Arab Expatriates in the US, Assimilation and Integration

IALIIS hosted Professor Naseer Aruri for a roundtable discussion on 'The United States of America and the Vital Political Center: The Role of Intellectuals in the affairs of the Arab Communities’ The roundtable discussion was chaired by Professor Roger Heacock.

Dr. Aruri stressed that the argument of non-assimilation of the various American ethnicities is feeble and ill-founded as the reality of the American society proves to be cohesive and coherent within the framework of the vital political center.

He added that the coherence of the American society does not debar the existence of scattered communities in certain areas like the African–Americans, the Jewish communities and the Arab Americans in Detroit. His key question was focused on the Arab communities’ location in the American political map and whether they are assimilated and integrated or centrifugal of the vital political center.

He pondered upon the role of the 'Arab–American University Graduates’ or as some others prefer to name it the 'Arab University Graduates in America’ in defending the Arab cases while clarifying that the majority of this Alumni Association were academics.

Professor Aruri further mentioned that the governments of United States of America whether Democrats or Republicans were equally considering Israel as a strategic asset. Arab-Americans are thus encountering a crisis as it is difficult to assimilate in the vital political center. 

Unlike other communities that sheltered to the United States in quest of safety and because of persecution and fear of persecution, the Arab community neither entered the United States because of persecution nor endorsed the American foreign policy.

He explained that the dichotomy has increased between the Arab  and Islamic communities on the one hand and the United States on the other hand, especially after the US aggression on several Arab states, inter alia, Lebanon, Syria, Libya and Somalia. Consequently, Arab Communities turned away from the vital centre in the USA while not leaving their political activities.

He concluded by stating that the interest of Israel as interpreted by Israel per se may differ from the national interest of the United States of America as a superpower yet they both agree on their international vision and this does not apply on the Arab American international vision.