Loading ...A quarter million Michiganders have roots in Middle East
Suehaila Amen of Dearborn Heights
Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press
When Suehaila Amen was growing up in Dearborn in the early 1980s, there were only a couple of Arab restaurants and groceries near where her family lived.
But today, the eastern section of Dearborn contains a thriving Arab-American population and avenues packed with Arab businesses and stores featuring everything from Middle Eastern foods to Islamic clothing to late-night hookah cafés.
Over the past 30 years, Arab-Americans have transformed an area that was once described as a ghost town into what is today the center of Arab-American life in the U.S.
And in coming decades, Arab-Americans say the community will continue to grow in metro Detroit and further become part of the fabric of the region as they assume leadership roles in government and business.
“We see that drive and passion to achieve success,” said Amen, 35, of Dearborn Heights, an advocate for Arab-Americans. “Arab-Americans are an integral component of the fabric of this nation.”
There are about 210,000 Michiganders with roots in the Middle East, according to the U.S. census. While California and New York have higher numbers of people with ancestry in the Middle East, Michigan has the highest percentage of residents with roots there.
Officially, the U.S. government classifies people with roots in the Middle East, including those from African countries such as Egypt, as white, and so Arab-Americans are not tabulated under the race category; they are counted according to the ancestry category in the U.S. Census.
In Michigan, Arab-Americans have a long history that stretches back to the early days of the auto industry, when Henry Ford and others were seeking workers in their plants in Dearborn and other cities. The first mosque built in the U.S. was in Highland Park in 1921.
Amen’s great-grandfather arrived in metro Detroit in 1902 and served in the U.S. Army during World War I. Her grandfather was also a veteran of the U.S. Army, an example of how Arab-Americans in metro Detroit have integrated into the region for decades.
“Metro Detroit is a model to follow when it comes to respect for diversity and that urge for inclusion,” Amen said.
In coming decades, the Arab-American population is expected to continue to grow in Dearborn, where they currently make up more than 40% of the population and will probably be the majority in the future. They are also expanding into places like Dearborn Heights and Canton, as well as in Oakland and Macomb counties. About a quarter of Hamtramck’s residents are of Arab descent, mostly Yemeni.
The Grosse Pointes and other parts of metro Detroit have historically had a significant population of Lebanese-American Christians, though many have assimilated over the decades and don’t necessarily identify as Arab.
Many people with Middle-Eastern roots, especially those who are Christian, don’t use the label “Arab” to describe themselves, seeing their identities as different. Nationality and religion plays a role in how the Middle Eastern communities identify, with various groups organized along ethnic, faith or denominational lines.
Iraqi-American Christians make up a big part of the Middle Eastern population, consisting of Chaldeans (Iraqi Catholics), Assyrians, and Syriacs. Census figures show there are roughly 40,000 Iraqi Christians in Michigan, though community leaders say the actual figure is much bigger. Turmoil and extremism in Iraq is forcing out Chaldeans, with many of them arriving in metro Detroit over the past decade.
The Chaldean community doesn’t see themselves as Arab, said Vanessa Denha Garmo, 44, co-publisher of the Chaldean News in Southfield.
“We have a different language, different history, different culture,” she said, noting that they speak Aramaic, an ancient language that Jesus Christ spoke.
Garmo’s parents immigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s, part of an influx of Chaldeans. Many moved into Detroit near 7 Mile and Woodward Avenue or Highland Park, both of which had Chaldean neighborhoods. Later, the center of the community moved to Southfield, and with many now in West Bloomfield, Sterling Heights and Farmington Hills.
Metro Detroiters with roots in the Middle East have taken on leadership roles, from Wayne County government to the Michigan Supreme Court, where two justices have Lebanese ancestry. In Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, the chief judges of their district courts are both of Arab descent and Muslim.
And this year for the first time, Arab-Americans made up a majority of the Dearborn City Council. The highest vote-getter, City Council President Susan Dabaja, is Arab-American and Muslim.
The success is also seen economically. Majed Moughni, 44, of Dearborn, grew up part of his youth on welfare, after his dad lost his job on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant.
Mouhgni recalls there were only a couple of Arab-American families on his block in the eastern section of Dearborn. Now, a majority of the people on the same block are of Arab descent.
“Back then, we didn’t fit in at all,” Moughni said. “We were not welcomed.”
Today, Moughni is a successful attorney raising four children. He says the key to the future success of Arab-Americans is education.
“Education will break down barriers,” Moughni said. “Over time, the 2nd and 3rd generation Arab Americans will blend in … as have previous generations.”
Tarek Baydoun, an attorney in Dearborn of Arab descent, hopes that Arab Americans will be proud of being American and their heritage.
“We are American and we’re proud of who we are,” said Baydoun, whose grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from a region that is now Lebanon to work in an auto plant. “We love the principles of freedom, opportunity, equality, justice, all of the things my grandfather probably came here for, to work side by side with people from around the world and respect each other.”