Emigration from Syria and the Syrian-Lebanese Community of Worcester, Ma

by Najib Elias Saliba

This work is a study of the migration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from the Ottoman Empire's province of Greater Syria to the United States, fleeing from Muslim oppression with a specific focus on the early Syrian-Lebanese Christian community in Worcester, Massachusetts. The book describes the background and causes of emigration, the establishment of the Syrian-Lebanese settlements in Worcester, churches and affiliated societies, everyday life in the community, and the acquisition of United States citizenship. The story of the Syrian-Lebanese immigrants who settled in Worchester, Massachusetts, has been carefully traced by Najib Saliba. His analysis of the Syrian community in Worchester is sensitive to both the history of these people and their settlement in a new land. He has added invaluable insight into the study of Arab-Americans, an area which currently suffers from too little attention by ethnic scholars. Studies like this one by Dr. Saliba are not only important recordings of American ethnic history, but provide a basis for the on-going attempts to understand the nature and process of immigration, adjustment, assimilation." -From the Introducton.

100 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1992