Department of State said that it has been estimated that Greater Houston has the largest Nigerian expatriate population in the United States. As of 2018 about 150,000 Nigerian Americans are in the Houston area. The 2017 American Community survey estimated that 65,000 Nigerian Americans live in Texas, the vast majority of which reside in Houston. As of 2003 Houston had 23,000 Nigerian Americans. Many Nigerian Americans choose Houston over other American destinations due to its warmer climate and the ease of establishing businesses. Nigerians in Houston are highly educated and often have postgraduate degrees. Nigerians in the Houston area opened Nigerian groceries, restaurants, and churches. Until Continental Airlines began nonstop flights to Lagos from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in November 2011, many Nigerians had to fly through Europe to travel between Texas and Nigeria. Jenalia Moreno of the Houston Chronicle said that the Nigerian community and the energy companies in Houston have worked for a long time to get a flight to Nigeria from this city. In 2016 United Airlines, which had merged with Continental, canceled the Lagos route, citing a decline in the energy industry and inability to get currency out of Nigeria. In 2020 No Passport Required featured Nigerian restaurants in Houston. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 2018 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau state that 40,000 Houston residents are of recent Nigerian origins. Until 2006 there was a video rental shop catering to the West African community. Houston has TV services catering to area West Africans, including AfrocentrikTV, Afrovibes Entertainment, and Millenium Broadcasting Corporation. Ethiopians Mesfin Genanaw, a Houston Community College teacher who was one of the individuals who assisted with the building of the area Ethiopian Orthodox church, stated in a 2003 Houston Chronicle article that there are an estimated 5,000 Ethiopians in Greater Houston. In 2020 Dai Huynh wrote in Buzz Magazines that the number of ethnic Ethiopians in the Houston area goes "from 3,000 to 10,000 depending on whom you ask". One Ethiopian Orthodox church in Houston is the Debre Selam Medhanealem Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church ( Debre Selam MedhaneAlem YeItyopphya Ortodoks Tewahedo Bete Kristiyan; the name approximately means "Sanctuary of Peace and the Savior"). Prior to the construction of the church, those of the Ethiopian Orthodox faith worshiped at Coptic Orthodox churches. Genanaw, stated that in 1992 20 Ethiopian women who were attending a Coptic church planned the establishment of an Ethiopian