History of the Middle Eastern people in Metro Detroit
In 2004, Metro Detroit had one of the largest settlements of Middle Eastern people, including Arabs and Chaldo-Assyrians in the United States. As of 2007 about 300,000 people in Southeast Michigan traced their descent from the Middle East. Dearborn's sizeable Arab community consists largely of Lebanese people who immigrated for jobs in the auto industry in the 1920s, and of more recent Yemenis and Iraqis. In 2010 the four Metro Detroit counties had at least 200,000 people of Middle Eastern origin. Bobby Ghosh of TIME said that some estimates gave much larger numbers. From 1990 to 2000 the percentage of people speaking Arabic in the home increased by 106% in Wayne County, 99.5% in Macomb County, and 41% in Oakland County.
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From 1990 to 2000 Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties had a combined increase of 16,632 people who were born in Iraq. The publication "Arab, Chaldean, and Middle Eastern Children and Families in the Tri-County Area" of the From a Child's Perspective: Detroit Metropolitan Census 2000 Fact Sheets Series states that "Arab and Chaldean representation cannot be determined" in that figure. During the same period there was an increase of 7,229 people born in Lebanon.