Middle Eastern Perspectives

1) What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.

I learned a good amount from this article. To start, there were three different waves of Arabic-speaking immigrants that first entered the US. From 1890-1900, 250’000 people entered who were Christian peasants seeking more economic opportunity. Then in 1965, another 250’000 entered when prejudicial laws were reformed. Lastly, tens of thousands of Palestinians came after the creation of Israel and after World War II. The effect of these waves consist of the Middle Eastern population growing in the US, most of them nowadays residing in Los Angeles, Washington DC, NYC, and Texas. On average, the Middle Eastern community is very well-educated, but there have been setbacks that have in turn caused many stereotypes to be established against them in the United States. For example, after the terrorist attack that occurred on September 11th, 2001, the community was immediately generalized to being terrorists and bad for the US. The backlash was so bad that they were victims to workplace background checks, interrogations, and deportations just for having a Middle Eastern background. During the 1991 Gulf War, anti-arab actions occurred like arson, bombings, assault and attempted murders all over the country. The hate crime for individuals of Middle Eastern background has always been gruesome and unjust and we still see it happen to this day, even 20 years after 9/11 occurred. Even recently, ex-president Donald Trump signed an executive order that banned all people’s (non-immigrant or immigrant) visas from 7 Muslim countries for 90 days. This was done early in his presidency as well, which is astonishing. The US census also does not collect specific data on Arab and Middle Eastern communities, focusing rather on race, which can mess up statistics and also does not showcase just how many people there are. The lack of information just shows how underrepresented this community is.

2) Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.

I chose the video, “Learning Curve: Middle Eastern College Students in the US” to discuss. The reason I selected this one is that I was most interested in it due to the fact that I am a college student and I wanted to see the struggles that immigrants from Middle Eastern countries faced here in the US. To begin, I was surprised to hear one of the students say that all Middle Eastern students were put in a separate section together since they were all international. In a way, I understand if there were good intentions behind this decision but at the same time, how will they interact with others and learn about what America is like from other perspectives if they are expected to just look out for each other. They said themselves that it was difficult to get to know peers who were American due to this. There was also an issue they faced with their religion. During Ramadan, when they would fast all day, they were not able to go to the dining hall and eat because they would stop serving food. Seeing as they were paying for a lunch plan, I’d expect there to be accommodation to those who are fasting for religious reasons, but the university was not willing to accommodate for them. They also expressed how different the culture is here in America to theirs and how it could be intimidating, which I can understand. Things like gun culture made them nervous, especially being ethnic. The student coordinator of the University says it is an adjustment for the University as well on how to handle Arab students coming into their small community and how they do their best to accommodate. I can see both sides, but a University, even if not diverse, should be able to face any challenge with decency, so that’s why I was surprised to hear about the lunch situation. Although, it was nice to see at the end of the video that they were able to showcase their culture through music and food, although it was connected only through the ESL students.

3) Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.

Although there are literacy success stories for Arabs, the overall level of literacy in Arab countries are low, especially regarding women. The article explains how they should focus their efforts and resources on the poorest and largest countries, since they have the lowest level of overall literacy. For example, Jordan which is a smaller country has an impressive rate of overall literacy, with 91% of adults and 86% of women being literate. Then, there are countries like Yemen, Mauritania, and Morocco where female literacy rates are 29, 31 and 38%. These rates are extremely low, especially since Morocco has a population of 30 million people and only 50% of the entire population is literate. That’s the flip of a coin. Young Adult literacy is more promising though, with more than 95% in Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Libya, and Syria being literate. Among poorer countries though, young adult literacy rates were lowest in Mauritania (50%), young women lagging behind especially. Countries with literacy problems often face challenges related to health, poverty, and politics. With regard to public health. Literate women are able to access recourses related to nutrition, contraception, and medicine, which is important for decreasing child mortality rates. Also, workers with a basic education and fundamental level of literacy demonstrate more innovative tendencies and greater productivity. If literacy programs were to succeed, they are also tied to improved job opportunities that are appropriate to the economy of individual countries. For example, in 2000 39% of employed Egyptian women worked in the agricultural sector while 54% worked in the services sector. In Yemen, however, 88% of employed women worked in the agricultural sector. See the difference? Literacy Reform seems to be essential to bettering Middle Eastern countries, especially for women and the economy.

4) Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters.