases in the population from Mexico and South America. And though trends from Asia are much harder to forecast, there’s a good chance the United States will continue to be favorable to international immigration.”

As the numbers continue to expand, keeping tabs on the just how diverse we are is going to become is a more daunting task, Lewis said.

“Each group has its own characteristics, its reasons for being here, and while I think a lot of them are similar, a lot are different,” he said. “But that’s the problem with diversity: It can be so diverse it’s hard to get a focus on it.”