Middle Eastern Immigrants and Refugees

By: Kallie Kay Timothy

Map of the Middle Eastern Countries

Where Middle Eastern Immigrants and Refugees Originate.• In the late 1800s, Maronite

Christians from Lebanon and Armenians and other Christian minorities from the Ottoman Empire began settling in the United States.

• 1920 - They immigrated from Palestine and Syria.

• 2010 – Political unrest and violent conflict displace many in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.

• 2012 – We had about 961,000 immigrants and refugees

Immigrant and Refuge Population Growth in the Last Decade • Iraqis are the largest immigrant and refugee population from the

Middle Eastern region in the United States. • Egyptians are not far behind the Iraqis.• There has also been an immigrant and refugee population increase

from Saudi Arabia and Yemen over this decade. • No increase has been seen in Syrians immigrant and refugee

population with in the last decade. • The fastest growing immigrant group has been Sundanese, Saudis,

and Yemenis. • California, New York, and Michigan are home to the largest amount

of Middle Eastern Immigrants and Refugees • Interesting Fact: “Compared to other immigrant groups, the foreign

born from the MENA region are better educated and tend to have higher levels of English proficiency, but have comparatively lower rates of labor force participation.”

History Between the Middle East and the United States. • End of 1914• Truman

Administration, 1945-1952.• Eisenhower

Administration, 1953-1960• Kennedy

Administrations, 1961-1963

The History Goes on…• The Johnson

Administration, 1963-1968• Nixon Ford

Administrations, 1969-1976• Carter Administration,

1977-1981• Reagan

Administration 1981-1989

• George H.W. Bush Administration, 1989-1993• Clinton

Administration, 1993-2001• George W. Bush

Administration,

Why Did They Come to the United States?• First wave of

immigrants and refugees was between 1870-1924.• Most of the immigrants

were from the Ottoman province of Syria.

• They pushed immigration because of years of fighting between the Druze and Christians in Syria.

The Immigrants and Refugees Kept on Coming…• The second wave of immigrants and refugees from the Middle

East came between 1948-1965.• After a big gad in immigration between the late 1920’s and World

War II, it picked back up after the war. • This wave had smaller numbers of immigrants than the other two

waves. • Many immigrants who arrived during this wave were members of

the established elite in countries such as Egypt, Iraq, and Syria who left due to popular revolutions and the new regimes that followed,

• The third wave of immigrants fell between 1965 and the present. • It started with the passage of the 1965 Immigration and

Nationality Act. • Many left because of increased political instability in their native

countries.

Why Did They Come to Utah?• Most of the immigrants in

Utah from the Middle East came during the late 1800’s.

• Syros-Lebanese and Armenians were the people who immigrated to Utah

• We have seen arrivals of modest numbers of Egyptians, Iranians, Palestinian Arabs, Iraqis, Jordanians, and even a few Turks and Libyans more recently,

Things We Should Know when Teaching Children form this Culture.• Young people feel

helpless in trying to understand global issues, but are generally eager to open their minds.• In the Information Age,

students have access to an overwhelming number of resources, and require our guidance to process this material.

More Things to Know• Bringing the world --

even a difficult region like the Middle East -- through the classroom door can be done, but it requires winning students' hearts and minds.

• Win their hearts• Win their minds

My Lesson Plan for Teaching Others About Middle Eastern Immigrants and Refuges.

• There are three main parts to my lesson plan. • Introduction to the

topic: • We will have a lesson

about the Middle East. • They will learn about

Middle Eastern history and why the immigrated here.

Continuing the Lesson Plan

• Research • Students will be split into partnerships. Each

partnership will the be given a Middle Eastern country that they will research. • The will research the countries history, if and why

they immigrated to the United states, what food they eat, the type of clothing they where, etc.

• After the partnership has finished researching their country they will then take the information and create either a power point or screen capture presentation.

Students Teaching Each Other• After the presentations are finished, the students will then

teach the class about their country by using the presentation they created.

• The rest of the class will be taking notes on what is being presented. • Write 3 things that you have learned about this country.• Write 3 things about this country that are different from ours.• Do you have any questions about this country after this

presentation was given?• I will evaluate the presentation by wither or not all the

information that was required is there. I will also have them do a group evaluation so that I know how did what and if both of them participated in creating the presentation.

• http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/middle-eastern-and-north-african-immigrants-united-states#4

• http://cis.org/MiddleEasternImmigrantsProfile• http://

www.teachmideast.org/essays/28-history/42-timeline-of-the-middle-east-in-the-20th-century

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/timeline/text/time6.html

• http://middleeast.about.com/od/usmideastpolicy/a/me070909b_3.htm

• http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/ethnic_cultures/the_peoples_of_utah/immigrationfromthemiddleeast.html

References