About Arab communities

In the lead-up to the first censuses of the new millennium, British Arab and Arab American activists lobbied census officials for the inclusion Arabs as an official census category.  Despite some concerns about government surveillance of Arab communities, Arab activists felt that inclusion as an official category would signal the recognition of the Arab community’s existence, its particular needs and concerns, and its political weight.  Census officials in the US and the UK, however, were unwilling to establish an Arab category, citing the vast cultural and ‘racial’ diversity that exists between the Gulf, the Levant, and North Africa.   It is not certain how many people of Arab origins would place themselves in an Arab category if given an opportunity.  Regardless, because there is no Arab category in the census and official forms, people of Arab origin have no option but to place themselves into the array of existing racial categories that confronts them when they fill out official forms.  Developing a comprehensive or accurate picture of Arab communities in the US or the UK, therefore, requires the cobbling together of bits and pieces of data that are scattered between different geographical and ‘racial’ categories.  We have attempted, nonetheless, to provide thorough overviews of Arab-origin immigrants in the US and the UK that can shed light on population dynamics of these communities and that can help us to understand the diverse ways in which Arab groups are positioned in their countries of settlement.   You can access these overviews in PDF format by clicking the links below.

• About Arab Americans (PDF file)

• About British Arabs (PDF file)