Arab Americans in Michigan

Summary

57 Summary F rom the first early Syrian/Lebanese seeking work in door-to-door sales and the first Yemeni to encounter Henry Ford and work in the automobile factories to the most recent Arab immigrants, Arab Americans have been a part of Michigan history for over a hundred years. The tragedy of September 11, 2001, unfortunately caused many Americans to become suspicious of the Arab-American community, while the shock of the attacks caused trauma in an Arab-American community already full of refugees suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. For Arab Americans who saw America as their safe haven from the problems of the Middle East, the tragedy of September 11 and the aftermath of profiling and targeting have had profound impacts. As a result, there is a need to understand Arab Americans and their history in Michigan. Today Arab Americans constitute the third-largest ethnic population in Michigan, after African Americans and Latinos, with an estimated 490,000 members in the communities.88 Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties in Southeast Michigan contain up to 80 percent of the Arab-American population in Michigan. Genesee and Kent Counties also have significant Arab-American populations. Arab-American settlement patterns have changed over time, but Dearborn and the Seven-Mile/Woodward areas in the Greater Metropolitan Detroit area are traditional immigrant staging areas that have attracted large numbers of new Arab and Chaldean immigrants. The Dearborn Arab-American population is expanding into neighboring areas of Detroit. There is also a tendency for more affluent Arab Americans to move to or settle in the northern suburbs of the metropolis. Arab Americans in the Metropolitan Detroit area may originate from any one of the twenty-two countries that are members of the Arab League. However, the majority of Arab Americans in Michigan are from five subgroups: Syrian/Lebanese, Iraqis and Chaldeans, Palestinians, Yemenis, and North Africans (mostly Egyptians, Moroccans, and Tunisians). The vast majority of the Arab Americans in Michigan originated from agricultural villages and small towns, including Bint Jebail, the Marjayoun area, Tel Kaif, Ramallah, Beit Hanina, Deir Mimas, and the Hadramaut. Arab-American immigrants have arrived in several different waves, with each wave drawing from a distinct population and having a unique reason for immigrating. There were at least two major waves of immigration . The first was predominately made up of Syrian/Lebanese Christians, but also included Yemeni migrant workers and some early Chaldean immigrants. The second wave of immigration has largely been made up of refugees, but also includes some highly educated Arabs, as part of the ongoing brain drain from the Arab World. The second wave has included Palestinian refugees, Lebanese Shi’a, Yemenis, and in the most recent wave, Iraqi refugees—all seeking to escape the conflicts in the Arab world. In examining the specific histories of settlement in different parts of the state, each city in the state has its own variation on the general pattern. For example, Flint’s Arab-American population began arriving in the early 1900s and contained sizable numbers of both Syrian/ Lebanese and Palestinian Nazarene (from the town of Nazareth) Christians. In addition, the American Druze Foundation was established in Flint. The Druze belong to a distinct religion and are mostly found in Lebanon and in the Galilee. The diverse (Arab and non-Arab) Muslim population in Flint includes many more recent immigrants. Rosina J. Hassoun 58 There is a long history (over ninety-two years) of Arab store ownership in Flint. The Greater Lansing area was initially settled by Syrian/Lebanese, and Lebanese still constitute the largest segment of the area’s ArabAmerican population, including second-, third-, and fourth-generation Arab Americans. A second, smaller wave of Palestinians originally from the village of Al Bassa, by way of Dbayeh refugee camp in Lebanon, also found a home in Flint. The Lebanese from the village of Deir Mimas have maintained multigenerational ties to their village of origin while acculturating to an American lifestyle. Ann Arbor has an Arab-American population centered around the University of Michigan campus that includes a significant number of scholars and professionals. Ann Arbor has also become a center for cultural creativity, with artists and writers like Anton Shamas residing there. The first modern and longest-lived national Arab-American scholarly organization, the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, was founded in Ann Arbor. The Grand Rapids area was...