Arab Americans in Michigan

Discovering the Peoples of Michigan, a series from Michigan State University Press, examines the rich multicultural heritage of the Great Lakes State and explores Michigan's ethnic dynamics. Michigan's rapidly changing historical and social structures have far-reaching implications in such areas as public policy, education, management, and private enterprise. Discovering the Peoples of Michigan reveals the unique contributions that different and often unrecognized communities have made to Michigan's historical and social identity.

The state of Michigan contains one of the largest and most diverse Arab-American populations in the United States. As the third largest ethnic population in the state, Arab Americans are an economically important and politically influential group that contains a great amount of diversity in national origins, religions, education levels, socioeconomic levels, and degrees of acculturation. In spite of their considerable presence, Arab Americans have always been a misunderstood ethnic population in Michigan, even before terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, imposed a cloud of suspicion, fear, and uncertainty over their ethnic enclaves and the larger communities of which they are a part. In Arab Americans in Michigan Rosina J. Hassoun outlines the origins, culture, religions, and values of a people whose influence has often exceeded their visibility in the state.