Syrian Americans
Syrian Americans are Americans of Syrian descent or background. The first significant wave of Syrian immigrants to arrive in the United States began in the 1880s. Many of the earliest Syrian Americans settled in New York City, Boston, and Detroit. Immigration from Syria to the United States suffered a long hiatus after the United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, which restricted immigration. More than 40 years later, the Immigration Act of 1965, abolished the quotas and immigration from Syria to the United States saw a surge. An estimated 64,600 Syrians immigrated to the United States between 1961 and 2000.
أمريكيون سوريون | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| 187,331 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Louisiana, Ohio, Iowa, Texas, California, Florida (especially Jacksonville) | |
| Languages | |
| American English, Hebrew, Arabic (variants of Syrian Arabic), Neo-Aramaic, Armenian, French, other languages | |
| Religion | |
| Majority: Christianity (Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox) Minorities: Sunni Islam, Druze, and Judaism |
The overwhelming majority of Syrian immigrants to the U.S. from 1880 to 1960 were Christian, a minority were Jewish, whereas Muslim Syrians arrived in the United States chiefly after 1965. According to the 2016 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, there were 187,331 Americans who claimed Syrian ancestry, about 12% of the Arab population in the United States. There are also sizeable minority populations from Syria in the U.S. including Jews, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, and Circassians.