Detroit – Arab Capital of North America
by Habeeb Salloum
“Imagine! When I first came to Detroit, I thought that I was still in the Arab
world.” Muhammad, once a Lebanese, but now an American, remarked when I asked
him if he felt a longing for his homeland. He went on, “In fact, this city is
much better than southern Lebanon where we were continually dodging bombs and
waiting for the next Israeli incursion. Here, I live in an almost Arab city.
There are more Arab things to do in this town than in my country.”
Smiling, he pointed to the Arab retail establishments along Warren Avenue in
Dearborn, the heart of Arab Detroit. “See! These are some of Detroit ’s Arab
bookstores, grocery outlets, restaurants and sweet shops. We have Arabic
language schools and Arabic entertainment, from nightclubs to radio and
television programs, and even our political parties have branches in this city –
and all this without fear of the daily Israeli attacks.”
Everywhere I looked, shops proclaimed their products and names in both Arabic
and English. Women in head scarves mingled with others dressed in the most
modern style. Pedestrians passed by speaking loudly in Arabic as they greeted
each other in a hospitable and friendly fashion. It was a scene that could
easily be replicated in Beirut or Sidon.
These shops and other establishments, emphasized by Muhammad’s words, truly
describe the Arabs and their lives in this automobile capital of the U.S. Coming
from almost every corner of the Arab world, the Arab immigrants in Detroit have
transformed areas throughout the city into replicas of the Arab countries from
where they came.
From the time of my youth, growing up on the prairies in western Canada, I often
listened to my elders discussing the Arab community in Detroit. A number had
traveled there to work after emigrating to the U.S., then left for the Midwest
to look for greener pastures. In the Dakotas and Montana, they had heard that
the Canadian government was giving 160 acres free to anyone willing to work the
land. They therefore traveled north to southern Saskatchewan where they became
farmers.
When visiting our home, they would often discuss their Detroit evenings of Arab
dancing, music and song. At other times, they would talk about Arab foods like
fig jam, halawah, tahina, olives, roasted chickpeas, and other foods for sale in
the local homes or stores – foods, at that time, I had never tasted or even
heard of.
This picture of Arab Detroit stayed with me through my youthful years and I
often yearned to travel to that city which offered the delights of the Arab
world. In the late 1940s, I found myself in Detroit for the first time. Arab
groceries and eating places like the Sheik – for years, my favorite restaurant –
were everywhere. Living in southern Saskatchewan, where the only Arab foods were
the dishes our mothers cooked and the only entertainment was the odd times some
Arab friends would sing ballads recalled from their childhood, it was to me, the
city of a Thousand and One Nights.
Today, my first Arab vision of Detroit has become greatly enhanced. The Arab
population of the city, according to Warren David, a third-generation Arab
American who is a board member of the Arab American Arts Council, is some
200,000, consisting of four large groups: Syrian and Lebanese – 100,000; Iraqi-Chaldean
– 60,000; Palestinian and Jordanian – 25,000; Yemeni – 10,000; and 5,000 from
other Arab countries. However, a good number of Arab Detroiters dispute these
figures, saying that the total number of Arabs in the Detroit area is more than
300,000.
Yaha Mawari, a leader in the Yemeni community, stated that the Yemeni population
alone is 30 to 40,000 strong. Yet, no matter what the figure is, Greater
Detroit, with the exception of São Paulo in Brazi, is considered to be the
largest Arab city outside the Arab world.
The Arabization of large sections of Detroit has been going on for many years,
from the time the first Arabs, in the late 19th century, came from the Ottoman
Province of Syria, which today includes the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan
and Palestine. However, by 1900, there were only 50 Arabs in Metro Detroit,
increasing to 9,000 by the 1930s.
The immigrant masses arrived in the last half of this century. Unlike the
earlier newcomers, they came from almost all countries in the Arab world,
especially Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen. The creation of the State of
Israel and, later, the Arab-Israeli wars, the long Lebanese civil war, the
Iraq-Iran war, the Yemeni civil wars and, lastly, the Gulf War, led a great many
Arabs to emigrate to the U.S. – a fair number settling in Detroit.
Most of the immigrants, who called Detroit home early in the century, were
illiterate or semi-literate, and ended up as peddlers. Carrying packs of
merchandise on their backs, or by horse and buggy, they traveled to the
surrounding farms and small towns offering their embroideries, laces, Holy Land
souvenirs, and other trinkets for sale. After making some money, most opened up
grocery stores, coffee shops and restaurants.
By the 1920s, when Ford built his auto plants in the city, the good salaries
offered to prospective employees enticed a large number of Syrian-Lebanese and
later Yemenis to his plants in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park and later to
southeast Dearborn. Soon relatives and villagers of the Ford workers followed
each other, most joining the unskilled laborers in the factories.
The majority of the early immigrants, in the main, members of the numerous
eastern Christian sects, initially settled in the downtown Lafayette – Congress
area. By the second generation, a good number of their children became doctors,
engineers, lawyers and politicians. Gradually becoming affluent, many moved to
Detroit ’s more prosperous eastern suburbs, including Grosse Pointes, Harper
Woods, Mt. Clemens, Roseville, St. Clair Shores and Sterling Heights. Today, the
vast majority are totally integrated into American society with only a small
minority still retaining some connection to its Arab past.
The Syrian-Lebanese Muslims, who tend to retain the flavor and traditions of
their culture more than their Christian brethren, began to settle in the Detroit
area in appreciable numbers at a much later date. Their original home was in
Highland Park where they erected the first mosque in 1916. Later, the majority
moved to Dearborn, and after each war in the Middle East, refugees, political
dissidents and other Arabs joined them in ever-increasing numbers until today,
with the population of Dearborn being some 20 percent of Arab origin.
Some of the later immigrants from Arab countries, like the Jordanians,
Palestinians and Yemenis, followed a similar pattern, but others settled in all
parts of the city. The Egyptians, mostly professionals when they came,
established themselves in the northern suburbs, and the Iraqi-Chaldeans first
planted their roots in the Jefferson East Grand Boulevard area, then moved on to
the Boston Boulevard-Hamilton section of the city. They now live primarily in
the Seven Mile-John R area and Oak Park, Southfield, West Bloomfield, Sterling
Heights, and Troy.
Nevertheless, a good number of the newcomers work as laborers in the auto
industry. However, just like the others before them, as they prosper, they move
on to buy and operate their own retail and wholesale businesses, such as
clothing and grocery outlets, eating establishments or service stations.
In Dearborn , the heart of the Arab business district at Warren and Schaefer,
there are close to 100 Arab stores, mostly owned by immigrants from south
Lebanon. The Iraqi-Chaldeans, the largest concentration of these Iraqis in North
America, have their businesses concentrated around Nine Mile Road and Coolidge.
According to David, in the Detroit area, over 80 percent of the service stations
are operated primarily by Lebanese; and over 80 percent of the grocery stores
are managed predominately by Iraqi-Chaldeans.
In the last few decades, the large influx of Arab immigrants into the Detroit
area created a demand for the use of Arabic in the city’s school system. This
has led to bilingual Arabic-English programs, administrated in the Detroit
public schools. Many students interested in their language and heritage have
enrolled in these programs.
Detroit ’s Arabs and their businesses are a microcosm of that of the Middle
East. Everything to be found in these lands and more can be found in Detroit.
Some 100 Arab-American organizations cater to the needs of the city’s Arabs,
from religion and politics, to dancing and social services. Besides the
religious institutions, some of the important organizations in the Detroit area
are: The Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), one of
the largest and most active associations; the American Syrian Arab Association;
Arab American Arts Council; Arab American & Chaldean Communities Social Services
Council; American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; Arab Chamber of
Commerce-Michigan; Chaldean Federation of America; Lebanese American Heritage
Club; American Federation of Ramallah; and the Yemeni Benevolent Association.
Five mosques and 10 churches serve the community, almost evenly split between
Christian and Muslim Arabs. For relaxation, the Arab Network of America, Arab
Time TV, United TV and TV Orient keep the people entertained. In addition, there
are a series of radio programs and two newspapers, Sada Alwatan and the Detroit
Chaldean Times, in both English and Arabic.
These organizations have affected the lives of Detroit ’s Arabs. Even though, as
in all of North America, the stereotyping of Arabs as rich playboys, terrorists,
nomads and belly dancers is still widespread, this cultural demonizing is slowly
being rectified by some of the city’s Arab organizations and politically-active
members of the community.
However, a great deal more can be done. In the past, and to some extent today,
identification with the village, family or geographical region in the Arab world
and political differences based on religion still retard the effectiveness of
Detroit ’s Arabs in influencing the media and the politics of the city. Slowly,
however, Arab Americans are developing a power base in the Detroit area. A
number of the city’s judges and county prosecutors are of Arab origin, and
lately, Arabs played a major role in the election of Spencer Abraham, the first
Arab senator to be elected in the state of Michigan.
On the other hand, the second generation, the descendants of Arab immigrants, is
thoroughly Americanized. By this time, for a good number of these U.S-born
Arabs, the countries from where their parents came are only faintly remembered.
They retain only their love for Arab food, dancing and singing. Hurriedly, more
than most other immigrants, they melt into American society.
In the meantime, Detroit ’s Arab immigrants and some of their descendants are
trying to do their bit to enhance the Arab image in North America, while they
live in a fulfilling Arab atmosphere. In the words of Amal David, supervisor in
the office of bilingual education for Detroit Public Schools, “Our family moved
to Detroit because here we can bring up our children in the Arab tradition,
while we integrate into American society.”
This article appeared in Al Jadid, Vol. 4, no. 25 (Fall 1998)
Copyright © by Al Jadid (1998)
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