Assyrian Americans refers to people born in or residing in the United States of full or partial Assyrian origin. The Assyrians are a Semitic Eastern Aramaic-speaking ethnic group, and the indigenous people of what is today northern Iraq, north east Syria, south east Turkey and north west Iran, descending from the ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia (see Assyrian continuity). They are Christians, and the majority are followers of the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church.
Contents
- History
- In Detroit
- In California
- Distribution
- Michigan
- California
- Illinois
- Syriac and Syrian distinction
- Notable Assyrian Americans
- References
The United States constitutes the largest population of Assyrian people in the Assyrian diaspora.
The 2000 U.S. census counted 82,355 Assyrians in the country, of whom 42% (34,484) lived in Michigan. However, Assyrian-American organizations claim that their population in 2010 is around 400,000. The largest Assyrian-Chaldean diaspora is located in Metropolitan Detroit, with a figure of 100,000 as of 2007. High concentrations are also located in Chicago, Phoenix, Modesto, San Diego, Los Angeles and Turlock, among others.
The first large wave of Assyrian immigration to the United States due to the Assyrian Genocide, which occurred 1914–1920. The United States is home to the third largest Assyrian community in the world.
History
Assyrians have been present in the United States since the late 19th century. The first Assyrians who came to the United States were young men sent by Western missionaries for religious training.
Following those years, Assyrian immigration to America mostly stopped due to the Immigration Act of 1924 which effectively cut off any legal immigration to the United States for Assyrians and other non Western European groups. Some still managed to arrive due to extended family members of immigrants coming over due to their relatives. The second large wave of Immigration occurred in the 1960s and 70s, made up mostly of ethnic Assyrians (many of whom were members of the Chaldean Catholic Church) from northern Iraq coming due to conflicts and persecution by the Baathist government of Iraq. Many Assyrians also arrived during this period to take advantage of the situation in Detroit, which was suffering from white flight.
Due to white flight, Assyrians in Detroit gained a monopoly over grocery stores and other small businesses, and in many cases used their finances and newfound wealth to benefit the Assyrian community there and take in Assyrian refugees from Iraq. More Assyrians arrived throughout the 80s and 90s for similar reasons, with newer residents moving out of Detroit into suburbs such as Royal Oak and Sterling Heights due to the Crack epidemic in Detroit, while others began to move to San Diego, establishing a new Assyrian community there.
In 2005, the first Assyrian school in the United States, the Assyrian American Christian School, opened in Tarzana, Los Angeles.
In Detroit
Assyrian immigration to the cities in Michigan began in the early 20th century. The cities in the state include, but are not limited to, Detroit, Southfield, Sterling Heights, Oak Park, Troy, West Bloomfield, Commerce, Walled Lake, Rochester Hills, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Warren, Bloomfield Hills and Ann Arbor. More and more Assyrians-Chaldeans, as they establish themselves financially, quickly move out of Detroit and into the other locations, including San Diego and cities in Arizona.
Before the 1970s, Assyrians came to the United States in search of greater economic opportunities. After the 1970s, many Assyrians fled for political freedom, especially after the rise of Saddam Hussein and, after the Persian Gulf War. Some were drawn by the economic opportunities they had seen successfully affect their family members who had already immigrated.
Less stringent immigration laws during the 1960s and 1970s facilitated increasing numbers, with the 1970s seeing the highest number of Assyrians coming to the United States. In 1962, the number of Assyrian owned grocery stores was 120, but grew to 278 in 1972. The main cause of this were the 1967 Detroit riots, after which Jewish grocery store owners left the area and left the opportunity open for Assyrians to take over. Often these Jews sold their old stores to Assyrians.
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Chaldean Catholic churches in Detroit and received a key to the city in the 1980s on behalf of mayor Coleman Young, when the Baath regime was an ally of the United States government.
Mostly all new Chaldean Catholic immigrants and low-income senior citizens tend to reside in Detroit, in the 7 Mile Road between Woodward Avenue and John R Street. This area was officially named Chaldean Town in 1999. There are eight Chaldean Catholic churches in Metropolitan Detroit, located in West Bloomfield, Troy (where there are two), Oak Park, Southfield, Warren, Sterling Heights and Detroit.
In California
After World War II several Assyrian men who had been educated in Iraq by American Jesuits traveled to the United States. They were to teach Arabic to U.S. officers at the Army Language School who were going to be stationed in the Middle East. The men started the San Diego-area Chaldean Catholic community. Yasmeen S. Hanoosh, author of The Politics of Minority Chaldeans Between Iraq and America, wrote that the Chaldo-Assyrians in San Diego "continued to grow in relative isolation from the family-chain-migration based communities in and around Michigan."
Distribution
According to the 2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates there are 110,807 Assyrian people in the United States.
Michigan
There are 26,378 living in Michigan according to the 2000 United States Census.
California
There are 22,671 living in California according to the 2000 United States Census.
Illinois
There are 34,685 living in Illinois according to the 2000 United States Census.
Syriac and Syrian distinction
The U.S. federal government took the word Syrian to mean Arabs from the Syrian Arab Republic and not as one of the terms to identify the ethnically distinct Assyrians, although the terms Syrian and Syriac are accepted by mainstream majority academic opinion to be etymologically derivative of the term Assyrian, and historically meant Assyrian (see Etymology of Syria). In addition, the Syrian Arab Republic is home to many ethnicities, including Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Syriac-Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, Mhallami, Circassians and Turcomans, and is not an exclusively Arab nation.
The Syriac Orthodox Church was previously known as the Syrian Orthodox Church until a Holy Synod in 2000 voted to change it to Syriac, thus distinguishing from the Arabs. Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim wrote a letter to the Syriacs in 2000 urging them to register in the census as Syriac with a C, and not Syrian with an N to distinguish the group. He also urged them not to register as the country of origin.
On the U.S. census, there is a section for the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs, which is listed separately from Syrian, Syrian being a subcategory for Arab.