Arab Americans

I

Introduction

Arab Americans, residents of the United States who trace their ancestry to Arab countries of the Middle East. The term Arab refers to various peoples who share a general culture, language, and history, rather than to a specific racial group (see Arabs). Arab Americans are an extremely diverse group with roots in many countries where the Arabic language is spoken. Approximately 35 percent of Arab Americans are descendants of immigrants from Lebanon. Other groups have roots in Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and Jordan. Each regional group has distinct regional customs and speaks its own dialect of Arabic. The Arab American community includes descendants of the Arabic-speaking immigrants who came to the United States in the 19th century, as well as more recent immigrants.

In the 2000 U.S. census, 1,249,200 persons identified themselves as ethnically Arab or said they had emigrated from one of the 21 countries that make up the contemporary Arab world. One-third of all Arab Americans live in three metropolitan areas—Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; and New York City. Nationally, Arabic-speaking immigrants constitute less than 3 percent of the total immigrant population in the United States.

Most Americans mistakenly assume Arabs are by definition Muslims, followers of Islam. But about 10 percent of all Arabs are Christians. Although most Arabs are Muslims, most Arab Americans are Christians. The majority belong to various denominations of the Christian Orthodox Church, such as the Antiochian, Coptic, Syrian, and Greek Orthodox churches. A significant number belong to Uniate churches, formerly Orthodox groups that affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. The Uniate groups include Chaldean, Maronite, and Greek Catholic denominations.

II

Culture

Arab Americans share an emotional attachment to Arab culture and food. They are committed to traditional Arab values, such as the maintenance of strong family ties and the preservation of female chastity and fidelity. Arab American communities often center around religious practices and institutions. Middle Eastern food and the warm hospitality associated with it remain central to the identity of Arab Americans.

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Arab Americans of all backgrounds place a high value on education and economic mobility. Many Arab Americans become entrepreneurs, often by starting small business enterprises. Others seek jobs as salaried professionals. A significant working-class segment can be found among recent immigrants, but the preference for establishing small businesses remains a strong cultural ideal among this group as well.

Except among the most assimilated, Arab Americans object to American courtship rituals such as dating. Arab American Christians, as well as Muslims, generally equate dating with pre-marital sex. Dating conflicts with Arab cultural beliefs about female chastity. Arab women are expected to protect their honor and that of their family by remaining chaste until marriage and maintaining fidelity to their husbands thereafter. Arab American males are theoretically held to the same standards, but in reality their transgressions are often overlooked.

Arranged marriages occasionally occur among recent immigrants. In such marriages, parents select a suitable spouse for their son or daughter. In assimilated families, the parents merely approve their son’s or daughter’s choice. Divorce, once a rarity in Arab society, has become more frequent among Arab Americans.

Perhaps the best-known cultural practice of Arab Americans is the prohibition against eating pork. For Arab Muslims this dietary rule is founded in religious beliefs based on the Qur'an (Koran). Curiously, many Arab Christians also avoid the consumption of pork products, largely because they have never acquired a taste for them. The rise in the number of Muslim immigrants in the 1980s and 1990s has resulted in the proliferation of butchers who sell halal meats—that is, meat ritually slaughtered according to Qur'anic law.

III

History

The first wave of Arabic-speaking immigrants arrived in the United States between the 1880s and 1924, when the Immigration Act of 1924 drastically restricted immigration into the United States. Most immigrants in this first wave came from Arab regions of the Ottoman Empire, which controlled most of the Middle East until World War I (1914-1918). Very few early Arab immigrants were Muslims. They worked in a variety of occupations, including mill and factory work, door-to-door sales, and farming. These early Arab immigrants assimilated easily into the American mainstream, largely because they were Christians. Today their descendants show few traces of their Arabic heritage. Many have been quite successful, including singer Paula Abdul, heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, and Donna Shalala, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Arab immigration to the United States resumed in the early 1950s. Unlike the early wave of Arab immigrants, a significant number of the new immigrants were Muslims. Many were also highly skilled and well educated. Some were refugees from Palestine, who fled or were driven away when their homeland was incorporated into the new nation of Israel in 1948. Like the earlier wave of Arab immigrants, this group largely assimilated into American society. However, instead of blending completely into the American melting pot, these Arab Americans clung to many aspects of their cultural heritage. They established cultural clubs, political committees, and Arabic language schools, which helped instill an Arab American cultural identity among their American-born children.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed many of the legal barriers that had prevented large-scale Arab immigration to the United States. Arabs began to immigrate to the United States in greater numbers in the late 1960s and 1970s. Many Arab immigrants of this era came from Arab countries embroiled in political or economic turmoil, such as Lebanon, Palestine, and Yemen.

Even larger numbers of Arabic-speaking immigrants arrived during the 1980s and 1990s. This latest wave of Arab immigrants has tended to identify more strongly with its Muslim heritage, resulting in a rapid increase in the number of mosques and Islamic religious schools in the United States. Traditional Muslim dress has become popular in many Arab American communities.

IV

Contemporary Issues

Arab Americans seek to participate in mainstream American society while retaining their distinctive cultural heritage and language. The best way to reconcile these two aims is far from settled in the minds of recent immigrants, especially among Arab Muslims.

Arab Americans also must cope with the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim stereotypes that pervade American popular culture. Beginning in the 1980s, Arabs and other peoples from the Middle East were often associated with terrorism and mistakenly suspected of terrorist attacks. With very few exceptions, Arab Americans have been law-abiding residents and citizens of the United States.