Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Social and Cultural Sciences, Department of Publications

1-1-2006 Immigrants from the Arab World Louise Cainkar Marquette University, [email protected]

Published version. "Immigrants from the Arab World." in The new Chicago : a social and cultural analysis / edited by John P. Koval ... [et al.] Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2006: 182-196. Published version. © 2006 Temple University University. Used with permission. Louise Cainkar

14 Immigrants from the Arab World

COMMUNITIES SHAPED BY EARLY Arab-American mosques were built early in the TWENTIETH-CENTURY twentieth-century. By 1924, about 200,000·first ENTREPRENEURS AND REFUGEES and second generation Arabs were living in the United States, the vast majority Christians and Communities created by immigrants from the ofpeasant origins (Hitti 1924). Middle East and the Arab world are part A serie oflaws passed by the U.S. Congress in of the new urban mo aic brought about by 1917, 1921, and 1924 cau ed immigration from changes in U.S. immigration law in 1965. 1 Once all but northern and western Europe to slow to countryquotas were eliminated, migration from a trickle. Each Arab country was given a max­ the ,Arab world and Middle East increased dra­ imum quota of 100 new immigrants per year. matically. These immigrants and their children Only the wives and dependent children of U.S. have changed the physicaJ and sociaJ landscape citizens could migrate to the United States with­ of many American cities, particularly Chicago. out being blocked by these quotas. Migration Cook County, which encompa es Chicago and from the Middle East and Arab world contin­ its inner ring of suburbs, has the third largest ued in small numbers in the intervening year , Arab population, the largest Assyrian popula­ until it began to surge in the late 1960s. The tion, and the largest concentrated Palestinian Arab immigrants who came after 1965 differed population in the United States (U.S. Census in ~ number of significant ways from earlier Bureau 2003b). At the same time, the migration ones: A majority of them were Muslim rather ofArabs, As yrians, Armenians, and others from than Christian, their origin were both urban this region began long before 1965. Twenty-first­ and rural, their trades and professions were var­ centuryChicago communities have been shaped ied, and many were highly educated. They came in part bythe institutions and relation hip built at a time when the world was increasingly more by earlier migrants from the Arab world. connected, their departures were not nece arily Duringthe Great Migration that occurred be­ complete or permanent, and, rather than escap­ tween 1880 and 1924, more than 95,000 Arab ing strife, global strife came.to be centered on migrated to the United States from "Greater their livesjn the United States. Syria" (present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Chicago's earliest Arab communities were es­ and Palestine/Israel), as well as smaller num­ tablished by Syrian-Lebanese and Palestinian bers of Arabs from Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, immigrants.3 Recorded history places their ini­ and Egypt.2 Thousands of Assyrians came to tial settlement in the city during the late the United States from Persia (now Iran) dur­ nineteenth-century, following their success in ing the late 1800s. They were later joined by trading goods from the, Holy Land at the Assyrians from Turkey and Iraq. Arabs and 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition. Syrian­ Assyrians built churches and established news­ Lebanese men and women largely engaged in papers in nineteenth-century America. The first wholesale and retail trade. The Palestinians Immigrants from the Arab World 183

were predominantly urban peddlers, supplied eventually passed on to a reawakening Europe. by local yrian-Lebanese businesses and New Categorizingpeoplebyraceandnationalitycan­ York Palestinian wholesalers. Their primary not phenotypically capture Arabs because they trade routes early in the twentieth-centurywere sp~ the color continuum from white to black. among the newly emerging black communities Similarly, the 22 Arab nation-states (including on Chicago's outh Side (Al-Tahir 1952). As­ Palestine) extend over the continents ofAfrica syrians in Chicago worked in skilled trades (la­ and Asia. Arab conntries are also multiethnic borers, masons, carpente.rs, painters, tailors), in and multi-religious, home to diverse group the service economy ( cooks, waiters, and hotel who share to varying degree Arabic language staff), and as factory workers. and culture. In American society, however, race By 1920, Chicago's Arab immigrant commu­ is an important framing construct, so whether nity had three notable residential clusters, all Arabs are a racial group or not_is irrelevant; their on the south side of the city. Syrian-Lebanese position on the racial continuum is real in its Christian families lived near 12thand California outcomes. · and 63rd and Kedzie. A mostly male and Mus­ According to Al-Tahir's (1952) research and lim communityofPalestinians lived in boarding interpretation of events as they unfolded in houses near 18th and Michigan. The Arabswere Chicago, the Syrian-Lebanese Christians em­ religiously diverse, including Melkite Catholics braced the whiteness that was offered to them, · (Eastern Rite), Maronite Catholic (Roman although not without facing the prejudice Rite), Greek Orthodox Christians, and Sunni and obstacle experienced by other white eth­ Muslims, although Christians were in the ma­ nics at the time. As part of their assimilation, jority. they shunned conducting bu iness in Chicago's black neighborhoods. They followed the path ofother "white ethnics": The second generation RACE AND RELIGION INFORM intermarried exten ively with European-origin RESIDENTIAL AND OCCUPATIONAL Christians, abandoned the trading and shop­ INTEGRATION keeping occupational niche, experienced up­ ward economic mobility, and became residen­ The residential and occupational trajectories tially di per ed across Chicago and its suburbs. of the Syrian-Lebanese and Palestinians were Palestinian Muslims, on the other hand, saw partly shaped by ideas about race that existed themselves as sojourners who planned to retwn during theearly twentieth-centuryandthedom­ to Palestine, with their religiou difference from inant view that the United States was a Chris­ mainstream American society contributing to tian country. "Arabians" and "Syrians," as Arabs this intention. Documentation is scarce about were often called, were considered Caucasian how they were viewed and treated by members and therefore "white" in the racial taxonomies of dominant, white ChristiansocietyinChicago, developed by American ethnologists. In some but we know that they did not ee them elves as places however, they were prohibited from nat­ part ofthe dominant culture and did not bring uralizing because they were seen as not white. their families from Palestineto Chicago. Accord­ Ofcourse, trictly speaking, race is not an ob­ ing to AJ-Tahir, as sojourner and Muslims, they jective category, and the very concept is socially were not interested in participating in American constructed. "Arab" is neither a racial or national racial conflicts. They lived on the edge of or category; it is a cultural and linguistic group. within the expanding Black Belt of Chicago. Arabs are people who speak Arabic and share a They peddled goods and opened food and dry traditionofArabculture, values, andhistory. Be­ goods store in African American commuru­ fore western hegemony, Arab-Islamic ocieties tie . They shared this retail turf with Jews and were th.e genesis of significant scientific, math­ Italians, who left these areas after the riots ofthe ematical, philosophical, astronomical, architec­ 1960s. Sociologist Edna Bonacich's (1973) char­ tural, and literary development. Globally con­ acterization ofa "middleman minority" applies nected and pan-"racial," their knowledge was well to Palestinian Muslims of the time. They 184 Louise Caiokar were a group who represented neither the dom­ Since this time, most Assyrian immigrants in inant nor the subordinate; they could deal with th!? United States have come from Iraq or from both but were p~rt of neither. Living in mod­ Arab countries of secondary exile. The flight est conditions in boarding houses or behind or of Assyrians from the Middle East continues, near their stores in African American commu­ and the majority have settled in metropolitan nities, by the 1940s, they were residentially scat­ Chicago, largely on Chicago's North Side. Statis­ tered from 18th to 45th Streets and from Lake tically, Assyrians represent a large share ofimmi­ Michigan to Cottage Grove. grants from Iraq and persons who declare Iraq as their country oforigin in the census. Although considerable commercial and professional in­ CHICAGO ESTABLISHED teraction occurs between the Arab and Assyrian AS A DIASPORIC HOME FOR ASSYRIANS communities on the North Side, their private AND PALESTINIANS and institutional community lives are largely distinct. Since, unfortunately, this author does Chicago's early Palestinian and Assyrian com­ not have· the expertise necessary to write about munities laid the foundations of the largest their recent and Cl,lrrent status, they will not be concentrated Palestinian and Assyrian diaspora discussed in detail in the rest ofthis chapter. communities in the United States. ,!\ssyrians The outcome of World War I also her­ are Aramaic-speaking Christians who share a alded the future ofPalestinians, one that would deeply rooted culture and language developed send them migrating around the world for in historic Assyria, an area currently part of the next 90 years. While promising indepen­ no_rthern lraq, southeastern Turkey, and north­ dence to the Arabs in return for their military western Iran, roughly contiguous to the bound­ and intelligence support (the topic of the film aries of historic Kurdistan. Assyrians from lraq Lawrence ofArabia), the British also promised and those who resettled in other Arab countries to support the establishment ofa Jewish home­ speak Arabic and share Arab culture, but con­ land in Palestine (Balfour Declaration), pro­ sider themselves historically distinct from Arabs. viding it did not prejudice the already existing Assyrian dispersion began in earnest when Arab population of Palestine. When the State they fled Ottoman Turkey in 1915, following of Israel was created in 1948, some 800,000 persecution and massacres. The Allies had en­ Palestinians became refugees (Khalidi 1992). Al­ listed them, a minority group, to help defeat though most ofthem fled to neighboring coun­ the Turks and promised them post-war auton­ tries, the United States Congress passed two omy in return. In 1918, the Turks attacked them Refugee Relief Acts for Palestine Refugees, in again, in tbe Persian region ofAzerbaijan. When 1953 (the first American immigration law to World War I ended and the Allies were victo­ specifically mention refugees as a type of im­ rious, Assyrians· were not allowed to re-enter migrant) and in 1957. Nearly 3,000 Palestinian Turkey. They were resettled by the British in Iraq, refugees, Christian and Muslim, were admitted but denied autonomy. Historic Assyrian areas to tbe United States under these acts. conquered inwar were split by the Allied powers When Palestinians who were already in the between Turkey and Iraq, with Britain ensuring United States brought their wives and children that the oil-rich Mosul area went to its colony to live with them during the 1950s, boarding Iraq. UponIraqi independence ( 1932), Assyrian housesand rooms behind store$ were not seen as leaders again demanded a homogeneous loca­ fit for family residence. In Chicago, Palestinian tion and autonomy within Iraq. The Iraqis re­ families began moving into homes and apart­ fused, and thousands of Assyrians left lraq for ments just west of the South Side Black Belt in French-controlled Syria and Lebanon. When which they worked. In the ensuing years, they some of them returned for their families, they would continue to mQve south and west into were attacked and shot by northern Iraqi forces, transitional neighborhoods beingabandoned by resulting in a third mass killing of Assyrians whites. By the 1970s, the Palestinian community (1933). had reached the Gage Park and Chicago Lawn Immigrants from the Arab World 185

areas of Chicago's southwest side. The e areas TABLE 14.1. Major Arab immigrant Group to continue to be home to an increasing number of the United tates by Nationality: 1965-2000 new Arab immigrants-largely PaJestinians. In Country of Number of Percent of 2005, the southwe t side and outhwe t suburb birth immigrants group . of Chicago were home to the largest concentra­ tion of Arab families in metropolitan Chicago Lebanon 122,291 24 Egypt 114,8L2 22 and the largest concentration of Palestinian in Jordan & Palestine 113,117 22 the United States. lraq 87,499 17 The 1950 and 1960 also mark the be­ Syria 62,610 12 ginning of the Arab brain drain, when Egyp­ Yemen 9,959 2 tians, Iraqis, yrians, Lebanese, Palestinfans, and Total 510,288 100 smalJer numbers of other Arabs came to the Source: Immigration and aturalization Service, Coun­ United State for their college and post-graduate try of Birth Data. educations, principally in meclicine, engineer­ ing, physics, and radiology, with a smaller num­ the largest refugee popuJation in the world, ber in the ocial sciences. Many accepted pro­ Palestinian refugees have not been declared eli­ fessional positions in the United States after gible for post-1965 refugee visas. completing their educations. They made im­ Six Arab countries accounted for 81 percent .portant contributions to the emergence and ofa1J Arab immigrants to the United States dur­ growth of Arab American community institu­ ing thi period-Lebanon, Jordan-Palestine, tions and national Arab American organiza­ Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen (Table 14.1 ), tions. In Chicago, these figures included per­ largely the same places from which the earli­ sons such as law professor M. Cherif Bas iouni, est Arab immigrants came, with the exception political science profes ors Ghada Talham.i and of Egypt. 4 The remaining Arab immigrants in­ Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, and hi torian Hassan clude Sudanese, Moroccans, Libyan , Bahrainis, Haddad. The best-known national figure was Omanis, Tunisians, AJgerian , Kuwaitis, Saudis, literary scholar and author Edward aid. and smalJ number of immigrants from other Arab countries. Mirroring the turn of the twentieth-century pattern, Lebanese are the GROWTH AND DIVER ITY largest Arab immigrant group in the post-1965 IN CHICAGO'S ARAB COMMUNITIES period, although Illinois is one of few states in which persons of Lebanese and Syrian de­ According to the data from Immigration and scent are outnumbered by Arabs from other Naturalization Service, between 1965 and 2000, countries (Census 2000). If PaJestinians could more than 630,000 Arabs immigrated to the be accurately counted, their numbers would United States. Some 8 percent of them de­ surely surpass those for Egyptians. Because more clared Illinois as their place of intended resi­ than 60 percent of the Palestinian people live dence, including 15 percent of all Pale tinians­ in diaspora, they are statistically mixed in with Jordanians, and 13 percent ofall Iraqis. Changes other Arab group , making the true extent of to U.. immigration law in 1965-the removal their presence in the United States difficult to of country quotas, family reunification prefer­ measure.5 ences, and immigrant visas for persons with Illinois was the place of intended settle­ skills needed in the United tates-contributed ment for 44,633 immigrants from Arab coun­ to changes in the ize and character of the tries between 1972 and 2000. Eighty-five per­ new Arab immigrants. Later legislation offered cent of these immigrants were from the seven refugee visas to Assydans, Iraqis, omali , and main countries ofArab migration. Thirty-three Sudane e. Assyrun , Libyans, and ome other percent were either Palestinian or Jordanian, Arab became eligible for political asylum, and and 25 percent were Iraqi, a large proportion Lebanese and Pale tinians from Kuwait received of whom are Assyrians (Table 14.2). In ome temporary protected status. AJthough they are years, 20 percent of a1J Palestinian-Jordanian 186 Louise Cainkar

TABLE 14.2. Arab immigrants to Illinois, Cumulative Patterns: 1972-2000

Country of Number of Percent of Group as percent of Group as percent of birth immigrants Unhed States main Arab immigrants all Arab immigrants Jordan-Palestine 14,701 15 39 33 Iraq 11,247 13 30 25 Syria 4,043 6 11 9 Lebanon 3,763 3 10 8 Egypt 3,626 3 10 8 Yemen 737 7 2 2 Total Selected Countries 38,117 7 100 85 Total All Arab Countries 44,633 8 100

ource: Immigration and Naturalization Service. immigrants to the United States and 25 percent Arab groups fell to 71 percent of all intended ofall Iraqis chose Illinois as their initial l9cation. immigrants by 2000. Eighty-five percent of the Viewed from another perspective, among Arabs and 99 percent of the Assyrians counted Arab immigrants declaring their intention to by Census 2000 live in the nine-county Chicago settle in Illinois, Palestinians and Jordanians are metropolitan area (PMSA) (Paral 2004). the principle group throughout the entire post- The Arab and Assyrian communities of 1965 period. During the early 1980s and, to a metropolitan Chicago have grown in recent lesser degree in the mid 1990s, they are followed decade in large part because of war, eth­ relatively closely by Iraqis (Assyrians, Arabs, nic clean ing, and military occupation in their and Kurds). During other periods, Palestinians-­ native countries. In addition to Palestinians, Jordanians stand alone in their dominance, Assyrians, and post-1990 Iraqi refugees, growth composing some 39 to 45 percent of all immi­ in the Lebanese and Yemeni communities is grants from Arab countries intending to settle also partly due to these conditions. For all these in Illinois. Their figures are even larger when group , family migration has been the dominant we add the 3 to 4 percent of"Kuwaitis" (mostly pattern. Familie come eeking safety, tability, Palestinians born in Kuwait). Table 14.3 also in­ better work opportunitie , a better life for their dicates that Arab migration to Illinois has be­ children, and for some, the capacity to gener­ come more diverse since the 1990s; the five main ate enough capital to support family left back home. Globalization oftrade, relatively low local salaries, and slow economic development have TABLE 14.3. A.rab Immigrants Intending to made life increasingly expensive in much ofthe Re ettle in Illinois (National Group as a Percentage Arab world. These conditions impel people to ofAll Arab Immigrants Intending to Re ettle migrate for economic reasons. Arab vary in in Illinois) their opinions as to whether life in the United Country of State is qualitatively better than life in their Birth 1972 1980 1986 1995 2000 home countries, but most agree that it is eco­ Jordan-Palestine 45 36 39 31 31 nonucally better (Cainkar, Abunimah, and Raei Iraq 16 35 15 26 16 2004). Egypt 15 10 12 9 6 Currently, more than half of the Arab pop­ Lebanon 10 8 11 8 5 ulation in Illinois is native-born, although this Syria 6 6 9 5 10 Kuwait 2 3 4 4 percentage is lower among Iraqis (25 percent), Jordanians ( 40 percent), and Assyrians 3 7 per­ Total 97 97 89 83 71 cent (Paral 2004). Youths under the age of Source: Immigration and Naturalization Se.rvice. 18 comprise about one-third of Arab and Immigrants from the Arab World 187

25 percent of Assyrians in Illinois and the were expelled once Iraq was forced out. Many of Chicago PMSA. Still, it is surprising how many those holding visitor visas came to the United Arab Americans one finds living in the Arab States and were able to stay under Temporary world. Alienation and dehumanization are con- Protected Status until the mid 1990s. Then, un­ . tinuing problems that drive many Arab families able to return to Palestine because oflsraeli rules back to their countries oforigin, migrating and for Arabs, they became part ofthe small group of returning in circular patterns at different points "out of status" Palest:i.n.ians living in the United oftheir life cycle ( Cainkar, Abunimah, and Raei States. Those who did not adjust their status by 2004). the fall of2001 were expelled by the Department The post-9/11 period brought about some of Homeland Security. Few Palestinians have new trend in Arab migration. Thousands of been granted tudent visas since the 1990-91 Arab families left the Unjted States in response Gulf War. This measure to release economic to Attorney General Ashcroft's Special Registra­ pressure on Palestinians living under Israeli oc­ tion program for Arab and Muslim men, many cupation ended when their employment oppor­ voluntarily and ome by force (Cainkar 2003). tunities in the Gulf were limited. Other familie left because ofthe hostile climate Jordanian migrants to the United States and towards Arabs and Muslims. The proportion of Chicago who are not originally Pale tinian are Arabs able to come to the Uruted States for study predominantly Christians from cities and towns .and work has decreased dramatically since 9/11 in central and northern Jordan, such as Salt, (Cainkar 2004b). lrbid, Ajloun, and Fuheis. Many are relative of the smaller wave of Jordanians that came to the United States during the 1950s. Jordanians are COUNTRY MIGRATION PROFILES largely participants in the Arab hop-keeping niche, although some have profe ional and The earliest Pale tinian immigrants were technical job . laFgely unskilled peasants from village in tbe Iraqis include three major subgroups: Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem areas of Assyrians; brain-drain Iraqi Arabs and their Palestine. Because most of the e migrants sent families, who began migrating during the 1950s remittances to family back home, relatives who eeking education or profe sional employment, followed them to Chicago were a bit more or who fled the Saddam Hussein regime in the skilled and educated than their predecessor . 1970 andearly 1980 ;and the post 1990-91 Gulf The majority ofthe Palestinians migrating in the War refugees, principally Shia Mu lims but also 1965-80 period, and a significant proportion of Sunnis and Kurds, most of whom had limited those coming later, were relatives of the early educational and socioeconomic means. Illinois Palestinian immigrants. Some of them came received the fourth largest number of these from their home of second migration: Jordan. 33,000 refugees; some 2.200 Iraqi refugee and Except for Palestinians in Jordan, most other asylee were initially settled in Illinois between Palestinians in the Middle East are stateless; 1991 and 1999, the overwhelming majority in without passports, they cannot travel easily. Cook County. In 2003, just prior to invading In the 1980s, Palestinian students came to the . Iraq, the Bush administration launched an ini­ United States in numbers that exceeded immi­ tiative to interview 50,000 Iraqis in the United grants. Their goals were largely to study engi­ State . Many ofthe Iraqi refugees were recruited neering and other specializations needed in the to work in the Pentagon or with American forces Arab Gulf countries so that they could land in Iraq. lucrative jobs. Many ended up staying in the · Egyptians did not begin migrating to the Uruted States when their job options in these United States in significant numbers un­ countries closed down, thus starting a new til the 1950s. Although many Egyptians Live family migration. When Saddam Hussein in­ in metropolitan Chicago, it is not a major vaded Kuwait in 1990, some 350,000 Palestinians hub of Egyptian resettlement. Egyptian immi­ were living there. The overwhelming majority grants tend to be familie of highly educated 188 Louise Cainkar professionals. Many are Muslims but, a large Assyrian associations are headquartered inthese number of Coptic Christians and some Protes­ neighborhoods. A major Arab and Assyrian tants are aJso present Unlike other Arab im­ commercial district runs from Montrose to migrants, substantial numbers ofEgyptians en­ north of Lawrence Avenue on Kedzie. Mid­ tered the United States on visas granted because dle Eastern cuisine, music, dance, and flavored oftheir skills, not their relationship to an Amer­ tobacco smoked in water pipes are increasing ican citizen. in popularity in Chicago urban culture. The Post-1965 Syrian immigrants are of three concentration of Arabs near O'Hare airport groups: relatives of earlier Arab immigrant~, is mainly Iraqis and other Arabs with limou­ mostly Christians; well-educated Syrians, such sine and taxi businesses. Arabs are also no­ as doctors, pharmacists, and scientists, seeking table in the middle and upper-middle class better job opportunities in the United States; suburbs ofOakbrook, Bloo.mingdale, Schaun1- and students who came to the United States for berg, and Naperville. These areas are home to higher education. Thelatter two groups are both highly educated, professional Arabs ofEgyptian, Christian and Muslim. Lebanese migration to Syrian, . Lebanese, Palestinian, and Jordanian Illinois in the post 1965 era is relatively small and origin. quite varied. Yemenis are the sixth largest group The Iraqi Shia Muslim community has a of Arabs to migrate to the Chicago area. Their small storefront mosque on west Addison Av­ migration increased after 1990, when about enue. Two other North Side mosques with Arab l million Yemenis lost their jobs as a result ofthe congregants are the Muslim Community Cen­ 1990-91 Gulf War. Yemenis are a rather unique ter on Elston and a new mosque on Belmont. group among modern Arab immigrants because Mosques in the city of Chkago serve a range more than 80 percent of them are unaccompa­ ofindigenous African American and immigrant nied men who come to the United States to work, Muslim communities {Map 14.2, color insert). save money, and support their families in Yemen. Four Assyrians churches stand on Chicago's The main Yemeni occupation in metropolitan North Side. Arab Christians are a range of de­ Chicago is urban shopkeeper. nominations. Their religious institutions in­ clude St. George Orthodox Church in Cicero, St. Mary's Orthodox Church in Alsip, St. John AREAS OF RESIDENCE, SHOPPING, the Baptist Syrian Orthodox. Chllrch in Villa AND WORSHIP Park, St. Mary's Catholic Church in Elmhurst, · St. Mark's Coptic Church in Burr Ridge, Map 14.1 (see color insert) indicates areas of St. Mary's Coptic Church in Palatine, and St. Arabs and Assyrians concentration in Cook and Elias Lutheran Church on the city's North Side. DuPage counties, The southwest side ofChicago Some 30 mosques in Chicago's suburbs serve and its ~outhwest suburbs are the most densely multi-ethnicMuslim congregations (Map 14.l). populated Arab areas, with large concentrations of Palestin~ans and Jordanians, as well as some Yemenis and a small numbers of other Arabs. EDUCATION, OCCUPATIONS, AND The visibility oftheir businesses, such as grocery ECONOMIC INTEGRATION stores, bakeries, butchers, restaurants, insurance agencies, realtors, barbers, beauticians, doctors, Arab immigrants have a wide range of income, dentists, and lawyers, attests to their presence. education, and skill levels. ·Like other immi­ The North Side is more ethnically diverse grants, the skills and financial resources they than the southwest side and suburbs, being bring with them and the social capital they populated by Iraqis, Assyrians, Palestinians, find where they settle strongly shape their eco­ Jordanians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Notable con­ nomic fates. The national profile for Arabs centrationsofArabs and Assyrians live in Albany and Assyrians shows that they are well inte­ Park and West Rogers Park. A number of grated into the American economy. Nationally, Immigrants from the Arab World 189

they have a higher median household income Another 13 percent work in transportation ($47,000) than the overall American population and production, and IO percent in service ($42,000). They also have a greater proportion (ParaJ 2004). Palestinians, Jordanians, Iraqis, ofpersons with bachelor's degrees or higher ( 40 Assyrians, and "Arabs" (mainly Palestinians) are percent versus 24 percent).6 Seventeen percent less likely to work as professionals than others of them have post-graduate degrees, compared from the Arab world and are more likely to be to 9 percent ofthe overall American population. a spectrum of managers (largely of their own Their rate ofperson with at least a high school busine e ), sales workers (largely in co-ethnic diploma parallels the overall U.S. rate at 85 per­ businesses), and transportation workers (taxi, cent. Some 64 percent of Arabs and Assyrians limousine, and trucks). An analysisofl990 Cen­ are in the United tates labor force, similar to su PUMS data organized by industry showed the national average. that 79 percent of employed Arabs living on In Illinois, the median Arab household in­ the southwe t side of Chicago and 75 percent come as measured by Census 2000 is $46,590, of those in the southwest suburbs worked in dose to the statewide median. Egyptian, Leb­ the retail and professional ectors of the econ­ anese, Syrian, and Assyrian medians are higher, omy, the vast majority in retail. The same study whereas those for other groups are lower (Ta­ (Cainkar 1998) showed that ofArabs employed ble 14.4). About 16 percent of Arabs in Illi­ in sales, 76 percent ofsouthwest suburban Arabs nois live below the poverty level, higher than were supervisors and owners, whereas 16 per­ the statewide norm of 11 percent. Table 14.4 cent were workers. The opposite held for the shows that the poor are concentrated among southwest side of the city, where 65 percent of Iraqis, Palestinians, and Jordanians (mostly eth­ Arabs in sales occupationswereworkers whereas nic Palestinians). only 35 percent were supervisors and propri­ Occupational patterns for Arabs in Ulinois etors. Compared to Arabs in the United States (and by extension metropolitan Chicago) as a whole, the concentration of Arabs in re­ mirror national patterns. Arabs are over­ tail occupations in Chicago and Cook County is represented in managerial, professional, sales, striking (Table 14.5). and office occupations. Seventy-two percent of Arabs are employed in these occupations. THE ARAB SHOPKEEPING NICHE

TABLE 14.4. Arabs and Assyrians in lllinois: Arabemployment and ownership ih trading and Median Household Income and Poverty Rates shopkeeping, a niche established 100 years ago by Lebanese and Palestinian immigrants, re­ Percent of mains strong in twenty-first-century Chicago. Median household pe.rsons below Group income poverty level Most second-generation Lebanese moved out of this niche and into white-collar and profes­ All Arabs $46,595 15.8 sional occupations, but Palestinians have stayed Lebanese $57,656 7.2 Syrians $57,422 9.2 in it over the past century. They were joined in Egyptians $56,944 7.9 the 1950s by Jordanians and later by Yemenis. Assyrians $49,027 8.3 By the early 1970s, Arabs owned nearly 20 per­ All Illinois $46,590 10.7 cent of all small grocery and Liquor stores in Iraqi $45,991 19.9 Chicago, although they were less than 1 per­ Palestinian $39,804 18.3 "Arab/Arabic"* $39,349 20.5 centofChicago's population ( Blackistone 1981). Jordanian $32,703 17.6 · Most were located in African American neigh­ ------borboods, where Palestinians had historically • Persons with this re pon e 1end to be Palestinians, ail worked in trade. Contributing to the Arab ret · according to earlier research by the author. lndudes many Palestinians. expansion in these areas was the void left when Source: Census 2000 as tabulated by Rob Paral, 2004. corporate chains and small merchants pulled 190 Louise Cainkar

TABLE 14.5. Employed Arabs by Industry, 1990

Southwest outhwest North United Industry ide (%) suburbs (%) side(%) States (%) Retail 67 55 45 24 Professional and related service 12 20 9 26 Tran portation, communication, utilitie 12 5 8 6 Business and repair service 7 7 3 5 Personal service 0 0 13 3 Manufacturing durable 2 13 4 7

Source; 1990 United States Censu , as tabulated in Cainkar 1998.

their investments out of these neighborhoods cestry and 14,428 persons ofAssyrian ancestry. in response to the rioting and unrest that fol­ No one. in Chicago's Arab community accepts lowed decades ofracial discrimination. Many lo­ these numbers as accurate. Polling and research cal properties were damaged and looted, chain firm Zogby International estimated that at least stores and small Jewish and Italian merchants 177,000 people from Arabic-speaking coun­ left, and· Palestinians and a growing commu­ tries live in Cook and DuPage countie , includ­ nity of Jordanians filled the void. Institutional ing Assyrians, Somali , and udanese who the lenders were largely unwilling to provide loans Census Bureau counts separately. In 1998, the for businesses in these areas, limiting the pos­ Chicago Commission on Human Relations, Ad­ sibility of African American investment. With visory Council on Arab Affairs estimated the years of experience in urban trading and shop­ metropolitan Chicago Arab population at about keeping, Arab entrepreneurs with access toJoans 150,000, plus about 65,000 Assyrians. knew how to urvive in small businesses where These discrepancies are not new. In 1980, costs were high, inventory small, and personal the U.S. Census counted 25,288 per ons of safety risky. They had two significant advantages Palestinian ancestry in the United States, while over local African Americans: access to capital a 1984 Censu Bureau study estimated that through family, friends, and dairy companies; there were at least 87,700 Palestinians in the and access to nearly free family labor-siblings United tates, a 350 percent difference (Roof and offspring willing work 10 to 12 hour days for and Kin ella 1985). lo 1986, demographer little compensation and no benefits. Since the Jan'et Lippman Abu-Lughod (1986) estimated 1990s, Palestinian , Jordanian , and Iraqis have there were some 130,000 Palestinians in the ventured into new commercial arenas, such as United States. 8 Four years later, the 1990 Cen us gas stations, fast food restaurants, taxi driving, counted only 48,019 Palestinians. This discrep­ and limousine services. ancy emerges again when comparing the num­ ber of Palestinian and Jordanian immigrants to Illinois between 1972 and 2000 ( 14,701) and the COUNTlNG PEOPLE FROM THE ARAB number of immigrant and U.S.-born Palestini­ WORLD: THE EFFECT OF RACE, ans and Jordanians in lllinoi.s counted by Cen­ DIASPORA, AND CRIMTNALIZATION sus 2000 (11,727). For a population that has low levels of permanent return· migration, rel­ Census 2000 counted 52,191 perSQns of Arab atively high birth rates, low· out-migration to ancestry and 15,664 persons ofAssyrian ances­ other states, and in which more than half of the try in Illinois, of which 55 percent of the for­ population is U.S.-bom, one would expect the mer and 37 percent of the latter were born in census figure to beatleast three times that ofthe the United tates.7 The overwhelming majority migration cohort. The·sociological issues that live in Cook and DuPage counties, where Cen­ surround counting Arabs are discussed below, sus 2000 counted 40,196 per oos of Arab an- when we view these discrepancie through the Immigrants from the Arab World 191

lens of sociaJ and political factors. In the case COUNTING ARAB ANCESTRIE: ofArabs, undercounting may reflect the conver­ GOVERNMENT POLICIE , TRUST, AND gence of the globaJ and the locaJ. THE CRIMINALIZATION OF ARA.BS

Studies have shown that Arabs in the United · COUNTED AS WHITE: States fear government reporting mechanisms THE RACIALIZATION OF ARABS (such as the census) because ofgovernment ha­ rassment. Since the e.arly 1970s, the FBI bas spied Many Arabs in the United States say that they are on Arab American community leaders and ac­ not effectively counted by the census because, tivists. In 1988, the LosAngeles Times disclosed a unlike other minority groups, no category ex­ draft Department of Justice plan to round up ists for them on the census form. This i not ex­ Arab and Muslim aliens and hold them in a actly true. Arabs are officially considered white camp in Oakdale, -Louisiana (Suleiman 1999). and are expected to check the Caucasian box on Their fears ofbeing pinpointed for special mea- c.en us form . This act renders them invisible. ures, as were the Japanese during World War Arabs can be counted on the Jong form' open­ n, came to life in 2004, when a Department of ended ancestry question, similar to the way in Homeland Security staff member requested a which other "white" groups (mostly Europeans) Census Bureau report of persons of Arab an­ · are counted. Becau e the long form is sent only cestry data organized by zip code (Clemetson · to a 17 percent ample of the U.. population, 2004).9 The Decennial Census Advisory Com­ small groups tend to be undercounted through mittee called this action the "modern day equiv­ thi method. More important, since the vast ma­ alent of its pinpointing of Japanese-American jority of Arab never ee the short form, their communities when internment camps were belief that the census does not count them is opened during World War U" (Lipton 2004). ustained. ln the context ofotherdeterrents ( dis­ Current research shows that a large propor­ cussed later), this belief may lead to low levels of tion of Arab Muslims living in metropolitan compliance. Chicago fear internment or removal in the Issues of race are germane to counting Arabs event of another terrorist attack on the United because Arabs are forced into a category with States. Despite a subsequent revision of Cen- which fewer and fewer identify, and in which us Bureau policy, the usefulness of census they cannot be distinguished from Europeans, data for counting Arabs in the United States with whom their American experience has much will likely decrease further as a result of these less in common than it did 100 years ago. Arabs revelations. and Assyrians lie on a hi torically floating, limi­ nal position on the racial construct continuum. Considerable evidence suggests that, since the THE MEANING OF PLACES OF BIRTH 1970s, Arabs have been increa ingly negatively IN DIASPORA POPULATIONS racialized in the United State ( amhan 1999). While still officially white, Arabs have been pro­ Counting, categorizing, and describing immi­ gressively cast as persons with values and cus­ grants from the Arab world are tasks that are toms different from and inferior to those held especially difficult for two large diasporic pop­ in high regard in American society. Over the pas­ ulations, Palestinians and Assyrian . Neither sage of time, the negative racialization of Arabs population can be identified strictly in reference has intensified, so that Arabs have become a to a place of birth becau e large segments of symbolic outcast group. A 2004 tudy of Arab both groups live in exile. For example, an analy- Muslims in metropolitan Chicago by this au­ . sis of 1990 Census PUMS data for the south­ thorreveals that some 65 percent ofinterviewees west side neighborhoods of Chicago that are do not consider themselves white and another borne to Pale tinians and Jordanians showed 14.5 percent believe no appropriate racial con­ the following places of birth for persons of struct exists for multiracial Arabs. Arab ancestry: Jordan, 31 percent; Palestine, 192 Louise Cainkar

27 percent; Israel, 21 percent; Saudi Arabia, THE G LOBAL AND TH E LOCAL 10 percent; Kuwait, 8 percent; Lebanon, l per­ cent; and Egypt, I .percent. The persons born in These racialization, criminalization, and era­ Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Israel are not Saudis, sure processes and the ways they are interpreted Kuwaitis, and Israeli Jews; they are Palestinians.· and acted upon by Arabs, indicate the intersec­ S~ly, Assyrians may be born in Iran, Iraq, tion of politics and social processes. They show Syria, and Lebanon, among other places. Fur­ how something as seemingly simple as filling thermore, many Arabs report ,Arab ethnicity out a form becomes politicized. Perhaps the and not a nationality group, such as Lebanese, most striking aspect of these processes is the Palestinian, or Egyptian, making profiles of way in which they are set in motion by global, Arabs by nationality problematic. An examina­ as opposed to domestic, matters. Throughout tion of 1990 census data for Arabs on the south­ the 1980s and 1990s, American popular culture west side ofChicago, which is mainly inhabited produced movies, video games, Halloween cos­ by Palestinians and some Jordanians, showed tumes, and talk shows that homogenized and that62 percent reported "Arab" as their ancestry dehumanized Arabs (Suleiman 1999; Stockton (Cainkar 1998). 1995; ·shaheen 1984). Their targets were not In an action that corresponds to their cur­ the Arabs ofAmerica, although these portray­ rent global status, the Census Bureau eradi­ als could not help but color and damage their cated the Palestine category altogether for Cen­ lives; the representations were ofoverseas Arabs. sus 2000; persons listing Palestine as their place Their infusion throughout American popu­ of birth were changed to "Asia not specified." 10 lar culture had the effect of discouraging the Indeed, neither the U.S. Census Bureau nor the American public from reflecting on American Immigration and Naturalization Service (rNS) policies in the Arab world, especially in Iraq and has a nationality, country of birth, or country Palestine. School textbooks described Arabs as of last permanent residence category entitled desert wanderers, terrorists, and a defeated peo­ Palestinian or Palestine ( except when tabulating ple. The discourse ofthe culturally inferior Arab the write-in ancestry responses). 1957 was the had become part ofAmerican popular culture. last year Palestine existed as a country in these These domestic discourses and representations official U.S. data sources. ofArabs, later expanded to Muslims, show that Because Palestinians are the largest Arab pop­ racialization is not a process set in motion by ulation in metropolitan Chicago, estimating domestic matters alone; it can be a corollary to their number is important but extremely dif­ a global strategy. ficult. Census 2000 reports 11,727 Palestinians and Jordanians in Illinois ( excluding the po­ tentially large number of Palestinians and COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION AND Jordanians who identified their ancestry as COALITION-BUILDING: GLOBAL Arab). Ifwe assume that 33 percent ofall Arabs AFFAIRS PENETRATE LOCAL LIVES in Illinois are ofPalestinian-Jordanian ancestry (based on migration, Table 14.2), they would Following the 1967 Israeli occupation of the total 17,223 using Census 2000 data and 72,600 West Bank, Gaza, and part of Egypt, a battle using Zogby estimates (220,000 in Illinois). The was waged in the American media for the hearts same figures for Cook and DuPage counties and minds of the American people. The U.S. would be 13, 265 (Census) and 58,410 (Zogby). government was by this time a global power Demographers who have studied Palestinians and had thrown its support to the Israeli side assume that about 350,000 Palestinians live in ofthe conflict. Palestinians and Arabs were por­ the United States today. If 15 percent of all trayed by the mainstream media as uncivilized, Palestinians live in Illinois (Table 14.2), the fig­ violence-prone barbarians (Suleiman 1999). 11 ure for Palestinians in Illinois would be about When Arab American$ ·began exercising their 52,000. rights to oppose these characterizations, they Immigrants from the Arab World 193 discovered that their voices were locked out in a ican communjty, Locally and nationally, elected one-sided media battle. The Association ofArab officials and power brokers shunned Arab American University Graduates (AAUG) was Americans, refusing their electoral support founded in I 970 to provide the American public and returning their campaign donations. Arab with an alternative scholarly analysis ofthe situa- American institutions faced closed doors at . tion, but it too was ignored by mainstream me­ philanthropic foundations and city govern­ dia. Arab academics reported facing pressures ment. In Chicago, this political exclusion to conform to accepted paradigms about Arabs changed after the I984 eJectoral victory of and the Middle East and faced struggles for pro­ Mayor Harold Washington; Arab Americans motion and tenure in the social sciences and had formed part of the multi-racial, multi­ humanities. ethnic progressive coalition that elected him. In Chicago, members ofthe Arab community Chicago's Arab community was institutionally who were shocked and traumatized by the flow recognized when Mayor Was!ungton established of refugees and new Israeli military occupation advisory councils for Chicago's racial, ethnic, reached out to local Arab academics for analy es. and other minority communities within the At the same time, academics sought outthe com­ Chicago Commission on Human Relations, in­ fort of an Arab community. A bridge was built cluding one for Arabs. This inclusion was built between the Chicago's Arab intelligentsia and its on ties made between Arabs and progressive Arab community, fostered largely by the United African American, Latino, and Asian activists, Holy Land Fund and later by the Arab American as well as relation hips with Operation Push Community Center (now Arab American Ac­ and Jesse and Jackie Jackson, who had played tion etwork). Finding their political and so­ key roles in reducing tensions between African cial integration into American society blocked Americans and the Arab grocers who permeated by stereotypes, media censure, government ha­ their neighborhoods. The philanthropic block rassment, and denigration of their political as­ faced by Arab American community organiza­ pirations, Arab American communities became tions ended in the mid 1990s, when the Chicago fairly insular. Their i olation from mainstream Community Trust funded a needs assessment American ociety nourished their concentration for the Arab American community. The Arab in the Arab hop-keeping niche, where con­ American community was mobilized for the tact with white American institutions and prej­ first time in national electoral politics a part udice wa limited. The family and community of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition and his institutions encouraged pride in Arab culture 1988 democratic presidential bid. Significantly, among an American-born generation that heard the Coalition's platform included support for a quite different messages from the outside world Palestinian state. When mainstream Democrats and at school. Family and community cohesive­ embraced the Coalition, this plank was dropped. ness were evidenced by low rates of criminality, Although the Arab community had entered the broken families, or ubstance abuse. Transna­ 1990s in a better position locally, some of their tional issues permeated American Jewish com­ strength was eroded when the progressive coali­ munities as well, but they were the victor , tions of the 1970s and 1980s experienced losses they were not stateless, and their advocacy did in power locally, nationally, and globally. The not lead to dehumanization and exclu ion, as. les ened power of progressive political coali­ did Arab advocacy of the Palestinian cau e. tions hurt Arab American communities and These political conflicts never spilled over into interrupted their nascent social and political conflicts between Arabs and Jews in Chicago; integration as members of people-of-color some Jewish institutions welcomed Arab speak­ coalitions. Lack of social and political inte­ ers and Arab organization welcomed Jewish ·gration and the loss of a strong progressive supporters. 12 movement hurt Arab and Muslim Americans The e issues did, however, affect the social after the September ll,200 I terrorist attacks, and civic integration of Chicago's Arab Amer- when their communities experienced a surge 194 Louise Cainkar of violent popular backlash and increased lev­ Following the September 11, 200 l attacks els ofdomestic government repression ( Cainkar on the United States substantial popular and 2004a). governmental backlash occurred against Arabs The 1990-91 Gulf War, from which the and Muslims in the United States. In southwest Palestinians and the PLO emerged politically suburban Bridgeview, the largely Palestinian and financially weakened, led to the demise mosque was surrounded by hundreds ofangry, of many Palestinian community organizations flag-wavingyoungwhites, someshouting"death in Chicago. When Palestinian community cen­ to the Arabs." Bridgeview police called in six ters closed or cut back their activities, the suburban police departments to help maintain community-wide cohesiveness that had pro­ control. For fourdays, residents ofthe neighbor­ vided newcomers and Arab American youth hood around the mosque had to pass through with pride, strength, and resilience in the face checkpoints and show identification to be ad­ ofdiscrimination and political disappointments mitted. Although much. ofthe post-September started shattering. Mirroring changes overseas, 11th backlash focused on Muslims and thevacuum left in the wake ofthe destruction of Islamic institutions, Arab Christians, Assyrian nationalist institutions was filled by spirituality Christians, and secular Muslims have also expe­ and religion for many, and demobilization for rienced hate crimes anddiscrimination. In2002, others. an Assyrian church on the city's North Side was firebombed and the Arab American Commu­ nity Center was arsoned. GLOBAL ISLAMIC REVIVAL COMES At the same time, Islamic civic and religious TO CHICAGO institutions in metropolitanChicago stepped up their outreach, advocacy, and civic participa­ The Islamic revival movement grew in strength tion. Many mainstream institutions welcomed across the Muslim world during the 1980s and them, signaling the opening ofcivic and politi­ surged during the 1990s, when few alterna­ cal space for American Arab and Muslim com­ tive global movements for justice and equal­ munities. Despite the fact that numerous in­ ity were to be found, and American hegemony vestigations, including the Congressional 9/11 had risen out of the defeat and fall of com­ Commission, showed that no Arab American munism. Islamic revival became apparent in or Muslim American collaborated with or as­ metropolitan Chicago during the 1990s, and sistedthe 20 hijackers from overseas, hate attacks was evidenced by increasing levels of religios­ and discrimination against Arabs and Muslims ity among immigrants and second-generation have continued.In 2004, when a group ofsouth­ Arab Muslims, the establishment of Islamic west suburban Arab Muslims sought to build a schools and organizations, and the growth in mosque in an unincorporated area near Orland Muslim student organizations on college cam­ Park, opposition raged. The Orland Park city pus~s. Islamic revival is, for the overwhelming council (which sou~t to annex the land) was majority of Muslims, about faith in God and pressured to hold three public hearings on the the quest for peace, justice, and equality. The matter. The matter was settled when the city growing spiritual power of Islam among Arab council voted unanimously to annex the land (and other) Muslims in metropolitan Chicago slated for the mosque, thereby approving the is a phenomenon with many visible markers, mosque's construction permit. such as increasing mosque attendance, Halal Testimony given at the final OrlandPark pub­ meat markets, and Islamic clothing stores. Im­ lic hearing (April 2004) provides insight into migrant and American-born Muslim women the discourses ofopposition to the mosque. The who had never before veiled have adopted the issues raised by most opponents had little to hijab (head scarf), once uncommon, but now do with Orland Park; they were global. They a common sight in the Chicago metropolitan invoked the war in Iraq, international terror­ area. ism, the purported violent essence oflslam, and Immigrant from the Arab World 195 homeland security. The followin·g quote pro­ NOTES vide a sense of the context of opposition: l. The term "Arab world" is more accurate than • "We care about America. We care about Middle ~ because it is definable. "Middle East" is a Western con truct having varying definitions what's going on because we don't want you and boundaries. The Arab world is composed of to bring it here. We're not saying that you'll the 22 Arab countries that form the League of Arab bring it, but you must understand, that be­ States. cause you're tied iri with this religion and a 2. Between 19 l6 and 1919, cross-Atlantic travel possible mosque in Orland Park, it will come was limited by war. More than 90 percent of Arab im­ to our doorstep." migrants came to the United States from other coun­ • "Can you give a guarantee to me that the e tries in the Americas. When Arab initially boarded ships for "America:' their destinations included the Muslims and their mosque are not going to Caribbean, South, Central, or NortQAmerica- aU sites be terrorists?" of historic Arab communities. 3. Prior to the establishment of Lebanon within former Greater Syria, one must use the term yrian­ CONCLUSION Lebaneseto indicate migrants from Syria and modern­ day Lebanon. 4. Jordan and Palestine are combined for a num­ Metropolitan Chicago is home to the large t ber of reason , the mo t important being that some Assyrian and Pale tinian communitie in the 80 percent of Jordanians migrating to the United United States, both of which were established tates are originally Palestinians. Other rea ons have more than a century ago. It is also home to signif­ to do with pa sports and ways that Palestinians are icant numbers of Iraqis, Egyptians, Jordanians, counted. Syrians, Lebanese, and Yemenis. Overall, the e 5. More than 60 percent of the Palesti.njan pop­ ulation Lives in diaspora, the vast majority in Arab communities are faring well economically, al­ countries, some ofwhich have offered Palest:iruans cit­ though pockets of poverty exist within them. izenship. Jordan gave citizenship to the majority of The effect of more recent discrimination on 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugee and exile , now those with fewer assets and less human capital numbering in the million . For a time, it gav We t remains to be seen. Their community hi tories Bank Palestinians citizenship. lsrael offered citizen- reveal challenge to their ocial and political in­ hip to the few hundred thousand Palestinians who tegration, largely caused by domestic intere t managed to hold onto their land after Israeli inde­ pendence. Lebanon offered citizenship to ome (rel­ in contested global issues. The post eptember atively few ) Palestinian refugees, mo tJy Christian . 11th period witnessed increases i.n public at­ The majority of "Kuwaiti" and "Saudi''. immigrants tacks, government spying, media stereotyping, are Palestinians who migrated to the e countries for and levels of per onal alienation. At the rune work and came to the United States in a third migra­ time, numerous philanthropic and civic organi­ tion. Pale tinian are also part oflsraeli, Lebanese, and zations in the Chicago area have come forward to a lesser extent Syrian and Yemeni migration. Most to support institution built by Arabs Assyrians, Palestinian refuge living in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and Egypt have no passports, rendering migration and Muslims. While the post September 11th pe­ difficult. riod has been extremely difficult for the e com­ 6. These data are from the Arab American lnstitute munitie , their civic and religious institution tabulations of Census 2000 and combine all pe.r ons are more socially and politically integrated at the from Arab countries, whether Arab or Assyrian, and local level than at any other time in their history. include Sudane e and omalis. The full social and political integration ofArab 7. If we add half of the Armenian to these num­ and Assyrians into American society awaits an ber , assuming they came from Arab countries, the to­ tal number ofIllinoisan from Arab countries counted end to media stereotyping, an opening up to by Census 2000 reaches 67,981. their voices in domestic debates, and peace and 8. A 15 percent rate of Palestinian settlement in justice in the Middle East. The Arab and Assyrian Illinois using thi estimate would put the approx­ experience in Chicago is entrenched in the local imate number of Palestinian in Illinois at 20,000 but at the same time, is inten ely global. in 1986. Both of these researcher used migration 196 Louise Cainkar and natural increase data to produce their esti­ 10. This is not the first time "Palestine" has dis­ mates and excluded Palestinians who migrated to appeared in official U.S. data. See Cainkar 1998 for a the United States before 1940 and their U.S.-bom much longer history. descendants. · 11. This is not to deny the orientalized view of 9. The data sharing on Arabs between DHS .and Arabs that predates this period, described so elo­ the Census Bureau was disclosed by a Freedom of quently by Edward Said in Orientalism (1978). Information Act request submitted by the Electronic 12. This information is from my fieldwork in Privacy Information Center, a research center focused Chicago during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as from on civil liberties. national records.