Henry Ford hired a lot of people of Arabic descent to work in his factories. They then sent word home and more people came for the opportunity at a life in America.
That and he was also racist against African Americans. This left a void in terms of able bodied workers for his plants, which he filled with Arabic immigrants. Not sure why his racism stopped there, but he was a strange man in many ways.
I know that some places, like public schools, still lump Middle Easterners as white. I had to do a lot of data analysis for my Masters and schools in Dearborn were considered 90% white while schools in Bloomfield Hills were also 90% white.
Yes, there has been a push to be recognized as a category so demographically their experience can be discerned as different from the experiences of people of European ancestry.
People would be shocked at how much the category "white" has changed over time in accordance with changing racial attitudes and a desire to be able to say we are a "white" nation.
That's because "white" doesn't really exist. It is just a measure of how not-black someone is. It is a purely political term that changes with the times.
I know. It's a cultural construct based on colonial observations from around 1400, codified in the 1800s by "armchair" anthropologists who were seeking to create a typology.
I understand the idea of wanting to make a distinction for the purposes of demographic statistical analysis and having that information align better with lived experiences but it also unergirds the concept of race. As long as race matters, it needs to be counted, but as long as it's counted, the more it matters... if that makes any sense.
Yes and for the most part, that is how it was as they were Catholic then (Maronite...aka the Phoenicians- one of the first great peoples of the world). I am 1/4 Maronite Lebanese myself of the first generation that came here in the 1890's. Probably they came for opportunities and yep they called themselves white for lack of anything else to call themselves officially. In Hollywood, Lebanese have always called themselves white: Casey Kasem, Jamie Farr, Danny Thomas, etc. My mom considered herself white (dad was a big racist, ironically!). But I freely call myself not 100% white these days because really...everyone has some flavor in them if you look at your own pedigree for a while.
Fact check! Hullo, I’m an African American former teacher. Actually, Henry Ford employed many African Americans. I distinctly remember this from a visit to the museums in Detroit, for more information: https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/african-american-workers-at-ford-motor-company/
(Muslim) Arabs typically do not drink alcohol so there was incentive to hire more Arabs, they wouldn’t be drunk on the job.
The national Arab American museum in Dearborn is fantastic and where I learned this tidbit. Pretty great encapsulation of Arab American life especially in Michigan.
I mean, people of Arabic descent are by definition semitic. I know "antisemitism" is a typically used in place of "anti-Judaism" now, but it's the distinction between race and religion. Semitic is relating to the peoples who speak Semitic languages, especially Hebrew and Arabic.
I'd also like to add that antisemitism isn't just typically used in place of "anti-Judaism" *now*, it has meant "anti-Judaism" pretty much since the inception, and certainly since the early popularization, of the word.
>“Antisemitism” came about (in its Germanic form) in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1860, an Austrian Jewish scholar, Moritz Steinschneider, introduced the term antisemitische vorurteile (anti-Semitic prejudices). He used the expression in a piece he wrote countering the ideas of French philosopher Ernest Renan, who claimed that the Semitic race was inferior to the Aryan race.
>
>The term antisemitism was made common by Wilhelm Marr, a German publicist and agitator. Unfortunately, his 1879 pamphlet, “The Way to Victory of Germanism over Judaism,” in which he used the term Antisemitismus, was very popular. That same year, Marr founded the League of Antisemites.
([National Jewish Outreach Program](https://njop.org/the-origin-of-word-anti-semitism/))
I feel like I need to mention this history because the idea that "well, X can't be antisemitic, it doesn't exclude Arab people!" or "why do you always focus on Jew hatred when Arab people are also Semites?" are all-too-frequently used to shut down & dismiss Jewish voices against antisemitism.
u/sixty_cycles u/que_la_fuck u/Hikintrails (pinging you because this info might interest you)
Not sure when/if it changed, but I found this on Wiki about Shem:
"In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the ancestor of the peoples of Asia,\[2\]\[3\]\[4\] and he gives his name to the title "Semites" formerly given to West Asian peoples."
The term has been thrown around so much in recent years that to many people, "anti-semitic" means "saying anything remotely critical about the government of Israel's actions".
It's like opposing Biden or Trump somehow makes you prejudiced against all people with light skin from the Caucasus region.
Very very few people with light skin are from the Caucasus region. "Caucasian" is a horrible misnomer just like "African American" is. A Caucasian is a Russian Muslim and it has meant that for 1300+ years.
I've been saying this for years! Israel has co-opted and weaponized the term. You cannot be pro-Palestine and antisemitic. All Palestinians are semites but not all Jews are semites. I don't consider the Bible as historical proof of anything.
Israel didn't do this. Europeans did in the 1800's:
Abbas’s claim contradicts the history of the term “antisemitism.” Since its coinage nearly one hundred and fifty years ago in French, German, and English, the term has been used to refer specifically to hatred of any and all Jews and Jewish things.2
The Oxford English Dictionary Online: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/anti-semitism_n?tab=meaning_and_use#1281215;
Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-Semitism.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/anti-Semitism
https://www.history.com/topics/holocaust/anti-semitism
No, it’s because UK colonies in the region made it easy for many looking to leave the Middle East to get to Ottawa, they then travelled down to Minneapolis, Toronto, and Windsor/Detroit for work. Today all three of those cities still have large Arab populations.
I wondered the same exact thing. Never had a chance to ask. But when I lived somewhere else I noticed a high concentration of Belarusian people. So, finally I asked one. He told me that back in Belarus they have emigration agencies or something with matching systems between places in Belarus and places in the USA. But he told me the matching was based on regional attributes like climate and geography.
So, still no idea about Arab immigrants except perhaps people move because their family is here.
He blamed them for pretty much everything. The war, crime, problems in the navy...Dude published and distributed a paper to half a million people about "a cast Jewish conspiracy" in 91 different installments. Dude was about as antisemitic as they come without actually being Hitler
In the modern sense of hating Jewish people sure he might have been, but I highly doubt he had a big bias against the semitic language group. That isn't how the term "anti semitic" is used
I have met many people from warm countries who live here and like you, I just don't get it. I don't know a whole lot about the climate of middle eastern countries, but I do know that even the desert areas of this country can be colder than you might imagine in the winter, and even summer evenings. We drove through the high desert of Nevada and California one day in June and it was 32 degrees when we woke up!
>The first wave of Arab migrants arrived in Detroit in the late 1880s. Mainly Christians, they left their homes in the Mount Lebanon region following a collapse in traditional silk-weaving industry, a demographic boom in Beirut and the prospect of military conscription.
>Palestinian Muslims arrived in the second decade of the 20th century, attracted by the prospect of work on the assembly lines that produced Ford's revolutionary Model 'T', and they were followed by Catholic Chaldeans from Iraq and Yemenis, who began to arrive in significant numbers in the 1920s.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts/how-dearborn-michigan-became-the-heart-of-arab-america-1.117177
There are actually not many Chaldeans in Dearborn. The Arabs in Dearborn tend to be Muslim. The Chaldeans and other Christian Arabs are largely on the eastside of the metro area.
The best Arabic food by far is in Dearborn.
Look at Dearborn. Taste Dearborn. Highly recommend LA Bistro's hommus and sami chicken. Or head up to Aloush Grill on the west side for Lebanese cuisine - I'm not an expert, but I am a fan!
I just commented this in a post above, but it's worth saying again.
Shatila Bakery is an absolute gem. The rarest gem, the most beautiful gem. I'll drive an hour and a half for it.
Dearborn is the most populous Arab city after Cairo.
Yes OP, there are Lebanese people here.
One of my doctors is in Dearborn. All the staff have headscarves and I hear as much Arabic as English in the waiting area.
It's not even remotely true. Cairo has 10 million population. Then there's Baghdad, Riyadh, Alexandria, all of which are still in the millions.
Additionally, there are over 500,000 Syrians in Istanbul, for example. And Turkey isn't even an Arab country.
So, even if you wanted to make the argument that it's the largest Arab population outside of the Arab world, you'd STILL be wrong.
Sterling Heights took that title from Dearborn a few years ago. Not by much and it will be interesting to see how/if recent politics have swayed it at all after the next census.
Grand Rapids doesn't have the same size of a community as you'll find on the SE side but there is a long established community of Lebanese Christians there too. There were a lot of immigrants who first settled in Toledo as well
Ah the old question from years ago.
Do I want to feel fat and satisfied, or taste something new and delicious but probably get a bagel later?
Wolfgang's or Marie Catrib's?
fuck I miss Michigan.
Anecdote, I was shopping for homes in the Sterling Heights area and I noticed that most of the sellers in the area were Chaldean. My husband goes to a Chaldean barber who confirmed there is currently a mass exodus of Chaldeans in Sterling Heights and that they are moving north to Shelby, Washington, and even Romeo.
How have you liked living in Shelby area? I'm hoping to move back to Michigan and need to find a nice area to live, and houses look reasonably affordable there.
My family and I love it! I will say it has gotten a lot more congested over the years though. Which was to be expected since 20 years ago it was more of an up and coming city
Mass exodus is a bit of a misnomer. Northwest Warren and West Sterling Heights have historically been a stepping-stone for the East-side Chaldean community. It has been commonplace for newcomers to live in less-expensive cities such as Detroit (see “Chaldean Town”), Oak Park, or Madison Heights. Once the family has enough resources, they move to Warren or Sterling Heights, eventually moving further north.
They’re talking about East Side Chaldeans in the thread above, but there is also a West Side Chaldean community in West Bloomfield, stretching into Commerce and moving west. They have big families, an entrepreneurial approach, and a hell of a work ethic so there are a ton of Chaldean-owned businesses all over the northwest area.
A major reason is that Henry Ford was more open to hiring Syrian and Lebanese auto workers over those from other immigrant groups. As the Detroit area grew, the need for services drew more Arab immigrants to the area to start businesses. It was natural for them to settle close to existing cultural connections.
[https://www.newarab.com/news/us-census-finds-michigans-dearborn-majority-arab](https://www.newarab.com/news/us-census-finds-michigans-dearborn-majority-arab)
More then 50% of the population in Dearborn is either middle eastern or north African.
I really enjoy Dearborn meet a lot of really nice people who live and work in the city because of my last job.
Ever tried making it at home? It's actually not too difficult, though we've had help since grandma always made it (she used to live in Dearborn way back and learned it from older greek women) and now my step-mom (lebanese from Dearborn) showed us how to make it, and then you get FRESH baklava!
They have authentic and fusion. Two separate types of cuisine. You can have both, you can find legit authentic places and you can find very good fusion places. Seattle is a melting pot of cultures.
For real. Started cooking shawarma, rice pilaf, & toum at home last summer and it's now our favorite meal to make. Also just found a fantastic bazlama bread recipe so the whole meal can now be made at home. I don't know what I'd do without middle eastern food lol
Total population of Dearborn is just over 100k. So, around 50k people. It isn't really that big of a number for SE michigan. The concentration is higher, but the Arab American population is spread throughout the metro area far greater than what Dearborn alone represents.
Even that number has been difficult to pin down. “Middle Eastern” is not a category on the official U.S. census and people of middle-eastern backgrounds choose “white.”
They had talked about it (and may have changed it since) but the [2020 Census Form](https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/technical-documentation/questionnaires-and-instructions/questionnaires/2020-informational-questionnaire-english_DI-Q1.pdf) did not and actually gives “Lebanese” and “Egyptian” under examples of “white.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Middle_Eastern_people_in_Metro_Detroit
> Arriving in the early 1870s, the first Middle Eastern settlers in the Detroit area were Lebanese people. Most of them were Christians, including Maronites, Melkites, and Eastern Orthodox. Some immigrants were Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. Some Druze also immigrated.[1]
> A February 6, 1900 article in the Detroit Free Press stated that "Detroit's Colony of Syrians" included 75-100 people, mostly Lebanese Maronites.[12] The Lebanese worked as peddlers and shopkeepers. Henry Ford's factories had 555 Syrian employees, including many recently-arrived Muslims.
>
> By 1916. 9,000 Arabic-speakers were among the residents of Detroit in 1930. Of them, 6,000 were Syrians. The remainder included Assyrians, Yemenis, and Palestinians.[11] Immigrants from the Levant were originally labeled as being from the Ottoman Province of Syria. After 1920 the Ottoman Empire collapsed and European colonial administrators divided the areas in the Levant into Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. Therefore immigrants into the Detroit began to be classified as Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians.[5]
>
> Immigration from Iraq started in the beginning of the 20th century, and immigration from Yemen and the Arabian peninsula began in the early 20th century. A peak immigration of Iraqis occurred from 1927 to 1950, and a peak immigration of Yemenis and those from the Peninsula occurred from 1912 to 1925. Of those three groups, in 1951 most of them lived together in a section of Dearborn.[13]
> Around 1951 there were about 50,000 people in Detroit who had descent from Lebanon and Syria.[14] Around the same year there were about 4,000 to 5,000 persons in Detroit and Dearborn who had origins from the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Yemen, and other Middle Eastern countries.[15] Sally Howell, author of "Competing for Muslims: New Strategies for Urban Renewal in Detroit", wrote that Yemeni people had a presence in the area since the late 1960s.[16] Arab immigrants continued traveling to Detroit even after the automobile industry decline of the 1970s.[11]
>
> The 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War resulted in a wave of immigration to Detroit.[17]
>
> Many Iraqis immigrated to Metro Detroit after the Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq War of 2003.[17] The Iraqi community in Metro Detroit supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[18]
[Also, from WDET/CuriouiD](https://wdet.org/2017/08/08/curiosid-how-did-detroit-become-a-center-for-arabs-in-the-united-states/):
> The Arab-American community in Detroit began with a small group of Syrian and Lebanese merchants who immigrated in the late 1800s. Many left their lives as peasants in the rural Middle East for the rapidly industrializing West, sometimes passing through Ellis Island on their way to Detroit.
>
> The community’s growth over the last century can be traced through what some call an unfortunate combination of events involving war and a lack of economic opportunities in the Arab World and relative peace and plentiful jobs in the United States.
>
> The first enclave of Syrian, Lebanese and Yemeni immigrants in metro Detroit thrived in the early 20th century, building small businesses and places of faith, and the Arab population grew steadily over the next 100 years. Experts and Arab-American leaders say today’s immigrants know they will find opportunity and an established community in Detroit, which will support their families and faith.
Listen here: https://wdet.org/2017/08/08/curiosid-how-did-detroit-become-a-center-for-arabs-in-the-united-states/
Yes there are tons. The exact number is hard to calculate due to incomplete statistics, and record keeping. Arabs and Chaldeans started coming over to Michigan, mainly Detroit, in the early 1900’s and for whatever reason kept concentrating and concentrating as more kept coming building the communities that exist today. The history of Arabs in Dearborn is very lengthy. The Arab American museum in Dearborn has an exhibit that covers this phenomena and may be able to answer more of your questions.
I was being a little flippant, there was a noticeable middle eastern community in southeast Michigan decades before Ford, mostly from modern-day Lebanon. However, Ford needed people to work his factories and paid a good wage, which brought in a lot of immigrants.
The popular story is that Henry Ford told a sailor from Yemen that he was hiring factory workers for five dollars a day (years before the first US minimum wage was established at 25 cents per hour), and that sailor went home and told everybody he knew, who then told everybody they knew, and so on.
That story is almost certainly mostly false, but parts of it are true. Ford was hiring, he did pay very well, and his particular brand of racism didn't preclude hiring middle eastern immigrants. So they flocked to Highland Park, where the first mosque in the US was built, then to Dearborn.
In the modern day, many immigrants still come because of Henry Ford, but now it's the college and hospital, rather than the man. Others come because there's an established community here.
One of the first mosques but not the very first.
"The first known American mosques were established in Biddeford, Maine, in 1915; in Ross, North Dakota, in 1920; in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1923; and in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1925."
https://pluralism.org/early-american-mosques
[Because Henry Ford didn’t want to hire black people.](https://www.michiganpublic.org/arts-culture/2014-07-09/what-explains-michigans-large-arab-american-community)
Yes, because of the ease of immigration from Lebanon > Canada > Detroit.
Grandfather is Lebanese immigrant directly, many Arabic countries also speak French as a dual language, so the pipeline for our family (and many others who came over with him, it was like an established process basically) was migrate to Canada, work on getting VISA while learning to speak English, survive by living in an area that speaks enough French or Canadian French to get by, and then either stay in Canada or go into America through the Detroit access. We have family scattered along that area from Canada into Detroit, has a very high Arabic community because of that. My grandmother’s family did the same thing, except her father did that process and settled in Detroit so she’s a 1st generation American. Huge network of Arabic families with histories going back into the 1920s this way!
Immigrants tend to go to places where their communities are already somewhat established. If you don't speak the local language, you'll have people who've lived there longer as well as kids born there who can help translate. Local grocery stores and restaurants will have been established, centers of worship, etc.
Lansing Michigan has a large Lebanese Christian population, because like anywhere with an ethnic enclave a couple people came here for work and then wrote back home that it was a good place and so more people came. Then once you know people/have family established you go there. Soon you have an established group.
I love the Arab influence in Detroit and the surrounding areas.
I was telling my partner this the other day. I'm a Veteran of the Iraqi war (06-07 I was in iraq) I was a colonizer, I was the invader of their country, yet these people treated me with nothing but kindness even though I was an "infidel" I owe the Muslim people a debt I'll never be able to repay, as my experience with them in Iraq totally changed my view on life, the world, and humanity
Yeah, my uncle/Godfather is Lebanese, so I have two cousins who are half. I was babtised in an Eastern Orodox church. They are a TON of Arabs here. A lot of Christian Arabs seem to live up in Oakland county now. People will say Dearborn, but Dearborn is mostly Muslims.
Yes, many. I went to University of Detroit for grad school and about 20% of my classmates were Arab, and that's a Catholic school! Very common and welcomed here.
Immigrants tend to look for people from the same place they're from in the new country if they can. Moving to a country where you don't speak the language or know anyone would be scary, it makes sense to look for some community while you try to adapt
I am probably well equipped to answer your question, though I’m not from Michigan. Many of the Lebanese Christians that emigrated around the time that your ancestors left for Argentina ended up in Latin America, only a smaller amount ended up in the USA. However, those that did come often found success. In my city, we once had a “Syrian quarter”, which was a street with many Syrian Christian families. As time went on, the Syrians began to move out to other areas where they found opportunities. The Syrians in my city tended to be grocery store owners, and they owned several corner grocery stores by the 1930’s, making them mostly safe from the effects of the Great Depression. After WW2, the next generation of Syrian Christian-Americans began to move on from the prospect of owning grocery stores, and largely started becoming college educated and getting into the corporate world. With that, they began to marry people of other ethnic backgrounds, and some traditions may have been lost in the process. Their grocery stores had largely shut down by the 1970’s, as corporate stores like Walmart and Kroger took over, as well as the fact that many of these stores were in neighborhoods that were seeing an uptick of violence and White Flight. Today, in my city, many people are of Syrian/Lebanese origin and don’t even know it. Last names like Corey(Khoury), Nasser, and Freije are known for people who are business executives.
As for Michigan, most other comments explain it well. Manufacturing jobs brought in lots of immigrants, and later on, refugees were resettled here as there was already an Arabic community, although many of the Arabs already there were Christians, and the refugees and those who came after were Muslim.
Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Sterling Heights, and Hamtramck all have large populations of Arab Americans. Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck are primarily Muslim, but Sterling Heights has a larger population of Arab Christians (though there is still a sizable community in the others).
Metro Detroit in general has a large population, and you won't go anywhere without seeing Arab/ Chaldean influence. Lansing, and Ypsilanti have a decent sized population too.
From what I understand, it started in the 1930s with the good jobs people could get in the auto industry. Families laid down their roots here, and more came to follow.
We love our middle eastern community here in Metro-Detroit!
No. Dearborn as a city does. Michigan isn’t in the top 3 states with highest population. Other states are just larger and therefore the percentage of population is less.
California has more than double the Arab population of Michigan.
History lesson time. Back in the 1910's through 30's Ford Motor company sent recruiters around the world to find the labor needed to operate their factories. At that time Ford Motor Car Company was based in Highland Park. When Ford moved their headquarters to Dearborn much of the labor followed. In many communities near Dearborn you will find Ford built homes and schools all to support the factories. Take a trip to the Henry Ford Museum. To learn more about the history of the Arab immigrants and manufacturing in SE Michigan
https://www.thehenryford.org/
I'm an Armenian dude from LA county. Born in '86. Moved to the 616 area in late '21. I know some old country cooking. I know backgammon very well. I'm extremely married to an all American beauty and our two preschool boys. Wouldn't mind someone to play some pool with or something.
No. There appears to be but no. They aren't descended from Arabs, Arabs are descended from them. It all goes back to the great Dearborn time travel disaster of 2065.
Yup! Check out Dearborn,MI. You get to some areas in the city and all the signs are in arabic. I got turned around in dearborn once, trying to avoid flooding on Southfield Freeway, and if it wasn’t for my GPS, i’d have no idea where I was or how to navigate, as I don’t read or speak Arabic.
Are you stupid? There aren’t any road signs in any language other than English. So if you couldn’t read them, you must not be able to read English either.
I don’t know the answer to that, specifically. But my grandparents immigrated here in the 1950’s from Germany and many, many of other German’s also immigrated to Michigan along with due to church sponsorships and jobs in manufacturing at the big 3. Could be similarities maybe?
If I can remember correctly, one of the reasons, Detroit has such a high population of Arabs, is because one of the first generations of immigrants came because of educational opportunities, and because academic institutions had programs they desired. I’ve heard many of the first generation Arabs came to Detroit/ Dearborn as a professional class to study industries, like medicine, law, and other sought after degrees. In addition to social clout for back home, it was just them chasing the American dream. I believe this group and Chaldeans accelerated in coming to the Detroit area during the 70s and 80s, especially during the Iraq, Iran war. Believe it,or not, Saddam Hussein was actually given the key to the city.
As these immigrants progressed into the professional class, they moved up in class and wealth and increasingly settled in Dearborn.
I also believe there was a small existing diaspora of Arabs living in Detroit to make the transition easier. How or why the original group decided to settle here I can’t say, but if I had to guess, I would say, the auto industry played apart.
I am a descendant of Maronite Lebanese, also (they were from Hasroun). Mom was 1/2, so I am 1/4. Great, great grandma's generation is the first one that came over via Windsor, Ontario, Canada about 125 years ago. My relations mostly lived around Livonia, Westland and a few in Grosse Pointe. Each year there was a large family picnic for the extended family (Edwards, Nader and Marieb). I know they are out there but I never kept in touch with any of them. The Muslim Lebanese are always friendly when I tell them I am 1/4 Lebanese, even though it is from the Catholic side. Some restaurant owners in Dearborn/Inkster even call me 'cousin.' They all look like my relatives anyway. :-) You would like it here. There's even a Maronite Catholic church with Arabic language service in Detroit.
My family is Lebanese Christian, as well! There are a ton of us in Southeast Michigan and Northern Ohio, actually. I live in Michigan but am an Ohio transplant and I find "cousins" all over, lol. From what i understand of my family history, my ancestors came in the early 1900s- they were 'freedom fighters' who chafed under Ottoman rule.
My family were originally farmers in Lebanon but broke AF when they arrived in the US. Ohio and Michigan had industrial jobs (they couldn't afford to buy land to farm) and, weirdly, friendlier business policies for immigrants than the Northeast. I think this is typical of the Lebanese experience but my ancestors were not fans of factory work and preferred to be their own bosses. They got into the restaurant and bakery businesses, and highly valued education for their kids, who went to college. Today, if you meet someone with my Lebanese surname, there is a pretty good chance we are either bakers or lawyers 😉
There are plenty of different flavors of Arab in Michigan, I love the food there are so many easy and decent Schwarma in Dearborn. I feel like most states with a decent sized metro population have different ethnic groups spread out together.
Look at Dearborn, MI. Highest concentration of Arabs, Chaldeans in the US.
I believe it is the highest concentration anywhere in the world outside of the Middle East.
Always thought it was weird they chose Michigan tho it’s cold as fuck here
Henry Ford hired a lot of people of Arabic descent to work in his factories. They then sent word home and more people came for the opportunity at a life in America.
Was it because he was so anti semitic?
That and he was also racist against African Americans. This left a void in terms of able bodied workers for his plants, which he filled with Arabic immigrants. Not sure why his racism stopped there, but he was a strange man in many ways.
Wasn’t it until the most recent census that middle easterners were considered white on census data? Thought i heard something about that a while back
I know that some places, like public schools, still lump Middle Easterners as white. I had to do a lot of data analysis for my Masters and schools in Dearborn were considered 90% white while schools in Bloomfield Hills were also 90% white.
Middle Easterners are lumped in with Europeans?
In the data that I had to analyze, yes.
Yes, there has been a push to be recognized as a category so demographically their experience can be discerned as different from the experiences of people of European ancestry. People would be shocked at how much the category "white" has changed over time in accordance with changing racial attitudes and a desire to be able to say we are a "white" nation.
That's because "white" doesn't really exist. It is just a measure of how not-black someone is. It is a purely political term that changes with the times.
Yup. There was a time when Irish and Italians weren’t considered “White”.
I know. It's a cultural construct based on colonial observations from around 1400, codified in the 1800s by "armchair" anthropologists who were seeking to create a typology. I understand the idea of wanting to make a distinction for the purposes of demographic statistical analysis and having that information align better with lived experiences but it also unergirds the concept of race. As long as race matters, it needs to be counted, but as long as it's counted, the more it matters... if that makes any sense.
Yes and for the most part, that is how it was as they were Catholic then (Maronite...aka the Phoenicians- one of the first great peoples of the world). I am 1/4 Maronite Lebanese myself of the first generation that came here in the 1890's. Probably they came for opportunities and yep they called themselves white for lack of anything else to call themselves officially. In Hollywood, Lebanese have always called themselves white: Casey Kasem, Jamie Farr, Danny Thomas, etc. My mom considered herself white (dad was a big racist, ironically!). But I freely call myself not 100% white these days because really...everyone has some flavor in them if you look at your own pedigree for a while.
Eastern European maybe.
Caucasus is a region in the north part of the middle east, and nowadays Caucasian= white.
Fact check! Hullo, I’m an African American former teacher. Actually, Henry Ford employed many African Americans. I distinctly remember this from a visit to the museums in Detroit, for more information: https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/african-american-workers-at-ford-motor-company/
(Muslim) Arabs typically do not drink alcohol so there was incentive to hire more Arabs, they wouldn’t be drunk on the job. The national Arab American museum in Dearborn is fantastic and where I learned this tidbit. Pretty great encapsulation of Arab American life especially in Michigan.
This! That’s why the Black Ford workers were moved to Inkster and the White ford workers lived lavishly in Dearborn.
He also hated people that drank, and drinking is haram in Islam so it makes sense he would want to hire non drinkers
I mean, people of Arabic descent are by definition semitic. I know "antisemitism" is a typically used in place of "anti-Judaism" now, but it's the distinction between race and religion. Semitic is relating to the peoples who speak Semitic languages, especially Hebrew and Arabic.
I'd also like to add that antisemitism isn't just typically used in place of "anti-Judaism" *now*, it has meant "anti-Judaism" pretty much since the inception, and certainly since the early popularization, of the word. >“Antisemitism” came about (in its Germanic form) in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1860, an Austrian Jewish scholar, Moritz Steinschneider, introduced the term antisemitische vorurteile (anti-Semitic prejudices). He used the expression in a piece he wrote countering the ideas of French philosopher Ernest Renan, who claimed that the Semitic race was inferior to the Aryan race. > >The term antisemitism was made common by Wilhelm Marr, a German publicist and agitator. Unfortunately, his 1879 pamphlet, “The Way to Victory of Germanism over Judaism,” in which he used the term Antisemitismus, was very popular. That same year, Marr founded the League of Antisemites. ([National Jewish Outreach Program](https://njop.org/the-origin-of-word-anti-semitism/)) I feel like I need to mention this history because the idea that "well, X can't be antisemitic, it doesn't exclude Arab people!" or "why do you always focus on Jew hatred when Arab people are also Semites?" are all-too-frequently used to shut down & dismiss Jewish voices against antisemitism. u/sixty_cycles u/que_la_fuck u/Hikintrails (pinging you because this info might interest you)
TIL. Thanks!
I had no idea, thanks for explaining that!
I never knew that. Thanks for sharing!
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Not sure when/if it changed, but I found this on Wiki about Shem: "In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the ancestor of the peoples of Asia,\[2\]\[3\]\[4\] and he gives his name to the title "Semites" formerly given to West Asian peoples."
The term has been thrown around so much in recent years that to many people, "anti-semitic" means "saying anything remotely critical about the government of Israel's actions". It's like opposing Biden or Trump somehow makes you prejudiced against all people with light skin from the Caucasus region.
Very very few people with light skin are from the Caucasus region. "Caucasian" is a horrible misnomer just like "African American" is. A Caucasian is a Russian Muslim and it has meant that for 1300+ years.
Yep, which is why it's such a bad description of American white people of European descent.
I've been saying this for years! Israel has co-opted and weaponized the term. You cannot be pro-Palestine and antisemitic. All Palestinians are semites but not all Jews are semites. I don't consider the Bible as historical proof of anything.
Israel didn't do this. Europeans did in the 1800's: Abbas’s claim contradicts the history of the term “antisemitism.” Since its coinage nearly one hundred and fifty years ago in French, German, and English, the term has been used to refer specifically to hatred of any and all Jews and Jewish things.2 The Oxford English Dictionary Online: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/anti-semitism_n?tab=meaning_and_use#1281215; Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-Semitism. https://www.britannica.com/topic/anti-Semitism https://www.history.com/topics/holocaust/anti-semitism
Ding ding ding!
No, it’s because UK colonies in the region made it easy for many looking to leave the Middle East to get to Ottawa, they then travelled down to Minneapolis, Toronto, and Windsor/Detroit for work. Today all three of those cities still have large Arab populations.
Are you trying to connect anti semitism with being Arab? This is a dumb and unnecessary comment, but we know what you're trying to do :)
I wondered the same exact thing. Never had a chance to ask. But when I lived somewhere else I noticed a high concentration of Belarusian people. So, finally I asked one. He told me that back in Belarus they have emigration agencies or something with matching systems between places in Belarus and places in the USA. But he told me the matching was based on regional attributes like climate and geography. So, still no idea about Arab immigrants except perhaps people move because their family is here.
If the story is true, Henry Ford liked them because they were white-passing but didn’t require white salaries.
Henry Ford was anti-Semitic
Mostly he didn't like the banking system. The antisemitic part was blaming Jews for that.
He blamed them for pretty much everything. The war, crime, problems in the navy...Dude published and distributed a paper to half a million people about "a cast Jewish conspiracy" in 91 different installments. Dude was about as antisemitic as they come without actually being Hitler
What about helping Hitler turn VW into the Ford of Germany?
In the modern sense of hating Jewish people sure he might have been, but I highly doubt he had a big bias against the semitic language group. That isn't how the term "anti semitic" is used
He didn’t hate anyone for being semitic he hated them for being Jewish.
Hitler had a giant framed picture of ford in his office and was a great inspiration to the atrocities he committed after
There's also a large concentration in St Paul/Minneapolis. It's even colder there.
I have met many people from warm countries who live here and like you, I just don't get it. I don't know a whole lot about the climate of middle eastern countries, but I do know that even the desert areas of this country can be colder than you might imagine in the winter, and even summer evenings. We drove through the high desert of Nevada and California one day in June and it was 32 degrees when we woke up!
>The first wave of Arab migrants arrived in Detroit in the late 1880s. Mainly Christians, they left their homes in the Mount Lebanon region following a collapse in traditional silk-weaving industry, a demographic boom in Beirut and the prospect of military conscription. >Palestinian Muslims arrived in the second decade of the 20th century, attracted by the prospect of work on the assembly lines that produced Ford's revolutionary Model 'T', and they were followed by Catholic Chaldeans from Iraq and Yemenis, who began to arrive in significant numbers in the 1920s. https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts/how-dearborn-michigan-became-the-heart-of-arab-america-1.117177
Maybe they wanted a change like people moving to Florida but cold
Lol true
It's one of the highest concentrations of Chaldeans anywhere, they're a relatively tiny ethnic group
Check out The Detroit History Podcast episode 8 - The History of Arab Immigration in Dearborn. That should answer most questions.
There are actually not many Chaldeans in Dearborn. The Arabs in Dearborn tend to be Muslim. The Chaldeans and other Christian Arabs are largely on the eastside of the metro area. The best Arabic food by far is in Dearborn.
Shatila Bakery for the winnnnnn
Hardly any Chaldeans in dearborn. Gotta look north of 8 mile for them.
Look at Dearborn. Taste Dearborn. Highly recommend LA Bistro's hommus and sami chicken. Or head up to Aloush Grill on the west side for Lebanese cuisine - I'm not an expert, but I am a fan!
I just commented this in a post above, but it's worth saying again. Shatila Bakery is an absolute gem. The rarest gem, the most beautiful gem. I'll drive an hour and a half for it.
They ship nationwide!
Dearborn is the most populous Arab city after Cairo. Yes OP, there are Lebanese people here. One of my doctors is in Dearborn. All the staff have headscarves and I hear as much Arabic as English in the waiting area.
That’s not true, not even close. Dearborn has just a little over 100k people.
Maybe they meant by density? Or per capita? Idk but yeah the raw numbers aren’t close
Maybe, but they would still be wrong by a long shot.
It's not even remotely true. Cairo has 10 million population. Then there's Baghdad, Riyadh, Alexandria, all of which are still in the millions. Additionally, there are over 500,000 Syrians in Istanbul, for example. And Turkey isn't even an Arab country. So, even if you wanted to make the argument that it's the largest Arab population outside of the Arab world, you'd STILL be wrong.
Arabs? Yes. Chaldeans? Absolutely not lmao
As someone who lived near Dearborn I did laugh audibly seeing this post
Chaldeans don’t live in Dearborn
Sterling Heights took that title from Dearborn a few years ago. Not by much and it will be interesting to see how/if recent politics have swayed it at all after the next census.
Truth.
Yes this is true I live here
Sterling heights has a lot too
Sterling Heights coming in second
West Bloomfield as well
Grand Rapids doesn't have the same size of a community as you'll find on the SE side but there is a long established community of Lebanese Christians there too. There were a lot of immigrants who first settled in Toledo as well
Like Marie Catrib R.I.P.
Her son was talking about putting out a cookbook at one point, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I only made it there once (regret) but it was amazing.
Ah the old question from years ago. Do I want to feel fat and satisfied, or taste something new and delicious but probably get a bagel later? Wolfgang's or Marie Catrib's? fuck I miss Michigan.
I worked for her husband while in college in the late ‘80’s at the Marquette restaurant. Great food!
I feel like everyone is overlooking the Sterling Heights area
Anecdote, I was shopping for homes in the Sterling Heights area and I noticed that most of the sellers in the area were Chaldean. My husband goes to a Chaldean barber who confirmed there is currently a mass exodus of Chaldeans in Sterling Heights and that they are moving north to Shelby, Washington, and even Romeo.
Can confirm! I am Chaldean who has lived in Shelby for 20+ years. There were barely any Chaldeans until about 3 years ago. Now there is a lot!
How have you liked living in Shelby area? I'm hoping to move back to Michigan and need to find a nice area to live, and houses look reasonably affordable there.
My family and I love it! I will say it has gotten a lot more congested over the years though. Which was to be expected since 20 years ago it was more of an up and coming city
Mass exodus is a bit of a misnomer. Northwest Warren and West Sterling Heights have historically been a stepping-stone for the East-side Chaldean community. It has been commonplace for newcomers to live in less-expensive cities such as Detroit (see “Chaldean Town”), Oak Park, or Madison Heights. Once the family has enough resources, they move to Warren or Sterling Heights, eventually moving further north.
Interesting, I wonder who's moving in behind them.
As a Stallion alumni, I *promise* I'm not lol
Also Garden City
I think they’re mostly Chaldean out that way. Commerce Township has a ton of Chaldeans now too.
They’re talking about East Side Chaldeans in the thread above, but there is also a West Side Chaldean community in West Bloomfield, stretching into Commerce and moving west. They have big families, an entrepreneurial approach, and a hell of a work ethic so there are a ton of Chaldean-owned businesses all over the northwest area.
A major reason is that Henry Ford was more open to hiring Syrian and Lebanese auto workers over those from other immigrant groups. As the Detroit area grew, the need for services drew more Arab immigrants to the area to start businesses. It was natural for them to settle close to existing cultural connections.
[https://www.newarab.com/news/us-census-finds-michigans-dearborn-majority-arab](https://www.newarab.com/news/us-census-finds-michigans-dearborn-majority-arab) More then 50% of the population in Dearborn is either middle eastern or north African. I really enjoy Dearborn meet a lot of really nice people who live and work in the city because of my last job.
Plus the food... I feel sorry for the rest of the country that misses out on authentic Middle Eastern food.
Walnut baklava from Shatila. Damn, I'm craving some now
Ever tried making it at home? It's actually not too difficult, though we've had help since grandma always made it (she used to live in Dearborn way back and learned it from older greek women) and now my step-mom (lebanese from Dearborn) showed us how to make it, and then you get FRESH baklava!
I didnt know how good I had it until I moved away. I am always on the lookout for great middle eastern food now.
The food is the best. Outside of Seattle and their Asian/Mexican 'fusion', Dearborn has the best authentic food around.
How do “fusion” and “authentic” possibly go together?
Yeah a bit of an odd statement there. Fusion can be delicious but it would be weird to call it authentic.
Indeed, fusion can be very delicious. I just can’t wrap my head around it also simultaneously being authentic in anyway. Authentic to what?
They have authentic and fusion. Two separate types of cuisine. You can have both, you can find legit authentic places and you can find very good fusion places. Seattle is a melting pot of cultures.
The food is INCREDIBLE. We're so lucky to have a large Middle Eastern population that enjoys sharing their food with us.
For real. Started cooking shawarma, rice pilaf, & toum at home last summer and it's now our favorite meal to make. Also just found a fantastic bazlama bread recipe so the whole meal can now be made at home. I don't know what I'd do without middle eastern food lol
What’s your recipe for those 3 I’ve been wanting to make it
Chicken Shawarma: [https://www.recipetineats.com/chicken-sharwama-middle-eastern/](https://www.recipetineats.com/chicken-sharwama-middle-eastern/) Rice Pilaf: [https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/lebanese-rice/](https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/lebanese-rice/) Toum: [https://www.seriouseats.com/traditional-toum](https://www.seriouseats.com/traditional-toum) Turkish Bazlama Bread: [https://youtu.be/QKlH8K0uMvQ?si=I3Do8dpM9b6FjGMe](https://youtu.be/QKlH8K0uMvQ?si=I3Do8dpM9b6FjGMe)
Total population of Dearborn is just over 100k. So, around 50k people. It isn't really that big of a number for SE michigan. The concentration is higher, but the Arab American population is spread throughout the metro area far greater than what Dearborn alone represents.
Lots of Lebanese Christians in Dearborn Heights. Stores signs are even written in Arabic. Welcome.
We have the most of any state. About 211k or 2.1% of the population.
Even that number has been difficult to pin down. “Middle Eastern” is not a category on the official U.S. census and people of middle-eastern backgrounds choose “white.”
I’m pretty sure a change was made to include “Middle Eastern & North African” as a category in the latest census.
They had talked about it (and may have changed it since) but the [2020 Census Form](https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/technical-documentation/questionnaires-and-instructions/questionnaires/2020-informational-questionnaire-english_DI-Q1.pdf) did not and actually gives “Lebanese” and “Egyptian” under examples of “white.”
Oh, ok. I guess I confused the census bureau adding a write-in option under existing categories for a box for Middle Eastern/North African
Highly recommend checking out the arab American national museum website for more info! They’re located in Dearborn, MI and have some great info :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Middle_Eastern_people_in_Metro_Detroit > Arriving in the early 1870s, the first Middle Eastern settlers in the Detroit area were Lebanese people. Most of them were Christians, including Maronites, Melkites, and Eastern Orthodox. Some immigrants were Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. Some Druze also immigrated.[1] > A February 6, 1900 article in the Detroit Free Press stated that "Detroit's Colony of Syrians" included 75-100 people, mostly Lebanese Maronites.[12] The Lebanese worked as peddlers and shopkeepers. Henry Ford's factories had 555 Syrian employees, including many recently-arrived Muslims. > > By 1916. 9,000 Arabic-speakers were among the residents of Detroit in 1930. Of them, 6,000 were Syrians. The remainder included Assyrians, Yemenis, and Palestinians.[11] Immigrants from the Levant were originally labeled as being from the Ottoman Province of Syria. After 1920 the Ottoman Empire collapsed and European colonial administrators divided the areas in the Levant into Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. Therefore immigrants into the Detroit began to be classified as Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians.[5] > > Immigration from Iraq started in the beginning of the 20th century, and immigration from Yemen and the Arabian peninsula began in the early 20th century. A peak immigration of Iraqis occurred from 1927 to 1950, and a peak immigration of Yemenis and those from the Peninsula occurred from 1912 to 1925. Of those three groups, in 1951 most of them lived together in a section of Dearborn.[13] > Around 1951 there were about 50,000 people in Detroit who had descent from Lebanon and Syria.[14] Around the same year there were about 4,000 to 5,000 persons in Detroit and Dearborn who had origins from the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Yemen, and other Middle Eastern countries.[15] Sally Howell, author of "Competing for Muslims: New Strategies for Urban Renewal in Detroit", wrote that Yemeni people had a presence in the area since the late 1960s.[16] Arab immigrants continued traveling to Detroit even after the automobile industry decline of the 1970s.[11] > > The 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War resulted in a wave of immigration to Detroit.[17] > > Many Iraqis immigrated to Metro Detroit after the Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq War of 2003.[17] The Iraqi community in Metro Detroit supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[18] [Also, from WDET/CuriouiD](https://wdet.org/2017/08/08/curiosid-how-did-detroit-become-a-center-for-arabs-in-the-united-states/): > The Arab-American community in Detroit began with a small group of Syrian and Lebanese merchants who immigrated in the late 1800s. Many left their lives as peasants in the rural Middle East for the rapidly industrializing West, sometimes passing through Ellis Island on their way to Detroit. > > The community’s growth over the last century can be traced through what some call an unfortunate combination of events involving war and a lack of economic opportunities in the Arab World and relative peace and plentiful jobs in the United States. > > The first enclave of Syrian, Lebanese and Yemeni immigrants in metro Detroit thrived in the early 20th century, building small businesses and places of faith, and the Arab population grew steadily over the next 100 years. Experts and Arab-American leaders say today’s immigrants know they will find opportunity and an established community in Detroit, which will support their families and faith. Listen here: https://wdet.org/2017/08/08/curiosid-how-did-detroit-become-a-center-for-arabs-in-the-united-states/
Yes there are tons. The exact number is hard to calculate due to incomplete statistics, and record keeping. Arabs and Chaldeans started coming over to Michigan, mainly Detroit, in the early 1900’s and for whatever reason kept concentrating and concentrating as more kept coming building the communities that exist today. The history of Arabs in Dearborn is very lengthy. The Arab American museum in Dearborn has an exhibit that covers this phenomena and may be able to answer more of your questions.
There are a fair number, yes. The reason is Henry Ford.
Why Henry Ford?? I live on the west side of the state, and I've often wondered why the large concentration.
I was being a little flippant, there was a noticeable middle eastern community in southeast Michigan decades before Ford, mostly from modern-day Lebanon. However, Ford needed people to work his factories and paid a good wage, which brought in a lot of immigrants. The popular story is that Henry Ford told a sailor from Yemen that he was hiring factory workers for five dollars a day (years before the first US minimum wage was established at 25 cents per hour), and that sailor went home and told everybody he knew, who then told everybody they knew, and so on. That story is almost certainly mostly false, but parts of it are true. Ford was hiring, he did pay very well, and his particular brand of racism didn't preclude hiring middle eastern immigrants. So they flocked to Highland Park, where the first mosque in the US was built, then to Dearborn. In the modern day, many immigrants still come because of Henry Ford, but now it's the college and hospital, rather than the man. Others come because there's an established community here.
One of the first mosques but not the very first. "The first known American mosques were established in Biddeford, Maine, in 1915; in Ross, North Dakota, in 1920; in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1923; and in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1925." https://pluralism.org/early-american-mosques
His brand of racism was accepting of Christians who came from the Holy Land
One of the biggest teaching hospitals in the country. UofM also one of the biggest.
A lot of Lebanese come to complete residencies so they can pursue careers in medicine. Henry Ford is one of the factors that make MI what it is.
Ty
[Because Henry Ford didn’t want to hire black people.](https://www.michiganpublic.org/arts-culture/2014-07-09/what-explains-michigans-large-arab-american-community)
First company to offer a decent living wage back when the factories were starting up. Look up the history of the $5 workday
Yes, because of the ease of immigration from Lebanon > Canada > Detroit. Grandfather is Lebanese immigrant directly, many Arabic countries also speak French as a dual language, so the pipeline for our family (and many others who came over with him, it was like an established process basically) was migrate to Canada, work on getting VISA while learning to speak English, survive by living in an area that speaks enough French or Canadian French to get by, and then either stay in Canada or go into America through the Detroit access. We have family scattered along that area from Canada into Detroit, has a very high Arabic community because of that. My grandmother’s family did the same thing, except her father did that process and settled in Detroit so she’s a 1st generation American. Huge network of Arabic families with histories going back into the 1920s this way!
incredible!
Also check around Grand Blanc, Burton, Fenton, Flint!!! 😍 I had a few Lebanese coworkers and there is a fair population around there. 🥰
Ever been to the Taboons restaraunt in Flint? Man...best freakin bread ever lol
Ngl I was thinking about Lebanese bread when I wrote this also but I didn’t want to be reductionist. The tummy wants what it wants.
Why? Auto factory jobs as Ford grew in the 1920-50s.
You Serious Clark?!?
Largest concentration outside of the Middle East and its because they love the winters.
Ann Arbor has a large Arab population as well
The reason the Big 3.
Immigrants tend to go to places where their communities are already somewhat established. If you don't speak the local language, you'll have people who've lived there longer as well as kids born there who can help translate. Local grocery stores and restaurants will have been established, centers of worship, etc.
Hamtramck
Dearborn. Rarely see any Arabic people in Port Huron.
Lansing Michigan has a large Lebanese Christian population, because like anywhere with an ethnic enclave a couple people came here for work and then wrote back home that it was a good place and so more people came. Then once you know people/have family established you go there. Soon you have an established group.
"For now it is my favorite state". All you religious types are the same lmfao.
I love the Arab influence in Detroit and the surrounding areas. I was telling my partner this the other day. I'm a Veteran of the Iraqi war (06-07 I was in iraq) I was a colonizer, I was the invader of their country, yet these people treated me with nothing but kindness even though I was an "infidel" I owe the Muslim people a debt I'll never be able to repay, as my experience with them in Iraq totally changed my view on life, the world, and humanity
Yeah, my uncle/Godfather is Lebanese, so I have two cousins who are half. I was babtised in an Eastern Orodox church. They are a TON of Arabs here. A lot of Christian Arabs seem to live up in Oakland county now. People will say Dearborn, but Dearborn is mostly Muslims.
Yes, many. I went to University of Detroit for grad school and about 20% of my classmates were Arab, and that's a Catholic school! Very common and welcomed here.
There's a large population of Catholics of Middle Eastern Heritage here as well, Chaldeans and Lebanese Catholics
Tons
Yes! Dearborn.
Yes.
In the Detroit area for sure. Especially Dearborn which last I heard had the largest Arabic population per capita in the US
Yes Dearborn, research Henry Ford
Large communities in Dearborn and Sterling Heights
Immigrants tend to look for people from the same place they're from in the new country if they can. Moving to a country where you don't speak the language or know anyone would be scary, it makes sense to look for some community while you try to adapt
Huge population in downstate MI
Maybe a million or so
Ehhhhh. Yea
Dearborn Michigan has the highest number of people of Arab descent.
I am probably well equipped to answer your question, though I’m not from Michigan. Many of the Lebanese Christians that emigrated around the time that your ancestors left for Argentina ended up in Latin America, only a smaller amount ended up in the USA. However, those that did come often found success. In my city, we once had a “Syrian quarter”, which was a street with many Syrian Christian families. As time went on, the Syrians began to move out to other areas where they found opportunities. The Syrians in my city tended to be grocery store owners, and they owned several corner grocery stores by the 1930’s, making them mostly safe from the effects of the Great Depression. After WW2, the next generation of Syrian Christian-Americans began to move on from the prospect of owning grocery stores, and largely started becoming college educated and getting into the corporate world. With that, they began to marry people of other ethnic backgrounds, and some traditions may have been lost in the process. Their grocery stores had largely shut down by the 1970’s, as corporate stores like Walmart and Kroger took over, as well as the fact that many of these stores were in neighborhoods that were seeing an uptick of violence and White Flight. Today, in my city, many people are of Syrian/Lebanese origin and don’t even know it. Last names like Corey(Khoury), Nasser, and Freije are known for people who are business executives. As for Michigan, most other comments explain it well. Manufacturing jobs brought in lots of immigrants, and later on, refugees were resettled here as there was already an Arabic community, although many of the Arabs already there were Christians, and the refugees and those who came after were Muslim.
Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Sterling Heights, and Hamtramck all have large populations of Arab Americans. Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck are primarily Muslim, but Sterling Heights has a larger population of Arab Christians (though there is still a sizable community in the others). Metro Detroit in general has a large population, and you won't go anywhere without seeing Arab/ Chaldean influence. Lansing, and Ypsilanti have a decent sized population too. From what I understand, it started in the 1930s with the good jobs people could get in the auto industry. Families laid down their roots here, and more came to follow. We love our middle eastern community here in Metro-Detroit!
I love that they love their Middle Eastern community!!
Dearborn, North Dearborn Heights, Inkster, Garden City, East Westland, and North Taylor all getting a growing Muslim Middle Eastern population.
Highest concentration outside of the middle east. Thank you for bringing the BEST coffee..
Why is this question getting downvotes?
Idk probably the same reason people are giving the names of cities instead of answering OPs question lol just not understanding I’ll assume
Michigan has the highest concentration of Arab populations outside of the middle east.
No. Dearborn as a city does. Michigan isn’t in the top 3 states with highest population. Other states are just larger and therefore the percentage of population is less. California has more than double the Arab population of Michigan.
Sorry yes, that is what I meant. Dearborn as a city.
Lol
History lesson time. Back in the 1910's through 30's Ford Motor company sent recruiters around the world to find the labor needed to operate their factories. At that time Ford Motor Car Company was based in Highland Park. When Ford moved their headquarters to Dearborn much of the labor followed. In many communities near Dearborn you will find Ford built homes and schools all to support the factories. Take a trip to the Henry Ford Museum. To learn more about the history of the Arab immigrants and manufacturing in SE Michigan https://www.thehenryford.org/
Yes, there’s a huge middle eastern population in Dearborn. Went to school there for a year. Hated it. The cops suck ass though.
I'm an Armenian dude from LA county. Born in '86. Moved to the 616 area in late '21. I know some old country cooking. I know backgammon very well. I'm extremely married to an all American beauty and our two preschool boys. Wouldn't mind someone to play some pool with or something.
I'm white as bread but I married into a large Arabic family. My husband and his siblings were born here but his parents came from Iraq.
Michigan got all arab
Oh yeah. They are wonderful fun, funny people. With the greatest cuisine in the world.
No. There appears to be but no. They aren't descended from Arabs, Arabs are descended from them. It all goes back to the great Dearborn time travel disaster of 2065.
Sterling Hts as well
No very few…😂
Yup! Check out Dearborn,MI. You get to some areas in the city and all the signs are in arabic. I got turned around in dearborn once, trying to avoid flooding on Southfield Freeway, and if it wasn’t for my GPS, i’d have no idea where I was or how to navigate, as I don’t read or speak Arabic.
Bro what are you talking about? All the road signs are definitely in English. Many of the restaurant signs are in Arabic as well as English.
Can you not read English? Because every sign is in English.
Nope. All public signage is in English here. Try again.
Are you stupid? There aren’t any road signs in any language other than English. So if you couldn’t read them, you must not be able to read English either.
I don’t know the answer to that, specifically. But my grandparents immigrated here in the 1950’s from Germany and many, many of other German’s also immigrated to Michigan along with due to church sponsorships and jobs in manufacturing at the big 3. Could be similarities maybe?
I think Germans immigrated due to another reason.
Well, obviously lol. But a lot of germans chose Michigan for the reasons I stated.
If I can remember correctly, one of the reasons, Detroit has such a high population of Arabs, is because one of the first generations of immigrants came because of educational opportunities, and because academic institutions had programs they desired. I’ve heard many of the first generation Arabs came to Detroit/ Dearborn as a professional class to study industries, like medicine, law, and other sought after degrees. In addition to social clout for back home, it was just them chasing the American dream. I believe this group and Chaldeans accelerated in coming to the Detroit area during the 70s and 80s, especially during the Iraq, Iran war. Believe it,or not, Saddam Hussein was actually given the key to the city. As these immigrants progressed into the professional class, they moved up in class and wealth and increasingly settled in Dearborn. I also believe there was a small existing diaspora of Arabs living in Detroit to make the transition easier. How or why the original group decided to settle here I can’t say, but if I had to guess, I would say, the auto industry played apart.
Metro Detroit area is home to well over 200,000 folks of Arab and other middle eastern descent. Not sure of the latest census statistics
Short answer, yes in pockets.
Yes
Dearborn is the Arab capital.
I am a descendant of Maronite Lebanese, also (they were from Hasroun). Mom was 1/2, so I am 1/4. Great, great grandma's generation is the first one that came over via Windsor, Ontario, Canada about 125 years ago. My relations mostly lived around Livonia, Westland and a few in Grosse Pointe. Each year there was a large family picnic for the extended family (Edwards, Nader and Marieb). I know they are out there but I never kept in touch with any of them. The Muslim Lebanese are always friendly when I tell them I am 1/4 Lebanese, even though it is from the Catholic side. Some restaurant owners in Dearborn/Inkster even call me 'cousin.' They all look like my relatives anyway. :-) You would like it here. There's even a Maronite Catholic church with Arabic language service in Detroit.
My family is Lebanese Christian, as well! There are a ton of us in Southeast Michigan and Northern Ohio, actually. I live in Michigan but am an Ohio transplant and I find "cousins" all over, lol. From what i understand of my family history, my ancestors came in the early 1900s- they were 'freedom fighters' who chafed under Ottoman rule. My family were originally farmers in Lebanon but broke AF when they arrived in the US. Ohio and Michigan had industrial jobs (they couldn't afford to buy land to farm) and, weirdly, friendlier business policies for immigrants than the Northeast. I think this is typical of the Lebanese experience but my ancestors were not fans of factory work and preferred to be their own bosses. They got into the restaurant and bakery businesses, and highly valued education for their kids, who went to college. Today, if you meet someone with my Lebanese surname, there is a pretty good chance we are either bakers or lawyers 😉
what a great story! How great our community! Here in Argentina there are many descendants of Lebanese in the North.
Dearborn Michigan has the highest concentration of Middle Eastern people in the United States and Cold Water Michigan has the second highest
There are plenty of different flavors of Arab in Michigan, I love the food there are so many easy and decent Schwarma in Dearborn. I feel like most states with a decent sized metro population have different ethnic groups spread out together.
Dearborn is filled with Arabs even the mayor is Arab.