Arab Americans in Michigan

Introduction and Demographics

1 Introduction and Demographics A story is told in the Arab-American community about a Yemeni sailor from Aden, working as a merchant marine on the Great Lakes, who had a chance encounter with Henry Ford, the automobile mogul, in the early 1900s. That chance encounter is said to have started a chain migration of Yemeni Arabs to Dearborn, Michigan. As part of the oral history of Dearborn’s Southend, there are several versions of the story about Henry Ford and the Yemeni sailor. In one version, Henry Ford actually is said to have sent a ship to Yemen to pick up workers and bring them to America. There is no evidence that any ship was ever sent—but sometimes word of mouth is as powerful as a boat engine. Word reached Yemen that Mr. Ford was paying five dollars a day to workers in his factory. According to Nasser Baydoun, Henry Ford did bring a small group of Yemenis to work on his iron ore transport ships and in his factory.1 This may be the origin of the story about a ship going to Yemen. Whatever version is closest to truth, Henry Ford was looking for manual laborers for the Ford Rouge plant, the largest automobile manufacturing plant in the world at that time. Mr. Ford apparently discovered that Yemen was one of the poorest countries in the world and that the Yemenis had a reputation of being hard workers who were willing to migrate for jobs. At that same time, Henry Ford was beginning to worry about the rise of the labor unions. The Yemenis might have seemed very attractive workers because of the cultural and linguistic barriers that might slow or prevent them from understanding the unions. The Yemenis came, and they worked in the plant side by side with workers from all over the United States and the world. We know they did join the unions. We know that young Yemeni men began coming to work in the factory in the early 1900s—first alone and then decades later with their families to establish the Yemeni-American population in the Southend of Dearborn.2 TheYemenis were not the only Arabs to arrive in Michigan in the early 1900s. Many Syrian/Lebanese and a few other Arabs and Chaldeans arrived before the first of the Yemenis and were among the first Arab immigrants to make their way to Michigan. Most Michiganders and other Americans are unaware of the role Arab Americans have played in the automobile industry, not only as factory workers but also as engineers and management. Most people do not think of Arab Americans as a part of the larger automobile manufacturing business. In fact, Arab Americans have entered almost every occupation in the state and have become a part of the fabric of Michigan. Their accomplishments are a matter of pride to the community . Unfortunately, there is also a great deal of misunderstanding, bias, and myth surrounding Arab Americans. As September 11, 2001, radically changed the lives of all Americans, it also profoundly impacted Arab Americans. It has changed their relations to each other, to other Americans, and to the U.S. government. Before the tragedy, Dearborn’s Arab-American community was a source of curiosity to outsiders. After that fateful day, a leaked police report described the community as “a hotbed of terrorism.”3 One event transformed Dearborn in the minds of some people from a quiet suburb with a relatively low crime rate to a den of terrorists. While ArabAmerican communities might seem like a place where “terrorists” might seek to hide, the reality is that these are the same quiet neighborhoods where Arab Americans have lived for over a hundred years. If some false media reports made people think Arab people celebrated the attacks, the actual response of the majority of Arab Americans was extreme shock. Arab Americans in Michigan responded Rosina J. Hassoun 2 to the attacks of September 11, 2001, in a number of ways. Most Arab Americans experienced feelings of grief, fear, horror, shock, and even displaced guilt when they learned of the 9/11 attacks. According to Dr. Adnan Hammad, Director of the Community Health Center for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (access) in Dearborn, after the attacks they had to open three additional trauma counseling centers to serve their clients. Michigan (and Dearborn in particular) has a large number...