Louisville is one example of a city that is increasing in diversity due to international immigration, where ethnic minority or immigrant-owned businesses are profoundly influencing the Metro Area. As a result, Louisville has become an international city home to immigrants from around the world. One quarter of the children in public schools are foreign-born. There are over 100 different languages spoken throughout the metro area. People groups come as refugees, international students, immigrants, and business professionals, all looking to start a new life in the greater Louisville area.

The more recent migration include the Japanese who have the longest tenure in Louisville with many arriving in the 1980s. In general, Asian people groups migrated in the early 1990s and the years just prior. The next wave was made up of refugees from Bosniaks to Somalia. Bosniaks arrived after 1995, during and after the regime of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.

The "Southside" of the Metro near the Americana Apartments is the home to numerous different people groups, especially those who arrived in the United States as refugees. A couple of represented regional affinities in the "Southside" include East Africans and Southeast Asians. In addition, approximately 3,000 Bosniaks call Metro their home as do over 7,000 Cubans.