[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> with the helen and welcome.

my name is dave cereal.

and i'm the curator of education here at the american national museum, which is the first and only museum of its kind in the entire country that's dedicated to telling the story of air of americans.

so here we are in front of our exhibit coming to america, which focuses on air of immigration to the united states from the twenty-two countries that make up the rubble ten in northern africa and twelve in southwest asia.

the museum we highlight push and pull factors to this idea of pull factors, right?

what does that mean to you guys?

[MUSIC] the pull factors can be jobs and economics and school and adventure is not one right answer.

but there's lots of different reasons.

push factors are things that like push you out of your country.

so it might be things like war and political conflict might be not having enough food or water.

so we'll take a look at our four different time.

periods of immigration are first time period of urban migration is really from the eighteen eighties into about the early nineteen twenties.

and it's primarily made up of single christian men from lebanon and syria.

now it's not only single christian man.

you do have different religions that are coming due to the folks coming from different parts of the arab world.

you also have women that are coming in larger numbers.

but the primary group of folks coming are mostly single christian men from lebanon and syria.

the folks that are coming through ellis island in new york, the folks that are coming up through central and south america, which is a little bit different of a story than ellis island to have, again, a lot of different experiences that air of immigrants tap.

so here we are in our second time period of innovation, which takes place from the mid nineteen twenties until about the mid nineteen sixties.

during this time period.

there's really three major groups are immigrating and coming to the united states.

the first group is palestinian refugees.

so due to the creation of the state of israel in nineteen, forty-eight, many palestinians are forcibly removed from their homes and several thousand families come to us during this time period.

the other a group coming over our folks known as the brain drain.

right.

so think about that turned what is brain drain to what kind of folks might be coming as part of the brain drain movement if you're thinking very highly educated folks, you are correct.

so it's mostly very educated individuals.

so scientists, doctors, researchers, engineers, folks that can basically contribute to american society at least professionally during the second time kerr, you also see differences from the first time here you see more equal numbers in terms of gender in terms of religion at different parts of the arab world, not just lebanese and syrians.

and the third group we talk about is yeah, moneys that are coming over to the west in general, but also to to michigan specifically.

so a lot of the moneys who were working on ships and in the shipping industry back in yemen are coming to michigan to work along the great lakes.

so we transition into our third time period of the migration, which is from the mid nineteen sixties up until about the nineteen nineties during this third time period.

this is really when we start to see larger numbers of arabs coming over to united states specifically here in michigan.

so this is really where metro detroit, detroit, dearborn, all these areas really start to get its like air of flavor.

so here we are in our fourth time period of air, the migration, which is from the nineties up until present day.

most of the reasons folks are coming during this time, period, even though again, you have folks that are coming for education for jobs.

but you also folks coming for war and things like that.

also, a lot of the reasons folks come over half a lot to do with us intervention either directly or indirectly in some of these countries.

a really interesting example of that is the gulf war in iraq in the early nineties and also the us invasion of iraq in two thousand, three, which causes many iraqis to flee their home for again, unstable conditions, bad economics and of course, war.

so we've talked about four distinct time periods which airs immigrating to the united states, but support talk about kind of where they are and where they live today.

so if you look at our air of american settle a map, you'll notice that the populations that have large numbers are in kind of like a darker brown darker red.

so looking at this map, what state would you say has the biggest population of error of americans?

[MUSIC] you're thinking it's california, you are cracked.

the california is home to the largest population of americans in the country.

michigan, however, has the largest concentration of air, america's largest number of americans in a very specific population that really spread throughout the state.

i think about that.

why would so many heir of americans want to come to michigan?

one of the major reasons is because of the auto industry, right.

lot of arabs came to work in the auto industry was a decent paying job back in the day.

and then once you have that initial community, you go, we have family members or friends that can maybe get you a decent paying job.

but he teaches english might be able to find restaurants and bakeries and religious institutions that are connected to in some way civically in dearborn, which has huge population of americans.

and it's also where the american national museum inside.

so i hope that you'll visit us in person or you can visit the museum's web site at the american museum dot org for a lot more information on air for the nation.

this program was made possible by a grant from ctm community telecommunications network.