Arab Americans

Arab Americans…

The Arab experience is different than any other immigrants. They are one of the few groups that had a high ratio of women to male. They had more women then males.

I came from Saudi Arabia, so it is very interesting to me to read about the Arabs immigration experience. The author started the paragraph with the huge misconception between Arabs and Muslims. He is very true many American thinks that all Arabs are Muslims and vise versa. This is not the case, in the Middle East we have different religions: Muslims, Jews, and Christians. I agree that the majority are Muslims, but that doesn’t make us all Muslims. In the United States most of the Arab immigrants were Christians of Rite churches. Most of these immigrants are Lebanese.  The Muslims who came to the US found a very hard time to practice their religion. They could not build a mosque until later on. It was hard for them to be Muslims in a non-Muslim country. Another thin the book mentioned is that Muslims who came here tried to simulate in the US society. They adopted American names and married American women.  It is fascinating to learn about how the Arab American assimilated into the US society. I came from a Middle Eastern culture, and we are very culturally oriented. It is not an easy task to adapt to a new society, and a new culture. The book mentioned that these Arab American started to loose their language generation by generation. Forgetting their language is the first step that makes them blend with the society and consider themselves American. In my opinion, I believe that the language plays an important factor of shaping our characters and behaviors. Our  mother tongue is where we belong to.     

French migrants

In 1790, there were fewer than one hundred thousand persons of French origin in the United States. The French came from different sources. The first group settled in the area from Detroit to New Orleans. The second groups were ethnic refuges. The third group was religious refugees.  The fourth and the fifth groups are French-speaking migrants: French Canadian and the Haitians. In Louisiana, the French developed a strong root for their culture. New Orleans, for example, was developed in 1717 and we can see a strong presence of the French identity in the city. In the late 18^th and 19^th century many French immigrated to New Orleans and by late 1860’s there were around fifteen thousands French born residents in New Orleans.       

 The group that was very crucial to Louisiana, in cultural terms, was the Acadians or as they call themselves, Cajuns. These are French-speaking immigrants who came from Acadia and now it is Nova Scotia. Acadia was a French colony and now it is part of Canada.  The Cajuns isolated themselves from their neighbors by their language and Roman Catholic religion. They also had a high growth rate. In 1815, there was 35,000 Cajuns to some 270,000 in 1880.  The Cajuns made a great job with perceiving their culture, however, at this time they are shrinking due to modernization. Louisiana State is trying to promote the Cajun culture, so it won’t disappear. 

Chapter 8

Chinese…

The Chinese are considered to be the first immigrants to the United States from Asia. Chinese were seen as sojourners for many reasons. Even if they wanted to stay, they were not eligible for citizenship.  In addition, the Chinese had stable government and had no strong reasons from returning back to their home country.  When the Chinese came to America they left their family in China. This means that they did not intend to stay. The Chinese were so focused on keeping the family together. They often migrate together. Religion was not a top priority for the Chinese, but family was. They converted to Christianity after they came to the US. The chapter also discusses the paper sons. In 1906, San Francisco was het by an earth quick, and fire destroyed all the public records. From that fire, many Chinese claimed that they were born in San Francisco. With this citizenship, the father claimed citizenships for his offspring born in China.

Japanese….

The Japanese also were not eligible for citizenship. They are also considered to be sojourners. The Japanese had higher birth rate then the Chinese.  When they first came they settled in Northern California, but later on they moved to Los Angeles. There was a lot of racism toward the Japanese. They were very skilled in agriculture, so they contributed to the agriculture industry in California.  The Japanese government was involved in the immigration. They pushed their people to stimulate in the American culture. Since the Japanese could not get the US citizenship, they were representing Japan. The political relationship between Japan and US was stable. In 1907, there was an informal agreement, the gentlemen’s agreement, between the United Sates and Japan. According to the agreement, the United States would not impose restrictions on the Japanese immigrants and Japan would not allow additional immigration to the States. The main purpose of the agreement is to reduce tension between the two nations.  The agreement was never approved by the congress, and it ended in 1924. 

Questions:

·      What is the paper sons?

·      Why did scholars consider the Chinese and Japanese immigrants sojourners?

·      Why was the Japanese government involve in the Japanese emigrants, and making it hard on the Japanese to leave?  

·      Please define the gentleman agreement?

Chapter 6

From the Mediterranean:

The nature of immigrants started to change in the late nineteenth century from largely family groups to single individuals. Many people moved to industrialized cities such as London Paris and Berlin. At that period of time the steamed powered transportation was introduced and this innovation made it easier for people to travel. The trip that took them weeks to finish, with this revolution it took them days to arrive to the new world. This revolution led to the rise of new European passenger companies such as Hamburg-Amerika line.  Another important factor that also increased the immigrants to the new world was the prepaid tickets. A lot of people now can afford paying for the tickets. There were four major European ports: Naples, Bremen, Liverpool, and Hamburg. The pressure of competition made the Passenger companied improve the ships conditions. These companies started to provide amenities to the passengers and made sure that everything was clean and hygiene.  Unfortunately this was not the case for all the ships, ships operating from the Mediterranean--- French, Greek, and Italian--- had very bad conditions in the ships. One of the journalist commented on his experience in the when he traveled on a ship operating from Naples. He stated:

 “How can a steerage passenger remember that he is a human being when he must first pick the worms from his food… and eat in his stuffy, stinking bunk, or in the hot and fetid atmosphere of a compartment where 150 men sleep, or in juxtaposition to seasick man?”

Defenders for this complain said that improving these condition would increase the fair cost. He also said that these people already live in bad conditions, so it is not a new thing on them.  Surprisingly, the fair cost dropped, at times of rate wars, and the ship condition improved. 

                 There were more that 4.1 million Italians entering the States between 1880 and 1920. Even though, it is recorded that these Italians entered the States most of them went to Brazil and Argentina.  The northern and central part of Italy continued to develop. South of Rome, Sicily and Mezzogiorno was undeveloped. It also had high poverty rate. So it is not a surprise that most of the Italian immigrants came from the south.  Most of the Italian who came to the new word were artisans, merchants, businessmen, professional people, musicians, actors, waiters, and seamen.  Italians also had major contributions to the agriculture industry in the States.  They introduced new techniques and had major contribution to the wine industry in California.