Arab-american Immigration

Immigration has been a very large part of America.  Many different groups have immigrated to the United States.  One of these groups is the members from the Arab countries.  These countries include Syrian/Lebanese which makes up the largest group, Palestinians, Iranians, Iraqis, and Pakistanis.  These people have been immigrating for hundreds of years and now live and enjoy life in the United States.  Using the assimilation cycle I will detail the immigration and assimilation cycle these people had to go through.

            The first recorded entrance to America is believed to be as early as the 15th century.  These immigrants came over with Spanish explorers.  It wasn’t until 1880 when Arab immigrants started coming to America in large numbers.  Between 1880 and 1924 it is believed that over 200,000 immigrants came to America.  In 1924 the immigration laws changed and made it drastically harder for people of Arab background to immigrate to America.  It wasn’t until 1965 when these immigration laws changed again which made it easier to immigrate and Arab born people started coming to America again.

            The original immigrants came over and lived in parallel communities.  These immigrants made their own newspaper in 1892 which was entirely written in Arabic.  Then in 1895 three Arabic churches were built in New York and eventually in 1923 an Arab mosque was built near Detroit Michigan.  Many Arab-Americans live in urban areas and typically stay closely packed together.  Furthermore Arab-Americans tend to live with extended families in one house.  These families then share the wealth of the entire family so everyone has an equal share and not one family member is more important than the other.  This practice is known as gemeinshaft which is a small tradition based community that is characterized by intimate primary relationships and strong feelings of group loyalty.

            Early Arab immigrants could only find work with a labor job.  Most of the early immigrants were males and worked as peddlers.  These people would typically go door to door to sell goods in rural areas where it was hard for people to get the necessary items for survival.  In more populated areas the immigrants also owned shops.  Other immigrants worked as clothing manufacturers, worked in wholesale, or worked in factories.  The original immigrants were not skilled in any particular area but instead just came over to earn money however they could.  In the beginning these immigrants did not intend on staying in America forever.  Their plans were to save enough money send it home to their families and then move back home when they had saved up enough.  Once these immigrants realized they could continue to make money they then started practicing chain migration and bringing family members to America.