CULTURAL ASSIMILATION AMONG PALESTINIAN

IMMIGRANTS IN NEW MEXICO

by

ABED MONAWAR, B.A.

A THESIS

IN

ANTHROPOLOGY

Submitted to the Graduate Facultyof Texas Tech University in

Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements for

the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Approved

Phil DennisChairperson of the Committee

Yung Mei Tsai

Accepted

John BorrelliDean of the Graduate School

August, 2006

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge all of those who helped me in this undertaking. First,

I thank the members of the Palestinian-American community, among whom this study

was done, for their help and support. Their willingness to take the time to share their

experiences and thoughts made this study possible. In particular, I would like to thank

Mario and his family for the hospitable and generous treatment they offered me

throughout the entire time I spent doing my fieldwork. I thank my committee, Phil A.

Dennis (chair) and Yumg Mei Tsai for their patience and dedication. Their scholarly

guidance and insightful advice in every step of this study facilitated my task and made

the completion of this undertaking possible. I also would like to thank all the faculty

members and professors at Texas Tech University who offered me tremendous help and

encouragement through my endeavor to construct this ethnographic text; in particular

Gwen Sorell, Robert Paine, Alice Sowaal, Tina Delahunty, Paula Marshal-Gray and

Lahib Jaddo. I would like to show my appreciation to my friends and colleagues Jennifer

Heuss and Jordan Shepherd, who were my family of friends throughout my experience in

graduate school. Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to my mother Sharifa, my

sister Riham and my brother Rami in Qatar; their moral support over the distance kept me

motivated and inspired. I also dedicate it to my father, Said, whose wisdom and guidance

have never left me since the day he passed away in Jan. 19th, 2003.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………...ii

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………...1

Statement of Problem……………………………………………...1

Significance and Purpose of Research…………………………….6

II. THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK……….10

Literature Review………………………………………………...10

Theoretical Framework of Research among Arabs……...10

The Palestinian Diaspora…………..……….……………11

Theoretical Framework…………………………………………..12

Globalization……………………………………………..12

Transmigration and Trasnationalism…………………….14

Human Agency and Theory of Practice………………….15

Methodology……………………………………………………..17

Entering the Field………………………………………...18

Participant Observation…………………………………..19

Interviews………………………………………………...21

Limitations……………………………………………………….23

III. THE PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN SMALLVILLE…………………………………………………………..25

The Setting……………………………………………………….25

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Why Smallville?.............................................................................26

Backgrounds and Arrival Stories………………………………...27

Discussion………………………………………………..32

Adapting to the New Setting and the English Language………...33

Discussion………………………………………………..36

The Rhythm of Life……………………………………………...36

Discussion………………………………………………..41

Marriage………………………………………………………….42

Professional Life…………………………………………………44

IV. THE QUESTION OF ASSIMILATION………………………………...46

Assimilation versus Acculturation……………………………….47

Assimilation and Multiculturalism………………………………51

Assimilation and Cultural Citizenship…………………………...53

V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION……………………………………..59

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………..62

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Statement of Problem

This ethnographic research project was done among a group of Palestinian-

American businessmen in Smallville1, New Mexico, in the southwestern United States.

The research question that guided both the theory and data collection methods is: How

and why do Palestinian-Americans maintain or negotiate the boundaries of their

immigrant group in Smallville, NM? How is this related to the process of their cultural

assimilation into the life of Smallville? The “how” part of the question will be answered

through the ethnographic data about the life of those Palestinian-Americans as a

community. My answer to the “why” question will appear in the discussion and analysis

of the data. I will conclude with a discussion of the ways these Palestinian immigrants

may be assimilating, or not assimilating into the social and cultural life of Smallville.

Palestinians started migrating to the Americas as early as the late decades of the

nineteenth century. Syrians, Lebanese, and smaller numbers of Egyptians and Iraqis also

arrived in the Americas at the same time (Aswad 1974; Abraham and Abraham 1983;

Orfalea 1988). Their reasons for migration were both political and economic. People

were fleeing the oppressive rule of the Ottoman Empire, and escaping from the economic

stagnation that prevailed in their home countries at that time (Cleveland 2000). None of

1 Smallville is a pseudonym used to protect the privacy of these people’s lives.

2

these hardships, however, ended when the Ottoman Empire ended. During the first half of

the twentieth century, under the colonial rule of Great Britain and France, and during the

two World Wars, many waves of migrating groups from the Middle East kept seeking

better political and economic opportunities in the Americas (Abraham and Abraham

1983). It should be pointed out that from that era, the Middle East has been divided into a

number of nation-states with clearly marked and defined borders, and quite different

political and socio-economic circumstances (Cleveland 2000). Hence, different numbers

of people came from different countries, and had different reasons for migrating. Political

and economic reasons continued, after that, to motivate many people who left the region

during the second half of the twentieth century, the era of politically independent nation-

states (Cohen 1995).

During the late decades of the 1900s, however, other factors that affected the

phenomenon of migration around the world began to appear. First, more European

countries began to host groups of immigrants from different parts of the world for a

variety of purposes and reasons (Cesari 2004). Second, seeking better education in the

West (the United States, Canada, and Western Europe) has become a major reason for

migration for many people of different cultural and national backgrounds (Cohen 1995).

Third, advancements in both transportation and communication technologies have

facilitated an easier and faster flow of people, capital and ideas around the world

(Castells 1998; Kaplan 2004). Fourth, the economic and diplomatic interconnectedness

among the nation-states of the globe has grown significantly (Castles and Miller 1997:4).

Up to the present days, these factors have helped many immigrants to establish

3

transmigrant or transnational status, which refers to living back and forth between at least

two different countries (Szanton Blanc et al. 1995). A more elaborate discussion of these

factors is found in chapter 2.

Palestinian migrants became a specific case, in terms of their reasons and

motivations for migration, during the second half of the twentieth century (Abu-Lughod

1995). Regional and world events have shaped the lives and experiences of Palestinian

migrants. These include: the declaration of the independent State of Israel in 1948; the

Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the Six-days War in 1967; the

war of October 1973 between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries (mainly Syria

and Egypt); the Israeli invasion of Lebanese territories in the 1982; the two Palestinian

Intifadas (uprisings) in 1987 and 2001; and finally the two Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003.

These harsh historical circumstances that Palestinians had to survive and overcome can

be seen both in their reasons for migration and in the unique relationship they established

with Palestine, their home country (Peteet 2005; Schultz and Hammer 2003).

As the number of immigrants from the Middle East kept growing in host countries

since the early waves of migration in the late 1800s, such as the case in the United States,

we began to see different labels attached to these immigrants (Aswad 1974). Sometimes

they are called “Arab-Americans,” overlooking the particularities of each experience

(Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian), and overlooking the experience of non-Arab

minorities who came from Arab countries (Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmanis). The term

“Muslim-Americans” is also problematic since it does not describe Christian immigrants

from countries like Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. Neither does it take into

4

account the differences between Arab and non-Arab Muslims (Iranian, Pakistanis and

Indonesians, etc.)

The group of people described in this ethnography is, therefore, a group of

American Entrepreneurs of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim origin. They established a

connection to Smallville as early as the late 1800s. During the last three decades of

business activity they gained transnational status. This allows them to live and work in

both the United States and the Middle East, including their hometowns in the West Bank

of Palestine.

My first encounter with the Palestinian community in Smallville was in the

summer of 2004. I was in New Mexico at the time and I stumbled on an article in the

local newspaper describing a Middle Eastern restaurant and grocery store in town. I went

there and met the employees, most of whom were Palestinians. Through conversations

with them I found that there were around 60 Palestinian families in Smallville. The waiter

at the restaurant told me that “a lot of the stores in the downtown area are owned by

Palestinians.” I asked him if there was any way I could find some cheap lodging for a

couple of days. He told me about a motel owned and run by a Palestinian. I went there

and I ended up staying for two weeks. The manager of the motel (Ghassan2 34 years old)

became a friend of mine and was the son of my host family during the following summer,

when I went back to the town to do fieldwork.

Thus did my interest in these Palestinian entrepreneurs begin. When I came back

to Lubbock, TX, I told my advisor, Dr. Phil Dennis, about the Palestinian community in

2 All names in this study are pseudonyms.

5

Smallville. He shared my interest in these Palestinian immigrants and told me to go ahead

and start working on a prospectus for a Masters’ thesis project.

I started by checking some official and non-official information about the town on

the Internet to learn general social and economic facts. I also read the local newspaper

online for almost one year, the interval between the first summer and the second one,

during which I carried out my 2005 fieldwork.

As I read the newspaper3, and went back through the archived articles about the

Palestinians in Smallville, one theme kept emerging. In some articles, the cultural

assimilation or integration of the Palestinians was questioned by their fellow citizens. In

one article the author wrote clearly, “Why don’t the Arabs in this community participate

more in the daily life of [Smallville]? That is the first question many residents in

[Smallville], NM ask when they talk about the people from the Middle East who call

[Smallville] their home. They have been here for decades but for many they are an

unseen aspect of [Smallville’s] life except when you go to a store owned or run by an

Arab.”

In other articles, however, other voices from the community, both Palestinians

and non-Palestinians, declared the full citizenship of the Palestinian-Americans. These

articles emphasized their participation in the political, social, and economic life of the

city.

Thus, Palestinian-Americans in Smallville seemed to be in a process of

negotiating the boundaries of their immigrant group. Some neighbors questioned their

3 The name of the newspaper is not mentioned to maintain anonymity.

6

assimilation, while others claimed their full social, political and economic integration and

participation.

I started with the anthropological literature that dealt with immigrant communities

or ethnic groups in multi-ethnic societies. It helped formulate my research problem. I

wanted to answer the questions: How and why do Palestinian-Americans in Smallville,

NM demarcate or maintain the boundaries of their immigrant community? And how does

that affect their cultural assimilation?

Significance and Purpose of Research

My ultimate goal here is to add to academic knowledge about the Palestinian

Diaspora in today’s world. I apply anthropological theories and methods to understand

the experience of a specific group of Palestinian immigrants in a small town in the United

States, who, besides sharing a common national and cultural background, share also a

common professional life they developed here in the United States and then extended to

other parts of the world, including their country of origin.

This research can be viewed from different perspectives. It is an anthropological

study done by a Palestinian among Palestinian immigrants in the United States. This is

significant because it avoids, as much as possible, the problematic issue of representation

that Edward Said tackled in his Orientalism (1979). In Middle Eastern studies, as well as

other social sciences and cultural studies, Said’s Orientalism opened the door to

questioning who studies Arabs or Muslims and why. He defined Orientalism as “a style

of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction between the Orient

7

and most of the time the Occident…. It is a corporate institution for dealing with the

Orient– dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing

it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it” (3). Therefore, an Orientalist is “anyone who

teaches, writes about, or researches the Orient [or people from the Orient]” (Said 1979:2).

As Orientalism grew to be a discipline, or a “career” in the West, more and more images

and representations of the Orient and its peoples were accumulated. They formed an

ideologically constructed body of knowledge that was, in most cases, far from reality

(Said 1979:2-4). This research strives to give an inside representation of the people

concerned.

Another way of understanding the significance of the research can be seen

through Abu-Lughod’s work, specifically Writing against Culture (1991) and Zones of

Theory in the Anthropology of the Arab World (1989). Although the concept of culture

has dominated the field of cultural anthropology for a long time, Abu-Lughod (1991),

among others (Gupta and Ferguson 1992; Wright 1998) points out the problems that stem

from the silenced connotations of the concept “culture.” “Culture,” as Abu-Lughod

explains, has been used in anthropology with the assumption that it implies homogeneity

among any studied group of people living in a certain geographic spot (Abu-Lughod

1991). It does not explain either cultural areas that overlap several nation-states or nations

that are themselves multicultural (Gupta and Ferguson 1992:7). In addition, the assumed

isomorphism of space, place and culture results in significant problems in accounting for

the lives of: 1) inhabitants of the “border”; 2) those who live a life of border crossing in

particular; migrant workers, nomads, and members of transnational businesses or

8

professional elites; and 3) those who cross the national borders permanently including

refugees, exiles and expatriates (Gupta and Ferguson 1992:7). The political entailments

of such usages of the term Culture were explained by Wright (1998). According to

Wright:

…culture is an active process of meaning making and contestation over definition, including of itself. People, who are differently positioned in systems of social relations and processes of domination, use economic and institutional resources available to them to try to make their definition of a situation “stick” and prevent others’ definitions from being heard. In its hegemonic form, culture appears coherent, systematic, consensual, like an object beyond human agency. Culture, therefore, has become a political process of contestation over the power to define key concepts, including that of itself. (1998:10)

To avoid the problematic usages of culture as an explanatory theoretical concept, this

study uses key concepts borrowed from the anthropology and sociology of globalization

developed and explained by Sernau 1999; Castells 1998; Appadurai 1996; Trouillot

2003; and Inda and Rosaldo 2002. It also conforms to Abu-Lughod’s suggestion of

focusing on the social “practices” of a “particular” group of people using Bourdieu’s

“Theory of Practice” as one way of writing “against culture” (Abu-Lughod 1991:137), or

“beyond culture” as Gupta and Ferguson put it (1992:6). My focus on the Palestinian-

American experience also attempted to follow the steps of the paradigm used in Asian

Studies today to establish the particularity of the Japanese-American, the Chinese-

American, the Korean-American and the Vietnamese-American experiences (Min 2006).

Lastly, the significance of this study can be seen in the light of recent historical

events that interfered with the relationship between the West and the Middle East at the

turn of the 21st century. These events included the tragic attack of 9/11 in the United

States in 2001; the United States’ leading role in the “war on terrorism” in Afghanistan

9

(since 2002) and in Iraq (since 2003); the riots in France led by the descendants of Arab

and Muslim immigrant groups in 2006; and the huge current debate over the Danish

cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were published in several European newspapers.

All these events had a profound effect on many members of Arab or Muslim immigrant

groups in the United States and Europe. The cultural assimilation of these communities

into the mainstream life of their host countries has come to seem more important.

This ethnography of Palestinian-Americans focuses on cultural assimilation in

their new home in Smallville, New Mexico. I will explain the dynamics of how they

demarcate the boundaries of their community, and explain how this affects the process of

their cultural assimilation.

10

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL

FRAMEWORK

Literature Review

Before explaining the theoretical and methodological frameworks of my research,

I will briefly review the general theoretical orientations of anthropological and

sociological research among Arabs and Arab immigrants, and specifically Palestinian

Diaspora.

Theoretical Frameworks of Research among Arabs

Abu-Lughod (1989: 268-269) exempts anthropologists from Said’s definition of

Orientalism. She argues that anthropologists are not Orientalists because: 1) they collect

their data from the field and not from texts; and 2) their research, work and writings have

always opposed colonialism, from which Orientalism was derived according to Said

(1979: 1). However, she reiterates in the same article that for a long time, anthropology

among Arabs has been dominated by three zones or domains of theory: Islam,

segmentation, and the harem (1989: 280).

Islam, as a religion or belief system, has recently been used by different

disciplines to explain and sometimes emphasize the differences between immigrants of

Arab or Muslim descent and their fellow citizens in other countries (Hagopian 2002;

11

Schaelber and Stenberg 2004). Islam, in this sense, has been extended beyond the borders

of the Arab and Muslim World to explain practices and discourses of Arabs around the

globe (Abu-Lughod1989). Asad (cited by Abu-Lughod (1989: 294) asserts that “the

anthropology of Islam cannot be made to stand for the anthropology of the Arab world.

Not just because not all Arabs are Muslims, nor all Muslims Arabs, but because not all

practices and discourses in Arab societies [or satellite Arab communities] refer or relate

to an Islamic tradition.”

Since all my consultants and interviewees are Muslims, some of the ethnographic

data included in this study is related to the Islamic faith or tradition. However, I will deal

with certain Islamic practices as an important and useful mechanism for solidarity, rather

than an ideological reason for solidarity.

The Palestinian Diaspora

Clifford (1994:305) summarizes Safran’s major features of diaspora as:

…a history of dispersal, myths/memories of the homeland, alienation in the host (bad host?) [SIC] country, desire for eventual return, ongoing support of the homeland, and a collective identity importantly defined by this relationship [with the homeland].

Some of the stories that I collected during my fieldwork in Smallville show that these

features of diaspora did, and perhaps still do, explain certain practices of community

members concerning their relationship with their homeland, Palestine. However, within

the last three decades, changes in the world resulting from globalization have resulted in

a new paradigm. This new paradigm attempts to account sociologically for the

12

experiences of those who live their lives as members of transnational businesses or

professional elites, as is the case of the Palestinian community in Smallville (Portes et al.

2002; Szanton Blanc et al. 1995).

Therefore, while this study is part of the literature that describes Palestinian

Diaspora around the world (Abu-Lughod 1995; Adelman 1995; Ahmad 2003; Hammer

2005), it will also give an ethnographic description of the transnational lives of these

Palestinian-American businessmen. Diaspora studies often concentrate on the emotional

attachment to the homeland (Safran 1991; Clifford 1994). My work will describe both

relations with and attachments to the host country and the homeland.

To describe the lives of these Palestinian-American businessmen in Smallville, I

will use key concepts from current theories of globalization, transmigration and

transnationalism, and from Bourdieu’s theory of practice.

Theoretical framework

Globalization

“Globalization” has become something of a buzz word in different disciplines

(Sernau 1999), and the “term of choice for the 1990s” (Schaebler and Stenberg 2004:

xix). Definitions of globalization differ greatly in different academic disciplines and

different political viewpoints that problematize or study it. In social and cultural

anthropology the term globalization refers to the theoretical perspective that accounts for:

1) “[the] speeding up of the flows of capital, people, goods, images, and ideas across the

world;” 2) “[the] intensification of the links, modes of interaction, and flows…meaning

13

that ties across borders are not sporadic or haphazard but somewhat regularized;” and 3)

“[the] stretching of social, cultural, political, and economic practices across frontiers so

as to make possible action at a distance- that is, so that happenings, decisions, and

practices in one area of the globe can come to have consequences for communities and

cultures in remote locales of the globe” (Inda and Rosaldo 2002:9). Human interactions

and practices around the world are becoming more and more shaped by processes of

global interconnectedness. These have increased since World War II, and continue to

increase today (Castles and Miller 1998) thanks to rapid technological advancements in

transportation and communication (Appadurai 1996; Castells 1998).

Within this current state of interconnectedness and flow across national

boundaries, “the idea of culture,” that used to be rooted, stable and territorialized, has

changed. “Globalization has radically pulled culture apart from place;” culture has been

deterritorialized (Inda and Rosaldo 2002: 10-11). The movement of migrants (who are

“culture bearers” or “cultural subjects” (Inda and Rosaldo 2002:11)) has turned relatively

monocultural spaces into multicultural ones (Inda and Rosaldo 2002; Schaebler and

Stenberg 2004). At the same time, sophisticated communication systems and information

networks have enabled the formulation of new solidarities and identities that are spread

around the world and are not based on face-to-face contact (Gupta and Ferguson 1992;

Appadurai 1996; Castells 1998; Sharkey 2004).

By the same token, in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, globalization has

become a paradigm whereby the Middle East and Islam are not seen as fixed entities with

static religious or cultural essences. Such a view would deny the peoples of this region or

14

religion agency in the making of their history (Schaebler and Stenberg 2004). Under the

umbrella of this paradigm, Cesari’s sociological research among “Western Muslims”

(between nine and twelve million in Western Europe, and four and six million in

America) shows that these Muslims today constitute, at the same time, a major part of the

Muslim World and part of a new transnational Islam (Cesari 2004) or global Islam

(Stenberg 2004). The ability to move, live and network in two worlds has enabled these

Western Muslims to play a major role in the international relations between the West and

the Muslim World. They constantly challenge and question the tolerance and religious

freedom of western democracies on the one hand, and the totalitarianism of the

authoritarian regimes in the Muslim World on the other (Cesari 2004; Stenberg 2004).

Globalization, as it is understood today in both socio-cultural anthropology and

Middle Eastern studies, will be used in this study as an explanatory theoretical

framework.

Transmigration and Transnationalism

It can be said that during the last decade of the 20th century, we saw the

emergence of a new paradigm in the disciplines that took immigration issues as a subject

matter, especially social anthropology, sociology, and human geography (Szanton Blanc

et al. 1995; Portes et al. 2002). The convergence of several historical factors influenced

this paradigm shift. They include: 1) the globalization of capitalism, 2) the technological

advancements in communication and transportation, 3) decolonization and the

universalization of human rights, 4) and the expansion of social networks across national

15

boundaries (Smith and Guarnizo 1998). Scholarly research has shown that many recent

migrants have actually managed, under these circumstances, to maintain affiliation with

both their “sending” and “receiving” countries (Ong 1996; Adler 2000; Portes et al.

2002). First introduced by social anthropologists (Portes et al. 2002: 279), the term

“transnationalism” emerged as a new theoretical paradigm in immigration studies. It

provides an analytical framework to explain the experiences of immigrants in the

developed countries, who lead dual lives participating in two polities and inventing new

forms of economic mobility on the basis of cross-border social networks (Portes et al

2002). Transnationalism has become a distinct strategy adopted by many immigrants in

adapting to their host societies (Portes et al. 2002). Immigrants living in this condition of

transnationality are better described as “transmigrants,” who live in and belong to at least

two different nation-states (Szanton Blanc et al. 1995).

The next chapter includes stories and experiences of the current Palestinian-

Americans in Smallville, which can be better understood in the light of transnationalism,

as explained above.

Human Agency and Theory of Practice

The concepts of globalization and transnationalism have provided a better

understanding of the objective condition in which transmigrant subjects live. What is

needed is a theoretical tool that enables us to analyze and understand human agency

within this condition. Both Geertz’s and Bourdieu’s works are useful in this regard. Their

works deal with: 1) the relationship between social actors and the ideas with which they

16

work; and 2) the relationship between objectivity and subjectivity in modes of social

analysis (Abu-Lughod 1989).

Geertz’s approach looks at peoples’ actions as always being symbolic or

meaningful, because they share a certain system of symbols (Geertz 1973). Bourdieu

maintains that people are always engaged in regulated “improvisions in the art of living”

(Abu-Lughod 1989). Bourdieu is concerned with the political and historical forces that

create a particular “habitus” – a system of ideas or knowledge that drives certain types of

“practice”- which in turn generates what anthropologists perceive as cultural regularities

(Pinto 1999; Margolis 1999; Bouveresse 1999; Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992; Bourdieu

1997).

The difference between the two approaches is that Geertz still does not account

for displaced subjects. Using his approach here would lead to seeing two separate

cultures, one in the country of origin and the other in the host country. Transmigrants

within this theoretical framework would be seen as “deterretorialized, free-floating

people” stuck between two distinct cultures (Smith and Guarnizo 1998: 11).

On the other hand, Bourdieu’s approach avoids this problem by acknowledging

that a transnational situation may create its own set of ideas and knowledge, or “habitus.”

This habitus would function as a driving force for a certain type of practice, which is

always dynamic and innovative, and aimed at accumulating “capital.” Capital according

to Bourdieu can be social, cultural, symbolic and/or economic; any type of capital is

inherently apt to conversion to any of the other types (Bourdieu 1997; Pinto 1999).

17

In my work, I will use Bourdieu’s approach in analyzing some of the Palestinian

population’s practices that affect maintaining their group or community boundaries.

Methodology

In 1914, Malinowski traveled to Papua (known later as Papua New Guinea) to

conduct ethnographic research in Mailu and later the Trobriand Islands. Since then,

fieldwork has become the backbone of any ethnographic endeavor in cultural and social

anthropology (Barrett 1996). Fieldwork as a research method means that the

anthropologist has to actually live among the population, learn their language, build

rapport, gain acceptance and trust, and collect data, using participant observation and

interviewing techniques (Barrett 1996; Fetterman 1998; Bishop 1999; Bernard 2002). In

this sense, it can be said that fieldwork in anthropology is “exploratory in nature”

(Fetterman 1998: 8); it strives to avoid the artificial response seen in controlled or

laboratory conditions (Fettermen 1998).

The ethnographer’s task, however, goes beyond fieldwork. Before going to the

field, the ethnographer normally tries to learn as much as possible about the cultural

group in question (Fetterman 1998). Even when the anthropologist is trying to answer

specific questions in the field, as was the case here, a period of inductive gathering of

information precedes going to the field (Fetterman 1998). It is during this phase that the

ethnographer starts to identify significant themes, problems, or gaps in knowledge

(Fetterman 1998).

18

Ethnographic work continues after the fieldwork as well (Fetterman 1998; Barrett

1996). The bulk of the work applied to organizing and analyzing the collected data begins

after the anthropologist’s departure from the field (Fetterman 1998; Barrett 1996;

Emerson et al. 1995). Field notes, transcribed and sometimes translated interviews, and

other relevant texts are read as a data set, and coded using anthropological and

sociological theory (Emerson et al. 1995; Barrett 1996). The final task, then, is to create a

“thematic narrative” (Emerson et al. 1995: 170) that will help present the data in the

shape of an ethnographic text (Emerson et al. 1995; Fetterman 1998; Bishop 1999).

In the following sections of this chapter, I will explain the ethnographic

techniques I used in collecting and analyzing my data.

Entering the field

I arrived in Smallville to do fieldwork on June 11, 2005. Finding a place to stay

was easier this time. I had already made arrangements with Ghassan over the phone to

stay at his motel for two months, the time dedicated to my fieldwork. Ghassan’s parents

and their five sons became a real host family to me during the entire stay in Smallville.

Their hospitable and warm behavior helped me on many levels. On one hand, I had the

chance to enjoy some familial and social time with them, and to enjoy some Palestinian

dishes every now and then. On the other hand, my relationship with Ghassan, his brothers

and his father gave me access to other people in Smallville, both Palestinians and non-

Palestinian. My relationship with the family introduced me to the community as a

socially approachable individual, and as a researcher at the same time. Spending time

19

with Ghassan and his brothers Sameer (39), Waleed (28), Amer (25) and Hany (24) gave

me the chance to talk to and interact with an age group that ranged between 20 to 40

years old. Older members of the community were more accessible through my good

friendship with Ghassan’s father, Rashid or Abu-Sameer4 (62). As a retired man, Abu-

Sameer now finds more time to write poems in both Arabic and English. Since I had

competence in both languages, I helped him edit and translate his poems. This

strengthened our friendship and gave me the aura of an academic researcher, rather than a

maverick businessman or an inquisitive intruder, in the eyes of other members in the

community.

Participant Observation

After gaining acceptance from the community and building several friendships,

closer observation was possible. Bernard (2003: 327) speaks of three types of

ethnographers: a “complete participant;” a “participant observer;” and a “complete

observer.” Being there as a researcher gave me the status of an observer. At the same

time, being Palestinian and speaking the Palestinian dialect of Arabic brought me closer

to most members of the community. I managed to mingle with them socially in their

professional and leisure circles as a participant as well. Hence, according to Bernard’s

typology, I became a participant observer in the field.

4 Among Palestinians, one traditional and respectful way of addressing adults is by adding the prefix Abu (for men) or Imm (for women) to the name of their oldest, actual or even expected, son. Abu means “the father of” and similarly, Imm means “the mother of.”

20

As most of the literature on ethnographic field methods recommends (Emerson et

al. 1995; Barrett 1996; Fetterman 1998; Bishop 1999; Bernard, 2002), I kept a small

notebook for “jottings” with me all the time. After each event, conversation, or

interaction, I took notes on what happened; who said what to whom and how. Towards

the end of each day, I would write down those jottings or field notes in a journal. At first,

the number of observations seemed overwhelming. They covered several topics or

themes and contained a wealth of names and events. As time passed by, however, I

became more and more familiar with people’s names and the rhythm of their daily life.

The accumulated observations over time began to show patterns, which helped me

arrange or code my data in themes related to the question of my research. Doing this

served the study on several levels. First, organizing the data helped in the analytical

stages after I left the field (see Barrett 1996). Second, it gave me the ability to “learn how

to ask the right questions” (Fetterman 1998: 33; Barrett 1996: 24) in my informal

interactions or interviews with members of the community. Finally, it enabled me to

focus my observation on the type of data that would help answer the basic research

question. I tried to give more weight to observations about how Palestinians in Smallville

negotiate the boundaries of their group, for what purposes they do so, and how this can be

related to the question of assimilation.

21

Interviews

As the fieldwork progressed, I became more familiar with people from the

community. At the same time, I began to get a sense of the kinds of topics that I could

talk about easily, which helped me know what questions to ask and how to ask them.

It is important to mention that being a Palestinian migrant in the United States

facilitated my understanding of the meanings and connotations of everything I heard

during informal interactions or in interviews. As a Palestinian born in Qatar, carrying

official papers of a refugee in Syria, and now living and studying in the United States, I

shared some of the experiences and backgrounds of these Palestinians. Most of my

interactions with members of the community were in Arabic, except when non-Arabic

speakers were around. The notes I took during or after each interaction were in both

Arabic and English. Each day as I integrated new notes into my journal, I reworded

everything in English trying, as much as I could, to maintain the meaning of everything

said.

I did not use any tape recording or video taping techniques for my interviews. I

noticed that the fact of being an investigator did not let most people be at ease talking to

me. Instead, I relied on interacting socially with people, while taking detailed notes to be

incorporated later into the body of information.

The literature on interviewing methods in anthropology differentiates between

four types of interviews: 1) informal, 2) semistructured, 3) and structured. Bernard (2002)

adds a fourth category, the unstructured interviews. The ethnographer can apply any

combination of the four techniques depending on the situation in the field, the question

22

studied, or the time and budget available for the fieldwork (Emerson et al. 1995; Barrett

1996; Fetterman 1998; Bishop 1999; Bernard 2002). The types of interviewing

techniques used in this study were both informal and semistructured.

Although the term might seem to indicate spontaneity or improvisation, “informal

interviewing” in ethnographic research is always planned and prepared for carefully

(Fetterman 1998; Bernard 2002: 204). It differs from a common conversation in that: 1) it

requires building rapport with the consultants; 2) it requires a great deal of sensitivity and

understanding of what people think, say and do; 3) and above all, it has a specific yet

implicit research agenda (Fetterman 1998). After the first two weeks of my fieldwork and

after introducing the plan of my research to almost everyone with whom I interacted, I

started to use my daily conversations with people to learn more about their backgrounds,

experiences and opinions. Most of the time, I used this technique while talking to

individuals separately. On certain occasions, however, I used it in sessions when several

individuals were present. My notes from every informal interview were then incorporated

into my general data.

My semistructured interviews came later on as the fieldwork progressed. I carried

out ten interviews with Palestinian-Americans and four with non-Palestinian individuals

from Smallville. I used the snowball sampling method, whereby a connection with one

consultant leads to finding other interviewees. Semistructured interviews helped me

collect more focused information about topics and themes related to the research

question. I also tried to interview individuals from different backgrounds and age groups,

to explore diversity in experiences and opinions.

23

With Palestinian-Americans, my concern was to look in depth at their experiences

before and after migrating. According to Bourdieu, social practice is always driven and

shaped by a set of rules acquired through the interaction between actors and their

objective condition. Therefore, the open-ended questions I used in my interviews were

focused on the migration experience and the adaptation to the new setting in the United

States. The open-ended questions that I used for my interviews were about: 1) the reasons

for migrating and leaving the country of origin; 2) the arrival in the United States; 3) the

difficulties faced as an immigrant in the United States and trying to overcome them; 4)

the purpose of becoming an American citizen; 5) continued self-identification as a

Palestinian, and the reasons behind such self-identification.

As for my non-Palestinian interviewees, I wanted to know how they perceive the

Palestinian community in Smallville. Therefore, I asked two main questions: 1) in your

opinion what makes a person an American? And 2) In what ways do you see a

Palestinian-American as similar to, or different from you?

Limitations

The process of collecting the data in the field faced certain limitations. They

stemmed from constraints in time and budget, and from basic social and political facts

about Palestinian-Americans in Smallville.

First, my interactions were mainly with male individuals working in the

community. For cultural and socioeconomic reasons, the Palestinian community in

Smallville is very male-dominated. The lives of men, especially working men, are the

24

most visible aspect of community life. Besides, two months of fieldwork were not

enough for me to be introduced to all the families; hence, I could not look more closely at

differences in gender roles within the community. Being a man gave me easier access to

interacting with more men than women. For the same reasons, accessibility was also

limited to individuals who were under the working age (around 20-22 years old). Thus, I

could not observe generational differences very closely.

Time played another role in limiting data collection. During my stay, I did not

have the opportunity to attend any major social occasion where cultural and traditional

customs normally come to the surface, such as a wedding or funeral. Being there in the

summer also meant that many families and individuals were out of Smallville on vacation

or on business trips.

Lastly, given the post-9/11 situation in the United States, it was difficult to be

accepted as an academic researcher rather than an intruding investigator by members of

the community. The situation kept me from meeting with city officials, and limited my

interactions with individuals outside the Palestinian community. This fact has actually

shifted my work towards a more in-group perspective, rather than a more holistic one.

In the next chapter, I will give a description of the current Palestinian-American

community in Smallville through the eyes of my consultants. The chapter will also

include some historical and socioeconomic facts about the community, put within a larger

transnational and global context. Both the description and the discussion will try to shed

light on how, and for what reasons, the Palestinians in Smallville maintain the boundaries

of their community.

25

CHAPTER III

THE PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN SMALLVILLE

The Setting

Smallville is a small city in New Mexico in the United States. It is close to the

Navajo, Hopi and Zuni reservations. According to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau, among

the total population of 20,209, there are 9,628 males and 10,581 females, with an average

age of 32.72 years old. In terms of race and ethnicity the city has: 8,106 Caucasians; 219

African-Americans; 7,404 Native Americans and Alaska natives; 289 Asians; 19 Native

Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders; 6,699 Hispanics or Latinos; 2,985 listed under

“other”; and 1,187 of two or more races.

When I asked Kamal (45) about where Palestinian-Americans fit in this ethnically

diverse profile of the city, he told me that almost everyone in the community subjectively

identifies themselves as Caucasians. Kamal owns a Middle Eastern restaurant and

grocery store among other businesses in downtown Smallville. He represents the

Palestinian community and has lectured about Palestinians and Muslims at several

colleges and universities and at regional conferences and city meetings. He has also been

quoted several times in the local newspapers, speaking on behalf of the community

regarding political, social and cultural issues.

According to an article in the local newspaper, and confirmed by Kamal, almost

250-270 residents of Middle Eastern descent live in the city, distributed in about 60

households. The majority of them are of Palestinian origin, mostly from one small town

26

in the West Bank: Deir Debwan. The rest are Palestinians from other cities and towns in

the West Bank and Israel. There are also families from Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Why Smallville?

The most often told story about the arrival of the first Palestinian immigrant in

Smallville is the following: In the late 1800s or early 1900s, a man from the West Bank in

Palestine, Mr. Salem, came to the United States. He crossed the country heading west in a

covered wagon trading, and looking for business opportunities. As the story goes, he was in

the United States with other working men and had left his family behind in Deir Debwan.

He made a stop in Smallville, New Mexico, and worked for a while in the trading business

and in the mines in the area. He obtained U.S. citizenship after a long stay in the country and

then went back to his family in Palestine. Mr. Salem’s sons and more men from his

hometown, Deir Debwan, came to the States to work, but never lost connections with their

families back home.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Salem’s grandson, Mufeed or Abu-Khalid (who is now 62

years old) came to the States as an American citizen. He volunteered and served in the U.S.

army during the Vietnam War. He still carries a copy of his ID card as a Vietnam veteran.

Mufeed started a family with his Palestinian wife in the Bronx before moving to Smallville,

where he lives today and works with his sons. The story of Mr. Salem was told to me by his

grandson Mufeed, and by my consultant Rashid.

Since the early 1900s Mr. Salem’s family and his relatives have maintained the

Palestine-New Mexico connection by migrating back and forth between their hometown of

27

Deir Debwan and Smallville in the United States. More people from other parts of Palestine,

including Nablus and Deir Tareef, and from other Middle Eastern countries including Syria

and Lebanon came at different points in time. It is still a fact, though, that the majority of the

Arabic population in Smallville now comes from Deir Debwan in the West Bank (almost

80% of them, as I was told by Rashid and Kamal). In many aspects Dabawneh (those from

Deir Debwan) kept close relationships with each other, and their regional dialect of Arabic is

the main one spoken in the Palestinian and Arab community in Smallville.

Backgrounds and Arrival stories

The arrival stories of the current Palestinian community in Smallville show two main

patterns. The first is that of the Dabawneh, who came here from either the West Bank or

Jordan. As I mentioned above, they had an older connection to the United States and to

Smallville. Deir Debwan today, as the saying goes, is more of an “American suburbia” than

a small Palestinian village. Therefore, their migration stories were less complicated, with

less chain migration before settling in the United States. Their reasons for migration were

closely related to the situation in occupied Palestine and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

Since the War of Independence in 1948, as the Israelis refer to it, or the Nakba

(disaster in Arabic), as the Palestinians call it, migration was the best option to obtain better

living conditions for most Palestinians. The nature of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict resulted

in a series of wars in the region and a seemingly endless chain of aggression and retaliation

between the two parties. This situation was extremely difficult for many Palestinian

families. Looking for better lives somewhere else became a survival strategy for coping with

28

turbulence. Migration meant better jobs, better health care, and better education for children.

While some chose to move to other Arab countries, others headed towards the West. For

those who came to the West, citizenship in the host countries has helped many families stay

connected with their hometowns in Palestine, because they can move more easily now

across borders as Western citizens.

A second pattern involves a longer route, from Palestine to the surrounding Arab

countries until finding a final home in the United States. This kind of chain migration

resulted from the politically troubled situation in the entire Middle East. In 1948, after the

declaration of independence of the State of Israel, Palestinians moved in mass to Syria,

Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. Aside from Jordan, this part of the Palestinian population still

has a refugee status in these countries. During the sixties, when the oil economy was

booming in the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf area, a lot of Palestinians, along with

other Arabs, moved to work and live in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates,

Qatar and Bahrain. Those Palestinians came either from Palestine itself (the West Bank and

Gaza Strip) or from refugee communities in the surrounding Arab countries.

During the first Gulf War of 1991, the political stance of the Palestinian Liberation

Organization (PLO), the recognized representative of the Palestinian people around the

world, left an impact on the lives of Palestinians in general, and specifically those living in

the Gulf area. The PLO did not condemn the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. As a result,

Palestinians in Kuwait were portrayed as traitors and were asked to leave. In the entire Gulf

area, many Palestinians lost the trust of their host countries. Many had to move back to their

home countries and face the existing economic stagnation. Migrating to Europe or the

29

United States, at that time, seemed the best option for some Palestinian families. They hoped

to obtain stable legal status, a way to make a living, and a better future for their children. It

should be mentioned here that some of these Palestinian families already had connections to

different Western countries, through sons and daughters who were studying or working in

the West. To those, western citizenship meant reuniting families that had been scattered

through several countries.

Chronologically speaking, the current Palestinian-American population in Smallville

can be divided into three main waves of migrants. The first wave, or the pioneers, came in

the seventies; the second wave in the eighties and nineties; and the last wave during and

after the events of September 11, 2001. In the following section, I will give some examples

from each wave of Palestinian migrants to Smallville.

The First Wave:

Only four men came from the West Bank and settled in Smallville during the

seventies: Mufeed (62) from Deir Debwan; Fayez (59) from Nablus; Mahmoud (60); and his

brother Said (59) from Deir Debwan. The offspring of those four men were all born here in

the United States, and thus form the second generation of Palestinians in Smallville, who are

now in college or of working age. Their grandchildren are the third generation Palestinian-

Americans in Smallville. It was through connections and relations with those four men that

many other Palestinians came to live in Smallville. Most of those who came after the

seventies worked with, or for, these men when they first arrived in town. I have already

described Mufeed’s arrival in the United States. Fayez is another member of this first wave

of immigrants.

30

Fayez used to live and work in Jordan to send money to his family in Nablus in the

West Bank. After the war of 1973 Fayez decided to move to the United States. After living

in several different parts of the country, he finally settled in Smallville in 1978. He had

already heard about the town from other Palestinians in the United States. Today he owns a

trading company and two motels. Most of his employees are Palestinians, but others are

Native American, Hispanic or Anglo.

The Second Wave:

Most of the Palestinians in Smallville today arrived in the second wave of migration.

What characterizes this wave of immigrants is the diversity in their ages and backgrounds.

While the majority of them came from Deir Debwan, the rest came from different

communities in Palestine or other Arab countries. Their direct or indirect relationships with

the pioneers led them to Smallville. Most of them today own family businesses and live in

Smallville.

An example from this wave would be my host family. Rashid, the father, is from

Deir Tareef in Palestine, a small town on the outskirts of the city of Lod in today’s Israel. In

1948 Rashid’s family moved to the West Bank when he was less than 5 years old. From

there they moved to Jordan and then to Kuwait. Rashid grew up in Kuwait and stayed there

until the first Gulf War of 1991. During his stay in Kuwait he maintained close contact with

relatives and friends in the West Bank and Jordan. He also had some property in both Syria

and Egypt, and although he lived between all those countries, he never had full citizenship in

any of them. During the first Gulf War Kuwait stopped being home to Rashid’s family. The

family moved to Egypt and lived in Alexandria for five years, where their son Ghassan lived

31

and studied. The family’s oldest son Sameer (39) had been in Chicago, Illinois, as a student

since the mid 1980s. After Sameer was granted permanent residency, he invited his parents

and his five brothers to live in the United States as immigrants. In 1998 the whole family

united again in Smallville to start their business.

Another example is Abu-Nasser’s (53) family. He is from Nablus in the West Bank,

and he had lived on both banks of the river Jordan. The West Bank, before 1967, was under

the Hashemite Jordanian Control, and Abu-Nasser had Jordanian citizenship. His citizenship

meant that he could work, live and move easily between Nablus and Jordan. After the

occupation of the West Bank in 1967, going to Nablus became more difficult and Abu-

Nasser’s extended family was divided in between two enemy countries. In the late seventies,

he obtained a job in Saudi Arabia as an employee of the Saudi government. After living in

Saudi Arabia for a while he decided to take his family and migrate to the United States in

1991-1992, the time of the first Gulf War. By the mid nineties, he had already become an

American citizen. During that time he decided to join his brothers-in-law in Smallville,

where he now lives and owns his own business.

Zuhair’s (37) story is a little different. In the sixties, his parents, originally from

Nablus, moved to Kuwait from Jordan looking for better job opportunities. He was born and

raised in Kuwait. Right after high school in the late eighties he came to the United States as

a student. He continued his education through a Masters in Business Administration from

Ohio State University. In 1997 Zuhair was hired by Fayez (59) as an accountant for his

trading company in Smallville. Today, he is an American citizen and lives in Smallville with

his Palestinian wife and two children, who were born in the States.

32

The last example is Ahmad (39). Ahmad is originally from Deir Tareef, Rashid’s

hometown. He was born and raised in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. After the first

Palestinian Intifada broke out in 1987, he decided to move to the United States. He arrived

in Chicago in 1989, stayed there for a while and then moved to Smallville in 1995 to work

for another Palestinian-American in town. Today he owns his own business and lives with

his wife and three children.

The Third Wave:

Since 2001, only two newcomers arrived in Smallville from Palestine: Rami (25),

and Hussam (19). Rami is from Deir Debwan. He came to the United States in 2001, after

the beginning of the second Intifada in the West Bank in 2000. He entered the country as the

fiancé of Kamal’s daughter. He works with his future father-in-law today and is in the

process of becoming an American citizen.

Hussam is Rashid’s nephew. In 1986, when Hussam was born, his family lived in the

United States. After that, in the mid nineties, the family ended up going back to the Balata

camp in the West Bank. In 2004, Hussam, a U.S. citizen by birth, came back to the United

States, to work with his cousins in Smallville.

Discussion:

Despite the diversity of backgrounds in these members of the current Palestinian

population of Smallville, there are some important shared features. In all cases migration

was a strategic decision for families who wanted to look for a better and more stable life.

Apart from the first pioneers, everyone who came later to Smallville was able to do so

through some sort of connection to individuals already settled there. They were either family

33

members, relatives or friends. Almost everyone I interacted with stated that being American

has changed their lives dramatically. As American citizens, they gained full citizenship

rights. For the first time they felt that they had finally superseded the hardships of being

second class citizens. Citizenship gave them more freedom to conduct business in the United

States and in other parts of the world. Finally, and most importantly, their mobility across

national borders became much easier. Now they can travel to Palestine or any other Arab

country as Americans, which, in many cases helped connect members of transnationally

extended families.

Adapting to the New Settings and the English Language

The status of any Palestinian-American entrepreneur newly arrived in Smallville

depended on several factors: the closeness of his relation to the pioneers; his age; his

familial status; his background experiences in other countries; his English language

capabilities; his educational level; and finally, the amount of savings he could dedicate to

starting a business. Relatively young men or those with young families, who have a good

education and good communicative skills in English, start off by working for businesses

owned by other Palestinian-Americans. Some of them (Ahmad’s case) move on to

establishing their own businesses, while others (Zuhair’s case) stay working for their

original employers. Older individuals with larger families and considerable savings may

either start their own businesses or become partners and shareholders with an already

existing business. Families with less savings normally provide employees for different

businesses in town. Nizar’s (22) family is an example of such a case. Nizar came with his

34

family of six members from Deir Debwan to Smallville when he was a teenager in 1997.

Today, Nizar, his father and his brother work for three different businesses owned by

Palestinian-Americans.

Almost everyone agreed, however, that any newcomer has to face two major

difficulties: being able to communicate easily in English, and knowing the American system

of establishing and conducting private business. “It is a process,” Kamal said; “Some people

learn fast and move on, others take longer, but it’s a process.” During this stage of early

adaptation to the new setting, the Palestinian community in Smallville as a whole plays a

major role in helping the newcomers. The community provides a social and professional

atmosphere in which newcomers can interact and mingle with individuals from other

backgrounds, within circles of friends, neighbors, partners, employees and customers.

Rami’s case is a good example. When I first met Rami in the summer of 2004, he was

working as a shift manager at his father-in-law’s restaurant. In 2005, when I went back to

Smallville, he was the manager of both the restaurant and the grocery store. He told me that

he had to move slowly from working in the kitchen, to shift managing, to having the

authority to interview and hire new workers, to being the general manger. His

responsibilities increased as he gained more mastery over both the English language and the

local way of doing business. Among his responsibilities today are dealing with employees

and suppliers, handling customers, and working with accountants or city officials.

Through interacting with members of the community, or through observing them

interacting with English speaking persons, one can see the differences that exist in English

language acquisition and language competence. It is hard to say though, that age is a reliable

35

indicator of competence in English. In the age group between eighteen and twenty-nine, for

example, some individuals are first generation immigrants, while others are second, or even

third generation. Individuals from the latter group were born and raised here in the United

States and speak perfect English with hardly any noticeable accent. It is also inaccurate to

state that the amount of time spent in the United States is a better indicator. A look at the

difference between the first generation and their offspring explains this point. Children who

are born and raised in an English speaking context, but have spent little time here, normally

have more competence in the language than their first generation parents.

In circles where non-Arabic speakers were not present, I noticed that most of the

conversations were conducted in Arabic. English words or terms, however, were repeatedly

mixed with Arabic, especially when discussing professional issues. Some English words are

modified and integrated into the spoken Arabic. The word cousin, or its modified version

cuzz, are very common terms of address used by Palestinians even when speaking Arabic.

Some verbs from the English language are taken and conjugated in Arabic and used

frequently. Bother hom, for example, is used as the Arabic translation of bother them in

English. The Arabic pronoun hom, meaning them, is added to the English verb to bother.

Arabic names are converted into their Judeo-Christian equivalents whenever possible (like

Joseph for Yussef, or John for Yehya or Hanna etc.). In other cases, a common American

name is substituted for the Arabic name. An Arabic name may also be modified to sound

more familiar to other Americans; for example, Sam for Sameer, Gus for Ghassan, or Derek

for Tarek and so on. Common American names help facilitate interactions between members

of the Palestinian community and individuals from other backgrounds.

36

Discussion

The arrival stories and the stories of adaptation to the new cultural, linguistic and

professional setting in Smallville make clear some important facts about the relationship

between individuals and the community as a whole. First, everyone came to Smallville

because they already had connections with members of the community. Second, after

settling in Smallville, it is through existing members of the community that newcomers

could find a job. Third, professional, language and social skills can be acquired by

newcomers through professional connections and networks in town. Therefore, it can be said

that the existing community plays an important practical role in the lives of newcomers.

The Rhythm of Daily Life

During my fieldwork I tried to pay attention to the rhythm of life that Palestinian

men follow in their work days. They start around 8:00 in the morning. They take a lunch

break around noon, which they try to spend together in a restaurant or coffee shop. Around

6:30 pm they finish work. This is when they meet their families and have their main meal at

home. From 9 to 10 pm they meet at the mosque (the place of worship for Muslims) for the

fifth and last Muslim prayer. Normally they have a study session after the prayer. On

Fridays, a Muslim holiday, they gather at the mosque to listen to the Sheik and attend the

Friday services. After the evening service at the mosque some of them meet at Denny’s for

socializing, chatting or playing cards until around midnight, when everyone goes home. In

the following sections, I will describe social interactions at lunch breaks, at Denny’s and at

the mosque.

37

Lunch Breaks: On work days, lunch breaks were normally times of socialization for

the Palestinian businessmen. On several occasions I had the chance to join them at the

Middle Eastern restaurant or at other restaurants in town. On occasions we had Palestinian-

American visitors from other parts of the country. On other occasions we were joined by

local businessmen from outside the community, two of whom I was later able to interview.

Normally, all those who were at the restaurant at the same time, both Palestinians

and their friends, would sit together at the same table. The conversations always began with

a brief chat about the families and kids and how everyone was doing. Then they would

exchange information about people who were absent; ‘who was with whom that day, where

and why’ was always part of the conversations. Not a lot of talk about business took place at

the lunch breaks unless something unusual had happened. For example, they did discuss

who didn’t show up for work that day, who had to leave town on a vacation or a business

trip, or who came back to town from a business trip. They would also talk about the latest

news that day from both the United States and from Palestine and the Arab world in general.

The conversations were in Arabic unless there were non-Arabic speakers at the table.

Whenever we were joined by non-Arabic speakers, the entire conversation was normally in

English. Such sessions were also more formal; public and communal issues, instead of

family issues, were discussed, and business was talked about briefly and only when

necessary. When a Palestinian or any other Arab visitor was there, the conversations were

mainly about Palestine and Palestinians in the United States.

I also noticed that people of similar age groups normally met together for these lunch

breaks. On two occasions I had lunch with younger members of the community, my host

38

family’s two sons Waleed and Hany and their friend Nizar. These lunches were fast and

brief as the young men had to get back to work. The conversations were less serious,

although the brothers did talk about the preparations for their business trips outside

Smallville.

At Denny’s: In the new part of town, and a few blocks away from the mosque, sits

Denny’s restaurant. There, after the last evening service at the mosque, some Palestinian

men have been meeting on a daily basis since the opening of the restaurant four or five years

ago. When I asked, why Denny’s? The answers were: “it is close to the mosque where we

meet almost every day;” “you can smoke here and they serve coffee all night long;” “it is the

relaxation time of the day. We come here to chat, play cards, eat and drink some coffee;”

“they all know us here and we get good service.”

At a big round table in the smoking section of Denny’s Palestinian men get together

to play cards every night. Up to four booths nearby in the same section of the restaurant

normally fill with other Palestinian men. Attendance may range from at least four card

players to almost 20 men in total. The card players are always the first there and the last to

leave. One may start the night playing and then join another table, or join the players’ table

later in the evening. The participants are never under 30 years of age and they are all first

generation immigrants. The majority are from Deir Debwan. People at each table or booth

may stay apart from the others for a short while, or more commonly move in and out

between tables talking to the others.

In this setting conversation topics varied broadly, and included American and Arabic

sports or news, local issues, business issues, and social and family matters. When an Arab

39

visitor showed up the talk centered on the political, economic and social situation in

Palestine. This happened the first time I went there, and on two other occasions when an

Egyptian and a Syrian visitor were there. The language used here is Arabic for the most part.

English is only used in the presence of monolingual English speakers, with the waiters, or to

talk about practical and legal issues related to business.

At the Mosque: The mosque has a special importance and role in both the religious

and social life of the community. Whenever I asked about the role of the mosque, I was told

that it is the natural place for all Muslims to maintain a strong relationship with their

Creator. The mosque as a place, they all insist, has spiritual and symbolic importance in

Muslims’ lives. However, from what I observed, the mosque also had an institutional role in

the social and political life of the community.

As I mentioned before, the religious services at the mosque took place mainly on

Fridays, where, at noon, the majority of the Palestinian community gathered to listen to the

sheik preaching the teachings of Islam. The mosque was also open daily for the five times of

Muslim prayers, among which the last one, the evening prayer, had a certain importance.

Every day after the evening prayers, at around 9:30 in the summer time and around 6:30 to

7:00 in the winter time, ten to fifteen members of the community had study sessions about

the teachings of Islam. Those sessions were led by the sheik or by other members who

claimed some knowledge of the Koran’s teachings.

The congregation at Friday services was representative of the community as a whole.

Men and children of all ages attended those services. Women worship in a separate section

of the mosque, which was normally full on Fridays as well. Usually the service starts with a

40

speech from the sheik in Arabic followed by a translation in English. The English translation

was important, it was explained to me, for young children whose Arabic language abilities

were limited. It was also important for non-Arabic speakers, who were there as either non-

Arab Muslims or visitors from other faiths in the community. For the daily evening prayers

the crowd was mainly men and their children, with fewer women attending.

The institutional role of the mosque unfolds and can be seen in several ways. First, it

is at the mosque that families make sure to meet with each other at least once a week.

Second, it is the place where young children are socialized and taught both the Arabic

language and the teachings of Islam. Third, at the mosque there is always a chance to

discuss conflicts, disputes and differences among members of the community. It is said that

with the sheik there as a religious figure, and the elders as prestigious and influential figures,

any problem can be solved, or at least talked about and brought to general attention. The last

aspect of the institutional role of the mosque is that it is the place where anyone can address

the Palestinians as a community. On several occasions I was told that the mosque was the

place where nominees for different official offices, the mayor for example, had addressed

the Palestinians and other Muslims of Smallville. From the mosque came all the

Palestinians’ contributions to the city and community of Smallville. When the city decided

to build extra well-equipped health clinics, the Palestinian contributions were collected at

the mosque. Right after 9/11 the mosque was the place where non-Muslim people of

Smallville came to show their support for their fellow citizens of Palestinian or Arab origin.

Although attending services in the mosque is a religious obligation of all Muslims,

attendance also has a social and political dimension. It is there where individuals express

41

their membership in the community. Apart from its religious aspect, attending services at the

mosque was seen and talked about by many as a prestigious and desirable practice that

showed an individual’s care about the community and its solidarity.

Discussion

The regularity of all those meetings has its effect on both in-group and out-group

individuals. To an outsider it seems that these Palestinians are always together; they look

like a closed or exclusive group of people. However, if we consider how those meetings

actually relate to the Palestinians’ daily social, professional and religious schedule, we see

that they did not mean to make their meetings exclusive at all. In fact, they believe that their

schedule makes them the most approachable group of people in town, any day, all day long.

As I mentioned earlier, visitors from outside Smallville’s Palestinian community, be they

Arabs or non-Arabs, are always welcome to join and participate any time they want to.

For someone from inside the community the effect is different. Through regular

meetings the Palestinians manage to maintain a friendly social atmosphere among

themselves. I was told that conflicts and differences among them are normally worked out in

meetings like these. Any visitor from outside the country, a family member or relative, is

able to meet most of the community members through attending the services at the mosque

or going to any of the places used for socializing. For newcomers especially, those are the

places where they can easily be introduced to the rest of the community. Besides, mingling

the different generations at the mosque plays a major role in socializing children and

keeping them in touch with their language, religion and traditions. Finally, those regular

meetings enable information exchange for all the Palestinians in Smallville. The

42

conversations that take place usually cover business news, familial and communal issues in

Smallville and the West Bank, national news, and news from Palestine or the world in

general.

Marriage

The Palestinian community in Smallville has grown in number since the 1970s. The

growth came from two sources. First, it came from the considerable number of new people

arriving in town, especially during the eighties and nineties. The second source is simply

birth. This will lead us to marriage patterns within the community. Discussing birth entails

talking about marriage, and in fact most of the newcomers have actually come to Smallville

through marriage connections with older members of the community, their in-laws or future

in-laws.

In general, all Palestinian men in Smallville are married to Palestinian women. The

most direct explanation is that most of those who migrated to the United States were in their

late twenties or early thirties, and were already married. The second reason is that for

younger single people the preferable marriage partner has always been a Palestinian Muslim

person. Therefore, a network of match-making exists to arrange overseas marriages between

the States, the West Bank and Jordan. This fact attracted my attention, since it directly

affects the question of cultural assimilation. When I asked several men from the community

about this practice the answers were of three kinds.

Some believe that a Palestinian wife, or a Palestinian husband for your daughter or

sister, means that the children will stay within the same religious, cultural and language

43

world. Thus the Palestinian culture and Palestinian identity are conserved and instilled in

the coming generations.

Others looked at what they are doing here in the United States as a mission to help

themselves and their direct and extended families back home. For those, a Palestinian life

partner will understand this fact better than anyone else because they come from the same

place.

The third category of answers revolves around ideal practicality. As businessmen,

some saw in the strong bond of marriage an opportunity to benefit both families. For those

who are already here in America, the new in-laws will be good business partners or loyal

employees and helpers. For families overseas, marrying someone from the United States

means access to this country as an immigrant, to work and help the rest of the family back

home.

Of course these are ideal situations, reflected in the answers to my questions. The

majority of the cases actually do conform to one or more of these categories of answers.

However, there are also other patterns of marriage in the community. There are two

Palestinian-Navajo families and several cases of current or previous marriages between

Palestinians and Anglos or Hispanics. In some cases, people marry into families from other

Palestinian communities around the United States. In at least one case the ideal scenario did

not work for the newlyweds. Mahmoud (one of the pioneers) wanted his son to marry a

relative from Deir Debwan. After long arrangements, the wedding took place overseas and

the bride came to live here in Smallville. A few months later the couple separated.

44

Professional Life

The professional life of the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian community in

Smallville revolves around private enterprises. The types of businesses that are owned are

related to the tourist and services sectors. They own and manage motels, restaurants, gas

stations, art galleries, and antique and jewelry shops. Although they all started in Smallville,

over the years, some managed to expand the market for their merchandise and services to

other cities in New Mexico and to other states around the country. Young men are sent from

Smallville to cities in New Mexico, Nevada, Texas and California to run branch stores and

locales, or to participate in shows and galleries. This process of expansion gathered

momentum during the large second wave of Palestinian migration to Smallville between the

eighties and nineties. Newcomers brought with them financial and labor power that helped

sustain this growing network of connections with other major cities, and with other Arab

communities around the country.

During the last ten to twelve years some Palestinian businessmen began to discover

farther horizons for their growth. Around the world, more and more countries were joining

the growing global free market economy. Their businesses could now expand to countries

like Japan and China in Asia; Dubai, Egypt and Jordan in the Middle East; and France and

Germany in Europe. This is the current expansion process involving the Palestinian

businesses in Smallville.

This situation has had its impact on the local Palestinian community. First, during

this stage only two young men came to Smallville from Palestine. Second, community

members began to have more mobility in and out of Smallville, and back and forth between

45

the United States and different countries overseas. Third, the community began to exhibit

more class differences distinguishing the pioneers and their relatives who own and run

newly global businesses, and other families (like my host family) who are still trying to

establish their own local family businesses.

The impact of this process has even reached other Palestinian communities in Deir

Debwan and Nablus in the West Bank, and communities in Jordan. Aside from beginning

new businesses in those places, much investment has been dedicated to nonprofit projects.

One example is the ongoing project of building the first community college in Deir Debwan,

following educational models from the United States. This has created new job opportunities

for more Palestinians in those areas, and thus more financial stability for families there.

46

CHAPTER IV

THE QUESTION OF CULTURAL ASSIMILATION

In this last chapter, I will discuss the cultural assimilation of the Palestinian

community in Smallville. I will first review the anthropological and sociological

literature dealing with the concept of “assimilation.” Then I will describe some practices

of Palestinians in Smallville that affect their assimilation.

The literature about assimilation of immigrants has two major characteristics.

First, it has always dealt with assimilation as a barrier or a tunnel that separates two

culturally different groups of people: citizens of the host countries in Europe or North

America, and immigrants arriving from African, Asian or South and Central American

countries. Second, most of the research was done either by researchers who came from

the host countries or from academic institutions in those countries. These two facts have

made assimilation a highly negotiable political concept, even among researchers

themselves. Some, like Woolston (1945), Seigel (1953), Johnson (1963), Heiss (1969)

and others (see Teske and Nelson 1974 for citations) prefer to explain the process by

discussing what individuals from immigrant groups do, or should do. Others (Adler 1974;

Stimpson 1992; Young 1990; Rosaldo 1994; Ong 1996; Alexander 2001) give alternative

concepts focusing on how assimilation should be viewed academically in the host

Western countries.

Chronologically speaking, one notices a paradigm shift among researchers as

early as 1974. There seems to be increasing rejection of the term “assimilation.”

47

However, I agree with Alexander (2001: 248) that “assimilation” and any other

alternative terms, including hyphenation, multiculturalism or cultural citizenship, still

blend conceptually into one another. In other words, despite conceptual changes, the

classic concept of assimilation remains a valid topic for sociological and anthropological

inquiry. Therefore, I will explain the term and show how practices of Palestinians in

Smallville reflect, or contradict, the idea of “assimilation.”

Assimilation versus Acculturation

Teske and Nelson (1974: 358) define cultural assimilation following Park and

Burgess (1924) as: “a process of interpretation and fusion in which persons or groups

acquire the memories, sentiments and attitudes of other persons or groups; and, by

sharing their experience and history are incorporated with them in a common cultural

life.” They also compare it with another process that might take place during contact

between two cultural groups, which is acculturation. Acculturation is “the process

whereby the culture of a society is modified as the result of contact with the culture of

one or more other societies” (Gillin and Raimy 1940, cited by Teske and Nelson

1974:351).

Teske and Nelson’s comparison concludes that although assimilation and

acculturation do share some characteristics, they still differ from one another in many

ways. The first similarity is that the two are dynamic processes, meaning one can find

differences in degrees of assimilation or acculturation. Second, both can be studied using

either the individual or the group as a whole as the unit of analysis. However,

48

assimilation differs from acculturation in that: 1) it is unidirectional; 2) it requires major

changes in values, attitudes and lifestyle within the group of reference; and 3) out-group

acceptance is required. The analysis here will focus on the last two points, the required

changes in the reference group and the out-group acceptance, to discuss assimilation of

Palestinian-Americans in Smallville.

In a session at the manager’s office in the Middle Eastern restaurant, I tried to

discuss assimilation with Kamal, Rashid and Said (Said is one of the Palestinian pioneers

in Smallville). Kamal summarized the group’s answer when he finally said:

And why would this be an issue? We are Americans. We might be different, but we have always tried to be good citizens. We pay our taxes and abide by the law. We vote and campaign for our representatives and officials. Our businesses are a major aspect of this town’s economy and we have connections with many people from different backgrounds: friends, neighbors, partners, coworkers, employees and customers. No one asked us to do or change anything else in our lives when we came here.

In the previous chapter I talked about how the community plays a major role in

putting its new members on the right track, language wise and professionally and legally,

once they arrive in Smallville. As a community of businessmen, Smallville’s Palestinians

believe that their success hinges on two things: being able to communicate, and knowing

the laws and rules for managing private business in the United States. Everyone I

interacted with in the community has an American name. They are at different levels of

mastery of the English language, but they all can communicate well. Their businesses are

at different levels, in terms of size and success, but they are all hard workers and they are

all American citizens. In their opinion these are the changes required to adapt and be

integrated within the local society in Smallville, and the country in general.

49

Nonetheless, the interviews with individuals from outside the Palestinian

community give a different picture of required changes. Mr. De Leon (71), a Mexican-

American who has lived in Smallville for over fifty years, says:

I have known these guys for a long time now. I did business with them so many times and never had any problems. My son works with one of them and he seems to be doing good. I have Palestinian friends and I am always invited to their weddings and stuff… but the thing about them is that they always seem closed on themselves. Maybe because they have strong family ties. We Mexicans used to have the same thing, but I think things are so different now… lots of people don’t know anything about their personal lives… you only see men at work. I coach a baseball team of young kids here in town and we have a couple of Palestinian kids, but I never saw their fathers attending any game, maybe they are busy, I don’t know….

Bea, a Navajo woman who works for Waleed and Hany Ghassan’s brothers, adds

that she feels alienated around them when they speak Arabic. She says, “It’s when they

start talking among themselves in their own language, you never know if they’re mad at

you cause you did something wrong, or if something is going on between them or what.”

A related point involves acceptance by the out-group. On many occasions and in

conversations with members of the community, the topic of 9/11 kept emerging. “Before

9/11 nobody bothered questioning our lives or beliefs, but since that day lots of people

started to suspect everything we do because of our Muslim or Middle Eastern origin,”

Ghassan says. The events of 9/11 and their consequences on a global scale (politically,

militarily and economically) have impacted the lives of other immigrant communities of

Muslim or Arab origins (Livengood and Stodolska 2004). On one hand, they began to

feel that their lives and beliefs have been put under scrutiny and sometimes suspicion

(Hagopian 2002; Livengood and Stodolka 2004). On the other hand, Islam, the Arabic

50

language, and the social and cultural life of those communities began to be of interest to

more researchers from different academic fields (Schaebler and Stenberg 2004).

What happened in Smallville was similar. More articles about the Palestinian

immigrants in town began to appear in the local newspapers. More students started taking

classes in Islam and Arabic at the community colleges in the region. And on one

occasion, right after 9/11, someone distributed flyers in downtown Smallville asking all

Arabs to go back to where they came from.

The Palestinian community responded to this new situation in different ways.

Kamal volunteered to write articles and editorials for the local newspaper to answer

questions about the community. He organized several regional conferences where

members of the community could meet with their fellow citizens and talk about Islam,

the Arabs and the Palestinians in America. He now lectures about those topics in various

schools and colleges in the region. Tarek (22), who came to Smallville with his family at

the age of eight, works today as a part time Arabic language instructor at the community

college. The Palestinian community also responded by distributing a bilingual booklet

explaining the civil rights of American citizens and copies of the booklet are available at

the Middle Eastern grocery store.

One Palestinian family in Smallville responded differently to the situation after

9/11. While I was in Smallville, Omar (34) and his brother Bassel (29) were preparing to

move back to Deir Debwan. When I met with Omar he told me that after the death of

their father in 2002, and after the pressure that they felt after 9/11, the family simply

decided to move back to Deir Debwan. “I think it’s going to be easier on us to live there

51

among our relatives. Our motels and the store in Smallville can be run while we’re

there… we are working on several projects back home. Besides, we can always come

back to the States whenever necessary,” Omar said.

The comparison between Teske and Nelson’s (1974) definition of assimilation

and the situation in Smallville leads to the following conclusions. First, the Palestinians

believe that they are doing what is necessary to become Americans. Second, some people

in Smallville believe that they still do not know enough about Palestinians to think of

them as a successfully assimilating group. Last but not least, the differences between

Palestinian-Americans in Smallville and their fellow citizens of other ethnicities have

come to the front after 9/11 and its impact on the relationship between the United States

and the Middle East. In the following sections of this study, I will refer to Teske and

Nelson’s definition as the classic conceptualization or definition of assimilation.

Assimilation and Multiculturalism

Since the 1950s and 1960s, American society has achieved relative success in

expanding the scope of U.S. citizenship (Alexander 2001). The efforts started with

African-Americans and expanded to include other ethnic and racial minorities. This fact

created, at least in the United States, the need for a new paradigm to discuss and study the

process of assimilation.

In 1974, Adler coined the term “multicultural man.” He described this type of

man: he maintains no boundaries between himself and others in different cultural

contexts; he can make major shifts in his frame of reference; he is always in the process

52

of being a part of or apart from a given cultural context; he is informative, resilient and

evolutionary (Adler 1974:369-371). Multiculturalism, therefore, takes the meaning of

looking at societies as “the sum of several equally valuable but distinct racial and ethnic

groups” (Stimpson 1992:43). Within this framework, Alexander (2001) contends that

multiculturalism implies moving towards a more democratic mode of civil integration, in

which concepts like “society,” “common values” and “community” are replaced by the

notion of “civil sphere” (Alexander 2001). A civil sphere is “a field organized around a

particular kind of solidarity, one whose members are symbolically represented as

independent and self-motivating persons, individually responsible for their actions, yet

also as actors who feel themselves, at the same time, bound by collective obligations to

all other individuals composing this sphere” (Alexander 2001:239). Assimilation here

becomes a more inclusive mode of integration and accepting differences, rather than a

“purifying process through interaction, education or mass mediated representations”

(Alexander 2001: 243).

As explained earlier, Smallville has a highly diverse racial and ethnic profile.

Palestinians in Smallville form one recognized and visible ethnic group. A mural in the

downtown area displays portraits of the men and women of Smallville, who come from

different racial and ethnic backgrounds. It contains two portraits of a man and a woman

in traditional Arabic costumes. The Palestinian ethnic group is also represented through

the presence of the mosque with its distinct architectural structure. The variety of accents

and physical phenotypes in multicultural Smallville makes the question “where are you

from?” very common in people’s interactions. One time I was in a restaurant with

53

Ghassan and his brother Waleed. We were speaking Arabic when the waitress stepped up

and asked, “You guys don’t look Arabic, though I know you are speaking Arabic.” I

asked her what ethnic group she thought we belonged to and she answered that we looked

Hispanic to her. On another occasion I was in a convenience store owned by a

Palestinian. I was chatting with the owner and a couple of his Palestinian friends, when a

man in his late fifties asked us where we were from. When we told him, “we are from

Palestine,” he said that we looked different to him, and sounded different when we talked

English so he wanted to ask. He introduced himself as a Spaniard living and working in

the United States for ten years. He said that we looked “Mediterranean” to him but he

couldn’t identify which country.

In such a diverse “civil sphere” (Alexander 2001: 239) one finds two phenomena.

The first is that people, in general, will vary in the way they deal with cultural

differences. Second, Palestinians themselves will have different degrees of assimilation,

depending on such factors as: the degree of competence in English; the length of time

lived in Smallville; age; the density of relationships and networks; and socioeconomic

status.

Assimilation and Cultural Citizenship

The term citizenship has two main legal connotations: 1) it implies that all

individuals are classified into only two categories; citizens and non-citizens; 2) it purports

that all citizens should have equal treatment and equal opportunities (Rosaldo 1994).

“Cultural citizenship” is a new term that was first coined by cultural and social

54

anthropologists in the mid nineties. According to Rosaldo, it means “the right to be

different and to belong in a participatory democratic sense” (Rosaldo 1994: 402). Ong

(1996: 738) adds that it “refers to the cultural practices and beliefs produced out of

negotiating the often ambivalent and contested relations with the state and its hegemonic

forms that establish the criteria of belonging within a national population and territory.”

Both Rosaldo and Ong agree that cultural differences also indicate differences in race,

religion, class, gender, or sexual orientation. They also contend that such differences are

used to make certain people less equal than, inferior to, as well as distinct from, others.

Ong (1996) however, points out a tendency in daily social practice towards ignoring the

differences that exist within these cultural groups. In the case of immigrants, for example,

she argues that in reality these immigrants come from a variety of socioeconomic or

national backgrounds. Nonetheless, both “long-term residents and newcomers are

ideologically constructed as the stereotypical embodiments of ethnicized citizenship”

(Ong 1996: 740).

In Smallville, Palestinians may differ from the majority of their fellow citizens in

their faith, their language, their socioeconomic status as successful businessmen, and

their national background. These are the features that seem common to all Palestinians in

Smallville. However, there are important differences within the group as well.

Although Islam is not the faith of all Palestinians around the world, it simply

happens to be the case that Palestinians in Smallville are all Muslims. Islam in the life of

the Palestinian community in Smallville can be observed easily through the services at

the mosque and through some cultural objects that indicate Muslim identity. Such

55

cultural objects can be seen in offices, homes and cars that are owned by Palestinians.

They include things like copies of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, or Koranic verses

hanging on walls or written on stickers, which can be easily obtained overseas or from

Islamic centers around the country. However, in terms of practice, attending regular

services at the mosque remains the most obvious indicator of observing Islamic

teachings.

During my stay in Smallville I went to the mosque on several occasions. I

observed that the crowd was not the same each time I was there. Some people were more

devoted than others and insisted on going to the mosque for the five times of services

everyday. Others only attended the main weekly service on Fridays, or the daily evening

meetings. In some cases, being busy with other engagements may be the main reason for

not going to the mosque.

Through my interactions with members of the community, I noticed that Islamic

discourse was not universal among Palestinians. Some have conservative opinions about

issues like marriage, raising children or observance of religious obligations, based on

Islamic teachings. Others take more secular or liberal standpoints and there exists a

variety of opinions in between the two extremes. Generally speaking, older people and

those who are first generation immigrants in Smallville are more likely to show and

maintain a strict Muslim identity.

Individuals differ in their attachment to, and mastery of, the Arabic language.

First generation members of the community are better speakers of the language than the

second or third generation for obvious reasons. Those who are first generation

56

immigrants, and have been living in the United States for over twenty years tend to code-

switch more than those who have been here for less time. Mixing English with Arabic is

also common but not as prevalent among the second and third generation, with a

tendency to prefer communicating in English despite understanding Arabic.

Nonetheless, there are ways in which the Arabic language is being preserved

among the Palestinians in Smallville. There are language lessons for children at the

mosque. Arabic is the language of the Islamic faith and observing Islam requires a certain

degree of knowledge of the language. The continuous arrival of newcomers plays a role

in keeping the Arabic language alive. Frequent business trips to the Middle East or visits

to families and relatives in Palestine or other Arab countries have reinforced the Arabic

language. Furthermore, communication and information technologies have made

interaction in Arabic possible without even leaving Smallville. The availability of phone

connections, the internet, instant messaging and chat rooms brings the Arabic language

today to any house in Smallville, or any other place in the world. In a similar way the

Arabic cable TV channels are also available to subscribers in the United States. In every

house I visited, and sometimes in some work places, the Arabic cable keeps Smallville’s

Palestinians connected to the rest of the Arab communities around the world.

The third common feature among Palestinians in Smallville that might separate

them from other groups in town is their professional life. As a community of

businessmen and entrepreneurs, Palestinians have closer relations with certain parts of the

Smallville population than with others. Their interactions with non-Palestinians tend to be

confined to circles related to their work. Also, their relatively high socioeconomic status

57

allows them to live in parts of the town where they interact with people from similar,

relatively well paid professions.

This general description does not apply to all the Palestinians in Smallville. Not

all the Palestinian owned businesses have the same level of success. Besides, those who

were born or raised in Smallville tend to have more relationships with people from

different ways of life. Furthermore, although Palestinians tend to live in wealthier

neighborhoods, they do not all live close to each other in one neighborhood. Though they

may separate themselves by socioeconomic status, they do not separate themselves as an

ethnic group living in one part of the town.

It should be mentioned that although the name Palestinian-American indicates a

common origin, it does not reflect the diversity in backgrounds of those Palestinians.

Almost eighty percent of the Palestinian community in Smallville came from one town in

Palestine, while the rest came from Palestinian communities in other Arab countries. The

Dabawneh (those from Deir Debwan) had a relatively easy connection with Smallville,

but the others faced a longer route of chain migration before finally settling in town.

Thus, in this case a shared country of origin or nationality does not reflect having the

same past experiences.

Here I tried to make two main points. First, in a democratic and multicultural

society like that of the United States, different cultural groups should have the right to

what Ong and Rosaldo call cultural citizenship. Second, not only are there differences

between groups, but the intensity of these differences vary within any given group. This

58

results in different degrees of assimilation into the social, economic and cultural life of

the host society.

59

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

In this study I used ethnographic research methods to answer three research

questions: 1) How do Palestinian-Americans in Smallville, New Mexico maintain the

boundaries of their immigrant group? 2) Why and for what purposes do they maintain

those boundaries? 3) How does that affect the process of cultural assimilation?

My ethnographic description of the Palestinian population in Smallville shows

that the boundaries of the Palestinian community are maintained through four main

mechanisms:

1- Sharing the same profession and life style.

2- Recruiting more newcomers from among relatives and friends as either

business partners or employees.

3- Building ties with other Palestinian families through marriage.

4- Having regular religious and social meetings with members of the community.

Bourdieu’s theory of practice provides an insight as to why members of the

Palestinian community use these mechanisms to maintain their group boundaries.

Bourdieu contends that all individuals strive to accumulate capital through their social

practices (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992; Bourdieu 1997). Capital, as he sees it, can be

economic (finance), social (network and connections), cultural (education and

knowledge), or symbolic (prestige). He also adds that all these types of capital are

convertible into one another (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992); money can be used to gain

60

more education, education can give a person more prestige, prestige means more social

connections, and so on.

In the case of the Smallville Palestinians, I suggest that the community as a whole

provides a unique source of all these types of capital for its members. For any newcomer,

connection to members of the community, or social capital using Bourdieu’s words, is

translated into immediate job opportunity; into training in English and private business

management; into connections with individuals from outside the community; and in some

cases into obtaining U.S. citizenship, especially through marriage. For those Palestinians

who live in Smallville, newcomers, besides being relatives or close friends, are always

good partners or loyal and devoted workers, which in turn is good for the business. In

other words, strong relations among the Palestinians in Smallville might be familial or

emotional, but they are also highly practical, especially for individuals who come to this

country as entrepreneurs or businessmen.

To look at the question of cultural assimilation, I used Teske and Nelson’s

definition of assimilation as a process (Teske and Nelson 1974). I agree with Alexander

(2001) that the question of assimilation, as it is defined by Teske and Nelson, is still valid

for anthropological and sociological inquiry despite what seems to be a paradigm shift

towards more inclusive theoretical stances, such as multiculturalism or cultural

citizenship (Adler 1974; Stimpson 1992; Young 1990; Rosaldo 1994; Ong 1996;

Alexander 2001). Assimilation, by definition, hinges on two main factors: 1) changes in

attitudes, values and life styles and 2) acceptance of the immigrant group.

61

As for the first factor, Palestinians believe that they have done what is necessary

to be good and active U.S. citizens. They are still considered different, however, by their

fellow citizens in Smallville in terms of their language, religion, profession and

socioeconomic status, and national background. These differences should be looked at in

two ways. First, the intensity of these differences varies depending on age and

generational differences, time spent in the United States, past experiences, education, and

level of success in business. Second, there is an objective factor that helps maintain

differences between the Palestinian community and their neighbors in Smallville. This

factor is globalization, with its driving forces of information, communication and

transportation technologies. It has helped these Palestinians maintain connections with

their original language, with their country of origin, and with their extended families

overseas (Appadurai 1996; Castels 1998; Inda and Rosaldo 2002).

The acceptance of this immigrant group involves two aspects. As individuals,

most of the Palestinians in Smallville are well accepted by those who relate to them

professionally; their success in business is a sign of that. As a community, however, the

acceptance of Smallville Palestinians was impacted negatively by the political relations

between the United States and the Middle East or the Muslim World after the events of

9/11. The response of Palestinians varied between activism to confirm their loyalty to

their new country (Kamal’s example), and leaving to live somewhere else while

maintaining economic relations with the United States (Omar and Bassel’s case).

It is apparent that individuals from the Palestinian community represent different

degrees of assimilation into the social and cultural life of Smallville.

62

REFERENCES:

Abraham, Sameer Y. and Nabeel Abraham, eds.1983 Arabs in The New World: Studies on Arab-American Communities. Detroit: Wayne State University.

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