History[edit]
Pre-1967[edit]
The history of the Jordanian immigration to the United States is relatively recent. The first identifiable wave of immigration from Jordan to the United States occurred after the Second World War (1945). Those first Jordanians settled in Chicago, (especially in the Near West and Southwest Sides sections),[3] New York City, and the Southwest and West Coast states (i.e. California). Over 5,000 Jordanians arrived to the United States in the 1950s.
These early migrants were forced to work as immigrants because of poverty that Jordan suffered at the time, caused by the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which took place in this small country. They were a group of hard workers that included businessmen and doctors, between others. Many men lived temporarily in the USA and returned with their families to Jordan after several years working or studying there.[3] In those early years, people in the Jordanian East Bank and West Bank Palestinians could travel to the United States with Jordanian passports, creating the undefined category "Palestinian – Jordanian."[3]
After 1967[edit]
In the mid 1960s, due to U.S. immigration laws and the Six-Day War of 1967 in Jordan, the number of Jordanians who emigrated to the United States exceeded the 11,000 people. At this time, the majority chose to settle in Western cities and in the southwest of the country, except the wealthy Jordanians who felt more comfortable in the suburbs of large cities. Then in the 1970s, a civil war broke out in Jordan, causing 27,535 Jordanians emigrated to the USA. In the 1980s, annually emigrated around 2,500 Jordanian to the USA. By then, the Jordanian community in the United States had grown at a rapid pace, and it already represented a large population. This was in large part related to the Arab-Israeli war in Jordan, as well as the Black September of 1971. Therefore, a substantial number of Jordanians who settled in the United States at this time were war refugees. The total number of Jordanian immigrants from 1820 to 1984 was 56,720. This wave of Jordanian emigration was due to internal strife in his country, as well as economic issues. Salaries in the United States were higher than in Jordan, which incentivized workers to immigrate.[4]
Employment and Economic traditions[edit]
Most of Jordanian Americans are professors/teachers, scientists, doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs. It is often men who will work outside the home, similar to the traditions in Jordan and many other Middle Eastern Countries. Many Jordanians will emigrate to the United States to study at university, and some of them are financially helped by the government of Jordan.[4]
Religion[edit]
The majority of Jordanian Americans are Sunni Muslims, but many others are Catholics, Greek Orthodox Christians, and to a lesser extent, Protestants and Evangelicals.[4] The majority of the Christian Jordanian American community are of Palestinian descent.
Organizations[edit]
Jordanians have many organizations in the U.S., including the Jordanian American Association[7][8] and the Jordanian American Association of New York. The Jordanian American Association is based in South San Francisco, and its goal is to establish social activities for the Jordanian Americans of Northern California[8] The Jordanian American Association of New York aims to relate to Jordanian residents in different parts of the city, and to help establish relationships between them and their families in Jordan.[9]