Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month

Washington Watch

April 27th, 2026

Dr. James J. Zogby ©

President

Arab American Institute

It’s Arab American Heritage month. And as it’s the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, it’s a good time to reflect on the history of Arab immigration to America and the community’s more than two and one-half centuries of continuous presence in this country. 

During America’s first century, just a trickle of immigrants came from the Arab world, leaving a handful of colorful anecdotes from this early period including that of an Arab immigrant who fought in the Revolutionary War and a delightful tale of a North African Arab who settled in North Carolina in the early 18th century. But overall, the numbers of Arabs who emigrated were quite small.

It wasn’t until the 1880s that larger groups of Arab immigrants began to arrive in the US. Like their southern European counterparts, they came to find employment opportunities in the mills that populated towns in New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwestern states. Most of those who emigrated during this period were from the areas of the Ottoman Empire that are known today as Syria and Lebanon.

Once arriving, like other ethnic immigrant communities of the same period, they settled in close proximity to extended families and friends from the villages or cities from whence they came and built places of worship to consolidate their presence and establish themselves in their new communities. Maronite Catholic and Syrian or Greek Orthodox Christian communities dot Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, all dating back to the 19th century. And America’s first mosques were founded around the same time in North Dakota and Iowa by Lebanese Muslim immigrants.

Emigration from the Mount of Lebanon region spiked during the second decade of the 20th century, owing in large part to the famine imposed on that region by the First World War by actions of both the Allies and the Turks. During that period, the Mount of Lebanon lost approximately one-half of its population to starvation, disease, or migration.

Like other communities from the Mediterranean who arrived during the same time period, many of these newer immigrants became peddlers, going door to door selling their goods and services. Because they were not from Northern Europe and had darker skin, they were considered “foreign” and a backlash developed against the Italians, Greeks, and “Syrians.” Often called “parasites,” they were victims of violence and even lynchings. By the mid-1920s, legislation was prepared to eliminate their visa allotments. Over the next few decades the number of legal immigrants from the Arab world was steeply reduced.

This first wave of Arab immigration, from the late19th century to 1920, saw about 65,000 immigrants from “Greater Syria.” During the next four decades new immigrants from Arab countries declined to fewer than 20,000. During this period, a number of factors, including the absence of new immigrants and the pressures created by two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the hyper-patriotism generated by the wars and “McCarthyism,” combined to accelerate the assimilation of the “Syrians” into American life.

By the 1960s, despite the decades-long freeze on new immigration from Arab countries, the Arab American population had increased to almost three-quarters of a million people, mostly Syrian and Lebanese, as a result of natural growth. With the restrictions on Arab immigration lifted, both the numbers and composition of Arab Americans began to change.

During the next four decades, immigration to the US from the broader Arab region increased to an average of over 100,000 per decade. This spike was mainly the result of three factors: the tumultuous conditions that shook the Arab region in the post-World War II period—including the creation of Israel and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes; the civil strife in several Arab countries resulting from their throwing off decades of colonial rule; and the backlog of Syrians and Lebanese who sought reunification with their families after several decades of separation.

While those who came in the first two waves had been mostly Christians from the Arab East, this third wave included a more diverse mix of emigrants from a broader range of Arab countries. Almost one-quarter were from Syria and Lebanon. Another quarter came from Egypt, with a slightly larger group from Jordan, many of whom were Palestinians. The remaining quarter came from 14 other Arab countries.

The most dramatic increases in Arab immigration to the US occurred in the first two decades of this century. Once again, wars and political upheaval were the major factors driving 1.1 million to immigrate during this period—with more than one half of this total coming from Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan, and another third arriving from Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. These recent Arab immigrants, like those who came in earlier waves, have followed the same settlement patterns and a similar trajectory to success. Yemenis, for example, who came in the 1970s as farm workers or dock workers, are now organized as a powerful bloc of small business owners in New York and across California, with their children forming an association of young Yemeni professionals. The same is true for Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Iraqis, and the more recent Somali and Sudanese communities. 

While in the last century, Arab American elected officials were mainly Lebanese, there are now Palestinian, Egyptian, Yemeni, Somali, and Sudanese in public office.  

These are the success stories we tell and celebrate. They are true but to make the picture complete, a few additional factors must be noted. 

Upheavals across the Middle East, coupled with disastrous US policies toward many of these crises, prompted many Arab Americans to become active politically. The problem we confronted was that as our numbers grew and as we developed organizational capacity and became more active in politics, some pro-Israel groups took a zero-sum approach to political empowerment. Efforts were made to silence our voices, tarnish our reputations, and have us excluded from politics and media. This resulted in painful exclusion, dangerous Arab-baiting and the smearing of Arab American leaders and activists. For some, it took the form of death threats and political violence targeting our community’s leaders and organizations.

But the story does not end there. Despite the bigotry, the hate crimes, and the campaigns designed to slander and silence us, my community has continued to grow in capacity, in representation, and in voice. What is perhaps most remarkable is not the hostility that the community endured. Rather, it’s the persistence of Arab Americans in demanding full participation in American civic life, never losing faith in the promise of America as a nation of immigrants and the knowledge that our work strengthens American democracy every day.