Study Finds Detroit Arab Americans Are Mostly Christian, Diverse and Settled

July 29, 2004

Source: Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/news/metro/arab29_20040729.htm

On July 29, 2004 Detroit Free Press reported, "A two-year, $1-million study of metro Detroit Arab Americans concludes that these thousands of families are far more diverse, more settled and more eager to embrace American life than many observers around the world had assumed... The study focused on in-depth interviews with 1,016 men and women whose families came from Arabic-speaking countries, including several hundred Chaldeans -- Catholics from Iraq. The U-M researchers did not conduct an ethnic census, so they do not estimate how many Arab Americans live in metro Detroit. But the study offers a vivid snapshot of how these families fit into American life. Contrary to stereotypes of an oppressed community, isolated by language and tradition and largely Muslim, the study showed that 58 percent of Arab Americans in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties are Christian. And, although 75 percent of the Arab Americans living here were born outside the United States, 79 percent now are U.S. citizens, and 80 percent are fluent in English."