1- Who are Arab Americans?
Eighty-two percent of Arab Americans are citizens; sixty-three percent were born in the U.S. About 51 percent speak a language other than English in their homes. About 18 percent speak little or no English. Families are larger than the national average with 32.6 households home to four or more persons.
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2- Where do Arab Americans live?
Arab Americans live in all 50 states, but two-thirds reside in 10 states; one-third of the total live in California, New York and Michigan. Twenty metro areas are home to 48 percent of Arab Americans; the top five are: Los Angeles, Detroit, New York/NJ, Chicago and Washington, DC. About 90 percent live in urban areas.
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3- How educated are Arab Americans?
Arab Americans are, on average, better educated than non-Arab Americans. The proportion of Arab Americans who attend college is higher than the national average. Compared to the norm, about twice as many Arab Americans, in percentage terms, earn degrees beyond the bachelor's degree. Key factors in this question are country of origin, length of time in the United States and gender.

Arab Americans with high school diplomas number 82 percent. Those with a bachelor's degree or higher are 36 percent; and 15 percent of the population have graduate degrees.
Of the school-age population, 7% are in pre-primary school, 53% are enrolled in elementary or high school; 39% are enrolled in college.
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4- Where do Arab Americans work?
Arab Americans work in all occupations. Collectively, they are more likely to be self-employed or to be entrepreneurs or to work in sales. About 60 percent of working Arab Americans are executives, professionals, office and sales staff. At the local level, Arab Americans are most likely to be executives in Washington, D.C., and Anaheim, Calif.; sales people in Cleveland and Anaheim, and manufacturing workers in Detroit. As with all people, employment choices may be influenced by nationality, religion, education, socio-economic status and gender.

According to the 1990 US Census, about 66 percent of adults are in the labor force; 5.9 percent of them are unemployed. Nearly 73 percent of working Arab Americans are employed in managerial, professional, technical, sales or administration fields. Most Arab Americans work in the private sector (77 percent), while 12.4 percent are government employees.
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5- What is an Arab American family income?
Median income for Arab American families in 1990 was $39,580 compared with the 35,225 level for all families. Mean income measured even higher at $53,337, compared with the national average of $43,803. Less than 11% of Arab American families live below the poverty level, however the percent is slightly higher than the national average taken in the 1990 census.
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6- Do Arabs have a shared language?
The Arabic language is one of the great unifying and distinguishing characteristics of Arab people. Even so, colloquial Arabic differs from place to place. There are several categories: Levantine dialect (Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon), Egyptian and North African dialect, and Khalijji, or Gulf, dialect. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a pan-Arabic language used in formal letters, books and newspapers. It is also spoken at Middle East peace conferences and on television news. Quaranic Arabic, like MSA, also is a widely spoken form of the language, but it differs in style and lexicon from MSA. Not all Arab Americans know Arabic, of course, as many are second-, third- and fourth-generation Americans.
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7- Do Arabs have a shared religion?
No. Arabs belong to many religions, including Islam, Christianity, Druze, Judaism and others. There are further distinctions within each of these, and some religious groups have evolved new identities and faith practices in the United States. Be careful to distinguish religion from culture. Although Arabs are connected by culture, they have different faiths. Common misperceptions are to think that Arab traditions are Islamic, or that Islam unifies all Arabs. Most Arab Americans are Catholic or Orthodox Christians, but this is not true in all parts of the United States. In some areas most Arab Americans are Muslim.
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8- Why does racial stereotypes occur?
Anti-Arab and Muslim stereotypes remain persistent in American popular and political culture because of foreign policy attitudes and assumptions, competing domestic constituencies and public ignorance about this population. As people of color with non-Western customs, language, and names and in some cases religious affiliation, Arabs present a cultural and historical tradition unfamiliar to most Americans. While the majority of Arab immigrants have historically been of the Christian faith, the association of Arab culture with Islam has also resulted in a cultural disconnect between the Middle East and American's Judeo-Christian foundations.
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9- How did the West first portray Arabs?
The Orientalists were the predominate venue that informed America and Europe about the Middle East. Orientalism has imposed a view of the eastern culture through the eyes of western values and assumptions, resulting in a one-dimensional stereotypical view of Arabs as the barbarian, the villain or the seducer of women.
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10- When did Arab people come to the United States?
Today, most Arab Americans are native-born Americans. The first significant wave of immigration began around 1875. It lasted until about 1920. After a period in which the United States restricted immigration, a second wave began in the 1940s.
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11- Why did Arabs first come to the United States?
Like many peoples who came to the United States, Arabs were seeking opportunity. Factors in the first immigration were Japanese competition that hurt the Lebanese silk market and a disease that hurt Lebanese vineyards. Most early Arab immigrants were from Lebanon and Syria, and most were Christian.
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12- What prompted the second wave?
After 1940, immigration to the United States was not for economic reasons as much as because of the Arab-Israeli conflict and civil war. This meant that people came from many more places. The second immigration also had many more people who practiced Islam, a religion that was not as familiar in the United States. Immigrants in this group tended to be more financially secure when they arrived than people who had come earlier for economic opportunity. Many people in the second wave were students.
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13- What race are Arab Americans?
Arabs may have white skin and blue eyes, olive or dark skin and brown eyes. Hair textures differ. The United States has, at different times, classified Arab immigrants as African, Asian, white, European or as belonging to a separate group. Most Arab Americans identify more closely with nationality than with ethnic group.
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14- Are Arabs a minority group?
This depends, in part, on your definition of minority. The U.S. government does not classify Arabs as a minority group for purposes of employment and housing. Arabs are not defined specifically by race, like some minority groups, but are united by culture and language. Some Arab Americans see minority classification as an impediment to full participation in American life. Others are asking for protection from the same issues affecting people in minority groups, such as profiling, stereotyping and exclusion.
Are Arab Americans more closely tied to their country of origin, or to America?
This need not be an either-or issue. Arab Americans have dual loyalties. While they may be closely tied to their countries of origin, most Arab Americans were born in the United States, and an even larger majority have U.S. citizenship. This is reflected in the expression, "Truly Arab and fully American."
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15- Who are some well-known Arab Americans?
Christa McAuliffe, the teacher/astronaut who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger; Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal; Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Doug Flutie; creators of radio's American Top 40 Casey Kasem and Don Bustany; Mothers Against Drunk Driving founder Candy Lightner; Jacques Nasser, former president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., and Helen Thomas, former dean of the White House press corps.
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16- Does the U.S. Census Bureau collect data on Arab Americans?
While the census does not specifically classify Arab Americans, it does collect enough data to present some population characteristics. Some of that information is on the U.S. Census Bureau's Web site at www.census.gov, and is reflected in this guide.
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17- How do Arab Americans fare economically?
Individually, Arab Americans are at every economic strata of American life. Nationally, Arab-American households have a higher than average median income. Like occupational patterns, this varies by location. Arab-American earnings are below the overall average income in Detroit and Anaheim.
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Arab Americans role in U.S politics

1- Are Arab Americans active in U.S. politics?
Yes. For decades, Arab Americans have voted, run for office and been elected. According to John L. Zogby, a pollster who is Arab American, 86 percent of voting-age Arab Americans in early 2000 were registered voters. In 1996, exit polls said 54 percent of the Arab-American vote was for Bill Clinton, 38 percent went for Bob Dole and 7.7 percent went for independent candidate H. Ross Perot. The 2000 campaign was the first in which both major presidential candidates addressed Arab Americans.
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2- How have Arab Americans played a role in the Republican Presidential Campaigns?
President George W. Bush's first formal meeting with the Arab American community was at the Arab American Tribute to the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans. Since then, he has met several times with leaders of the Arab American community, including Arab American Institute's Chairman George R. Salem. Arab Americans have shown support for George W. Bush during the 2000 election with a support committee called "Arab Americans for Bush 2000". Arab Americans have also been active in the setup of "American Dreamers" a team of Bush campaign supporters from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

These Arab Americans who were heavily involved with Republican campaigns. Under the honorary chairmanship of Senator Spencer Abraham, the group included Reps Ray LaHood and John E. Sununu, congressman Darrell Issa(CA-48) and former Oregon Governor Victor Atiyeh. Other distinguished co-chairs included former ambassadors Thomas A. Nassif and Sam H. Zakham, and appointees from the Reagan and Bush administrations such as Selwa Roosevelt and Michael Baroody.
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3- Why are Arab Americans Republicans?
Arab Americans have identified better with the Republican party than with any other political Party because Arab Americans tend to be very conservative in their beliefs. Many Arab Americans are business owners or are highly educated and earn above average wages; hence, taxation is an important issue for Arab Americans. Arab Americans believe in small efficient government and more freedom for families and individuals. They firmly believe that family values and education are the building blocks to a better society.
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4- Have Arab Americans won major political offices?
Yes. In 1998, for example, 12 Arab Americans campaigned for the U.S. Congress in 10 states.
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5- Who are some prominent Arab-American politicians?
They have included U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine; Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham; former secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala; former New Hampshire governor and White House chief of staff John Sununu, and 2000 presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
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6- Are there any Arab Americans in George W. Bush's Cabinet?
Yes, Spenser Abraham is a prominent Arab American who was appointed Secretary of Energy by the Bush Administration. He was first elected to represent Michigan in the U.S Senate in 1994. He has been a fighter for a balanced U.S. Middle East policy and a strong bilateral U.S.-Lebanese relationship. He has fought for the rights of legal immigrants and been a key player in the effort to draft immigration reform legislation that keeps legal immigration quotas from being cut. Abraham has provided the Arab American community with unprecedented access in the Senate on a range of issues.
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7- Is there an Arab lobby?
There is not an Arab lobby in the sense of a monolithic, controlling body. There are several organizations that lobby in behalf of a variety of issues, including domestic and international concerns. One is the Arab American Institute, which supports presidential and congressional candidates who are receptive to Arab-American concerns. Another is the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a civil rights group.
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