Start Date
5-3-2024 9:20 AM
End Date
5-3-2024 10:30 AM
Disciplines
History
Subjects
Middle Eastern Americans, Arab Americans -- Attitudes, Islamophobia -- Michigan
Abstract
In the 2020 United States Census, fifty-four percent of the population of Dearborn, Michigan, identified as being of Middle Eastern or North African descent. The story of how a small Detroit suburb became the American city with the largest proportion of Middle Eastern citizens is one of transnational relations between the U.S., its ally Israel, and the Middle East. The city’s Arab American community grew out of continuous wars that pushed people out of their homelands throughout the second half of the twentieth century, as well as the rise of the American auto industry. What makes Dearborn unique is that its established Arab American community acts as a centripetal force, both because living in a place with many people of similar ethnic heritage softens the dislocation of immigration, and because strong ties between Dearborn and the Middle East help new immigrants find jobs and settle into their new lives. These extended kin networks existing within Dearborn and between Dearborn and the Middle East have created a feeling that all the Arab communities in Dearborn—primarily Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, and Yemeni—are a single transnational pan-Arab people under attack by the U.S. and Israel, in their host country and homeland. The strong cultural heritage present in Dearborn has influenced the way its Middle Eastern residents choose to assimilate into the dominant white Christian culture—often in an attempt to avoid Islamophobic discrimination—or to assert their cultural and religious heritage and celebrate differences.
Keywords: Arab American; Dearborn, Michigan; Immigrants; Iraq; Islamophobia; Israel; Lebanese Civil War; Lebanon; Middle East; Middle Eastern American; Palestine; United States government; Yemen
Part of the Panel: Violent Intolerance and Modern Memory
Moderator: Professor Patricia Schechter
Creative Commons License or Rights Statement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Identity in Question: Middle Eastern Americans in Dearborn, Michigan
In the 2020 United States Census, fifty-four percent of the population of Dearborn, Michigan, identified as being of Middle Eastern or North African descent. The story of how a small Detroit suburb became the American city with the largest proportion of Middle Eastern citizens is one of transnational relations between the U.S., its ally Israel, and the Middle East. The city’s Arab American community grew out of continuous wars that pushed people out of their homelands throughout the second half of the twentieth century, as well as the rise of the American auto industry. What makes Dearborn unique is that its established Arab American community acts as a centripetal force, both because living in a place with many people of similar ethnic heritage softens the dislocation of immigration, and because strong ties between Dearborn and the Middle East help new immigrants find jobs and settle into their new lives. These extended kin networks existing within Dearborn and between Dearborn and the Middle East have created a feeling that all the Arab communities in Dearborn—primarily Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, and Yemeni—are a single transnational pan-Arab people under attack by the U.S. and Israel, in their host country and homeland. The strong cultural heritage present in Dearborn has influenced the way its Middle Eastern residents choose to assimilate into the dominant white Christian culture—often in an attempt to avoid Islamophobic discrimination—or to assert their cultural and religious heritage and celebrate differences.
Keywords: Arab American; Dearborn, Michigan; Immigrants; Iraq; Islamophobia; Israel; Lebanese Civil War; Lebanon; Middle East; Middle Eastern American; Palestine; United States government; Yemen
Part of the Panel: Violent Intolerance and Modern Memory
Moderator: Professor Patricia Schechter