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I May Seikaly Attachment and Identity: The Palestinian Community of Detroit Although Arab Americans constitute relatively new communities in the United States, a fair amount of literature on their history and development has been generated. Interest in recording the social, economic, and political experiences of these immigrants has grown in tandem with the expansion of their numbers and their visibility on the American scene. Since the late 1960s, the upsurge in the literature has reflected a growing sense of ethnic identity among the members of these communities (e.g., the Muslims in America) and a closer link to their countries of origin.1 It also has been a response to western attitudes toward Islam and U.S. official policy about the homelands of these communities.2 Another area of scholarly interest that has produced prolific writing is Arab and Muslim women. This field of study sheds light on the social and cultural dynamism within these societies in the Middle East and the diaspora. These many sources have informed the historical background of the Arab-American experience provided in this chapter. Although the earliest Arab immigrant communities congregated initially in the northeastern states close to their ports of entry (i.e., New York and Boston), they gradually filtered to areas of economic pull such as Detroit, Los Angeles, and Houston. Arab migration has been primarily to and from urban centers, although it has attracted many rural Arabs. The earliest waves of immigration to the United States occurred at the close of the nineteenth century, predominantly from Syria and Lebanon but with a small number from Palestine. The preponderance of these immigrants were Christian, although Muslims also immigrated at this time.3 The ratio of Christian to Muslim immigration for the period until the mid-twentieth century has been estimated at 90 to 10 percent. Some writers claim that this ratio has drastically changed since 1948, following the expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from their homeland and the influx of Asian Muslims to the United States. Since 1948, Palestinians have been trickling in to join the other, larger Arab immigrant communities, and proportionately many more Muslims came with those waves of migration. Although there are no reliable statistics on the current 26 MAY SEIKALY number of Arab Americans or Palestinians, estimates by observers and experts put the total of Arabic-speaking communities at approximately three million, with the Palestinians averaging 12 to IS percent of that number.4 Like other Arab immigrants, Palestinians came in direct response to economic and political "push factors" in their home country. However, in the Palestinian case, these factors were punctuated by dramatic civilian dislocations and flight. The first of these waves in 1948 was followed by another in 1967, when the whole of Palestine fell under Israeli military control. The next wave of migration occurred in 1970, after the Palestinian -Jordanian debacle and its aftermath of strained relations. Emigration again increased in 1982 in response to the deteriorating conditions of Palestinian life in Lebanon after the Israeli occupation, the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization , and the Sabra and Shatila massacres.S The final link in this chain of misfortunes was the Gulf War and the resulting expulsion of Palestinians from Kuwait and most of the Gulf states. Since 1948, immigration to the United States has attracted Palestinians suffering from the economic and societal upheavals brought about by contraction of local options for refuge. Until the 1960s, Arab immigration to the United States was motivated by economic factors and limited by legal restrictions. Thereafter, immigration was sought for various other reasons by Arabs, including Palestinians. Although economics remained a significant attraction, education, technical opportunities, and a more liberal political atmosphere became important reasons for people to immigrate.6 At a time when the older communities had almost become acclimatized to the U.S. social and political scene, a more youthful generation of Arab immigrants who were socialized and politicized in the Arab world of the 1950S and 1960s joined their ranks. Among the new waves of immigrants were students seeking technical and professional training and families looking for better opportunities and a more liberal atmosphere. These newcomers brought energy and zeal into the established Arab-American communities and reinvigorated the ethnic features of that community with political and social orientations that reflected the changes the Arab world had experienced since World War II. A major issue that caught the imagination and emotions of all was the Palestine War of 1948 and the dispersal of the Palestinian people...

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