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Assyrian Americans

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Assyrian Americans
Total population
94,000 (2022)[1]
0.03% of the US population
Regions with significant populations
Phoenix, Arizona · San Diego, California · Chicago, Illinois · Metro Detroit, Michigan · Turlock, California
Languages
Assyrian, English
Religion
Christianity
(majority: Syriac Christianity; minority: Protestantism)
Related ethnic groups
Assyrian Canadian, Iraqi American, Iranian American, Syrian American, Middle Eastern American, Armenian American, Armenian people

Assyrian Americans (Syriac: ܣܘܼܖ̈ܵܝܹܐ ܐܲܡܪ̈ܝܼܟܵܝܹܐ) refers to individuals of ethnic Assyrian ancestry born or residing within the United States. Assyrians are an indigenous Middle Eastern ethnic group native to Mesopotamia in West Asia who descend from their ancient counterparts, directly originating from the ancient indigenous Mesopotamians of Akkad and Sumer who first developed the independent civilization in northern Mesopotamia that would become Assyria in 2600 BC. Modern Assyrians often culturally self-identify as Syriacs, Chaldeans, or Arameans for religious and tribal identification. The first significant wave of Assyrian immigration to the United States was due to the Sayfo genocide in the Assyrian homeland in 1914–1924.

The largest Assyrian diaspora is located in Metro Detroit, with a figure of 150,000.[2] High concentrations are also located in Phoenix, San Jose, Modesto, San Diego, Los Angeles, Turlock, and Chicago among others.[3][4][5]

As of 2022 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there are 94,532 people in the United States declaring Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs ancestry (with a margin of error ±7,255).[6]

History

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Early history

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Assyrians have been present in the United States since the late 19th century. The first recorded Assyrian in America was Zia Attala.[7] He reportedly immigrated to Philadelphia in 1889 and found work in the hotel industry.[8] Most early Assyrian immigrants, however, were young men sent by Western missionaries for religious training;[9] among them was Yaroo Michael Neesan, an Assyrian from Urmia.[10]

Second wave of immigration

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Following the turn of the century, Assyrian immigration to America mostly came to a halt 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. The second large wave of immigration occurred in the 1960s and 70s, mainly from northern Iraq due to conflicts and persecution by the Ba'athist government of Iraq. Others arrived from Iran following the Iranian Revolution. Many Assyrians arrived during this period and took advantage of the ongoing White flight in Detroit.

As a result of the situation, Assyrians 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 Michigan

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See also: History of the Middle Eastern people in Metro Detroit § Chaldo-Assyrian Americans
Chaldean Catholic Church in Detroit. Chaldean Catholic Assyrian immigration, mainly to Detroit, Michigan, began in the early 20th century

Assyrian immigration to 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, Walled Lake, Rochester Hills, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Warren, Bloomfield Hills, and Ann Arbor. More and more Assyrians, 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 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.[11]

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 Ba’ath regime was an ally of the United States government.[12]

Mostly all new Chaldean Catholic Assyrian 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.[13] There are eight Chaldean Catholic Churches in Metro Detroit, located in West Bloomfield, Troy (where there are two), Oak Park, Southfield, Warren, Sterling Heights, and Detroit.

In California

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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 Chaldean Catholic Church in San Diego "continued to grow in relative isolation from the family-chain-migration based communities in and around Michigan."[14]

Geographic distribution

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According to the 2022 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, 94,532 people in the United States are of Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac ancestry (with a margin of error ±7,255).[6] The Census Bureau list all three groups as one option on forms.[15] Michigan, California, and Illinois account for 80% of the Assyrian population living in the US.[16]

Michigan

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There were 34,484 living in Michigan according to the 2000 United States census.[17] The 2022 estimates put this number at 41,020, with the overwhelming majority of the population–95%–residing in the Metro Detroit area counties of Macomb County (23,707), Oakland County (14,535), and Wayne County (665).

California

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There were 22,671 living in California according to the 2000 United States census. The 2022 estimates put this number at 24,748. The state's largest Assyrian American population lives in San Diego County (9,165), followed by Los Angeles County (3,642), Santa Clara County (2,919), and Orange County (1,816). The population in Southern California accounts for more than 60% of the state's total Assyrian population estimate.

A little over 16% of the state's population (4,097) resides in the Central Valley and San Francisco Bay Area, places known for several Eastern Assyrian, Chaldean Catholic, and Syriac Orthodox churches.[18] These include:

Illinois

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There were 15,685 Assyrians living in Illinois according to the 2000 United States census.[19] As of the 2022 estimate, that number has held steady at 15,694, with over 89% of that population residing in Cook County (14,035), 22% in Chicago specifically (3,581). DuPage County (241) and Lake County (213) have the second and third highest populations.

Assyrian, Syrian, Syriac

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The federal government of the United States 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 strongly accepted by mainstream majority academic opinion to be etymologically, historically, geographically, and ethnically derivative of the earlier term Assyrian,[20][21] and historically meant Assyrian (see name of Syria) and not Arab or Aramean. In addition, the Syrian Arab Republic is home to many ethnicities, including Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians, Kurds, and Turkmens, and is thus 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.[22] The Church was previously known as the Assyrian Orthodox Church in America and Israel-Palestine, which can be seen in the name of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Paramus, New Jersey.[23]

Chaldean refers to ethnic Assyrians who are (traditionally) Eastern Catholic, having split from the Assyrian Church in Upper Mesopotamia between the 17th and 19th centuries (see Schism of 1552). Chaldean is thus a religious term, not an ethnic term. The majority of Chaldean Catholics come from Iraq's Nineveh Plains region, which is located in Upper Mesopotamia (northern Iraq). The Chaldeans of antiquity lived in southeast Mesopotamia from the 9th century BC and disappeared from history in the 6th century BC.

On the US census, there is a section for the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac, which is listed separately from Syrian, Syrian being a subcategory for Arab.[24]

Notable people

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See also: List of ethnic Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "People Reporting Ancestry". U.S. Census. 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Chaldean American History". Chaldean Community Foundation. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  3. ^ Heinrich; Heinrich (2007). Why Humans Cooperate: A Cultural and Evolutionary Explanation. Oxford University Press. pp. 81–82.
  4. ^ Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS). "American FactFinder – Results". Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  5. ^ "Selected Population Profile in the United States : 2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". Factfinder2.census.gov. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  6. ^ a b "HCR2006 – 542R – I Ver".
  7. ^ "6: Migrating to a New Land". Center for Migration Studies Special Issues. 15: 63–74. 1999. doi:10.1111/j.2050-411X.1999.tb00189.x.
  8. ^ Reimers, David (1 January 2005). Other Immigrants: The Global Origins of the American People. NYU Press. p. 207. ISBN 9780814775356. zia attala.
  9. ^ Ishaya, Arianne. "ASSYRIAN-AMERICANS A STUDY IN ETHNIC RECONSTRUCTION AND DISSOLUTION IN DIASPORA". nineveh.com. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  10. ^ Coakley, J. F. (1993). "Yaroo M. Neesan: 'A missionary to his own people'". Aram 5: 87-100.
  11. ^ Chafets, Ze'ev. Devils Night: and Other True Tales of Detroit. New York: Random House, 1990
  12. ^ "March 31, 2003". Zindamagazine.com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2003. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  13. ^ Adrian Humphreys (2 September 2011). "U.S. police foil Canada-to-Iraq luxury-car scheme". National Post. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  14. ^ Hanoosh, p. 195.
  15. ^ "American FactFinder". Factfinder.census.gov. Archived from the original on 10 February 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  16. ^ "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  17. ^ "Census 2000 Summary File 3 (SF 3) – Sample Data: Michigan". United States Census Bureau. December 2000. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  18. ^ "Parish Directory". acoecalifornia.org. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  19. ^ "Census 2000 Summary File 3 (SF 3) – Sample Data: Illinois". United States Census Bureau. December 2000. Archived from the original on 10 February 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  20. ^ The Encyclopedia Americana, International ed. (c1986) Danbury, Conn.: Grolier
  21. ^ Frye, R. N. (October 1992). "Assyria and Syria: Synonyms" (PDF). Journal of Near Eastern Studies 51 (4): 281–285. doi:10.1086/373570.
  22. ^ "Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim – Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch". Syrianorthodoxchurch.org. Archived from the original on 28 November 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  23. ^ "Assyrian Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary | Syriac Church". 15 June 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  24. ^ "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  25. ^ Michaels, Lloyd (2009). Terrence Malick (revised ed.). University of Illinois Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-252-07575-9.
  26. ^ Tucker, Thomas Deane; Kendall, Stuart, eds. (2011). Terrence Malick: Film and Philosophy. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4411-4895-7.
  27. ^ "Assyrians in Middle America A Historical and Demographic Study of the Chicago Assyrian Community" (PDF). jaas.org. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  28. ^ Committee on international relations (30 June 2006). "The plight of religious minorities: Can religious pluralism survive? Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, global human rights and international operations of the Committee on international relations". United States House of Representatives, 109th United States Congress. p. 117. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  29. ^ "Christian Minorities in the Islamic Middle East : Rosie Malek-Yonan on the Assyrians". Radio National. 18 April 2006. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  30. ^ Kramer, Andrew E. (26 June 2008). "For Iraqi Christians, Money Bought Survival". The New York Times. p. 1.
  31. ^ Woźniak-Bobińska, Marta (2011). "National and social identity construction among the modern Assyrians/Syrians". Parole de l'Orient. 36: 547–561.
  32. ^ Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and denial of her Assyrian background on YouTube
  33. ^ "Anna Eshoo: Biography". Congresswoman Anna Eshoo – California's 18th Congressional District. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2020. Rep. Eshoo was born in New Britain, Connecticut, of Assyrian and Armenian heritage. She is the proud mother of two children, Karen and Paul.
  34. ^ "Raad:Journal". sanclementejournal.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
  35. ^ "coast magazine". coastmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
  36. ^ Collins, Margaret K. (18 January 2006). "Man on the Move". The Record. Archived from the original on 25 February 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2015. His Assyrian grandfather was a tailor in Paterson and his boyhood pals on Wayne's Surrey Drive remember him more as an avid lacrosse player than a student of politics. But Rumana picked up the public-service bug from his godfather, Robert Roe, who was mayor of Wayne before serving as a 23-year Democratic congressman. It was interning for Roe in Washington, D.C., during the Iran-contra hearings in the summer of 1987 that turned Rumana into a visible and outspoken lover of all things government.
  37. ^ "Iraqi Woman Profits From False Testimony". Voice of America. 28 October 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  38. ^ "We are pleased to announce the formation of the Assyrian Policy Institute in Washington, D.C." 14 May 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  39. ^ Paul, Anna (13 July 2019). "Who is Scottie Pippen's ex-wife, Larsa Pippen, what age is she and what did she say about Jordyn Woods and Tristan Thompson?". Metro. Retrieved 25 August 2020. The 45-year-old Assyrian Lebanese model also had a stint on the Real Housewives of Miami.
  40. ^ "Assyriska and What It Means to a Proud Community". 15 February 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2020. It is extremely important to represent my Assyrian background.
  41. ^ Kay, Bryan (22 February 2016). "'It was always my No1 choice': Justin Meram, the US-born Christian playing for Iraq". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2020. Right now, he is the lone Christian in the ranks, flying the flag for Iraq's Chaldeans, an ancient Assyrian people who have called the region home since long before the time of Jesus.
  42. ^ "Dial Saddam for Murder". SF Weekly. 4 March 1998. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  43. ^ Bullock, Clinton. "Beneil Dariush Talks Michael Johnson, Conor McGregor and His Assyrian Heritage". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  44. ^ "John Batchelor, Novelist & Radio Talk Show Host". Q&A.org. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  45. ^ Oakville Ranch Cellars – Napa Valley – Retrieved 7 November 2015
  46. ^ Edward N. Miner – Retrieved 7 November 2015
  47. ^ Marissa Silver (24 August 2011). "Q&A: Getting to know Steven Beitashour; Beitashour sits down with SJEarthquakes.com to discuss the local scene, his heritage and more". San Jose Earthquakes. Archived from the original on 9 October 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
  48. ^ "Obituary: Senator John J. Nimrod". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  49. ^ "Obituary: Senator John J. Nimrod". Archived from the original on 3 January 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  50. ^ Snell, Joe (March 2019). "Atour Sargon, longtime Lincolnwood resident, runs on ticket of transparency, diversity". The Assyrian Journal. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  51. ^ Schmidt, Stephen A. (2016). "URSHAN, ANDREŌS BAR DĀWĪD". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
  52. ^ Snell, Joe (21 March 2018). "Juliana Taimoorazy builds bridge between Assyrians, non-Assyrians". The Assyrian Journal. Retrieved 26 August 2020. In 1990, she immigrated to the U.S. with refugee status and earned her Master's degree from Northeastern Illinois University.

Further reading

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  • Hanoosh, Yasmeen H. The Politics of Minority Chaldeans Between Iraq and America. ProQuest, 2008. ISBN 0549984755, 9780549984757.
  • Henrich, Natalie and Joseph Henrich. Why Humans Cooperate : A Cultural and Evolutionary Explanation: A Cultural and Evolutionary Explanation. Oxford University Press, 30 May 2007. ISBN 0198041179, 9780198041177.
  • Sengstock, Mary C., and Sanaa Taha Al Harahsheh. "Chaldean Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 441–452. online
  • Sengstock, Mary C. Chaldean-Americans: Changing Conceptions of Ethnic Identity (Center for Migration Studies, 1999).
  • Sengstock, Mary C. Chaldeans in Michigan (Michigan State University Press, 2005).
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