Issues
Palestine
Population Estimates of Americans of Palestinian Ancestry
Posted on Tuesday October 17, 2006
Palestinian immigration to America dates back to the late nineteenth century. Among the earliest evidence of their presence in the U.S. was the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia at which several entrepreneurs from Palestine explored trade with American counterparts. Like other Arabic-speaking immigrants who arrived before World War I, many were involved in peddling, import/export and shop keeping.
While some Palestinians arrived in America as refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the largest number immigrated after 1965, mostly from the West Bank and Jerusalem. This wave included students who remained after college and professionals, many of whom spent some time in Gulf countries. Both Christian and Muslim, Palestinian immigrants have settled throughout the U.S. and have major concentrations in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, San Francisco, New York, Houston and Jacksonville.
Statistics on Palestinian immigration are difficult to confirm given the multiplicity of travel documents and countries of last residence on which data depends. One albeit imperfect measure is the ancestry question in the U.S. Census. Roughly six percent of Americans of Arab ancestry identified Palestinian heritage in 2000, which adjusting for the undercount would represent at least 250,000.
Reasons for the undercount of ancestry groups from the Arab world include the effect of the sample methodology on small, unevenly distributed ethnic groups, high levels of out-marriage among the third and fourth generations, and distrust/misunderstanding of government surveys among recent immigrants. While the 2000 census accounted for close to 1.3 million persons who trace their heritage to the Arab world, AAIF estimates the population at closer to 3.9 million.
| 2000 Census Data | AAIF Estimates | |||||||
| Palestinian Ancestry | 72,000 | 252,000 | ||||||
| All Arab Ancestry | 1,300,000 | 3,900,000 |
Top 8 U.S. States Ranked by Palestinian Ancestry
Based on Responses to Census 2000 Ancestry Question, Census 2000
More information: “Migration as a Method of Coping with Turbulence among Palestinians” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Special Issue on the Middle East, Winter by Dr. Louise Cainkar. http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/about/bios/fellows/Louise Cainkar.htm
