Middle Eastern Americans
Middle Eastern Americans are Americans of Middle Eastern background. This includes people whose background is from the various Middle Eastern and West Asian ethnic groups, such as the Kurds and Assyrians, as well as immigrants from modern-day countries of the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, and Armenia.[2][3][4][5]
Although once considered Asian Americans, the modern definition of "Asian American" now excludes people with West Asian backgrounds.[6]
History[edit]
One of the first large groups of immigration from the Middle East to the United States came by boat from the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s. Although U.S. officials referred to them as Turkish, most referred to themselves as Syrian, and it is estimated that 85 percent of these Ottoman immigrants came from modern Lebanon. Later, new categories were created for Syrians and Lebanese.[7]: 4
The number of Armenians who migrated to the U.S. from 1820 to 1898 is estimated to be around 4,000[8] and according to the Bureau of Immigration, 54,057 Armenians entered the U.S. between 1899 and 1917, with the vast majority coming from the Ottoman Empire.[9] The largest Armenian American communities at that time were located in New York City; Fresno; Worcester, Massachusetts; Boston; Philadelphia; Chicago; Jersey City; Detroit; Los Angeles; Troy, New York; and Cleveland.[10]
Another wave of immigration from the Middle East began in 1946, peaking after the 1960s. Since 1968, these immigrants have arrived from such countries as Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon.[7]: 11