July 29, 2003
Intermarriage Rate of Arab Americans
Patterns, determinants, and implications of intermarriage among Arab Americans
Kulczycki, Andrzej et al.
Journal of Marriage & Family. Vol 64(1), Feb 2002, pp. 202-210
Examined Arab American intermarriage using 1990 US Census data. Results indicate high rates of intermarriage consistent with an assimilation perspective. Over 80% of US-born Arabs had non-Arab spouses, implying a diminishing ethnic identification. Logistic regressions show that for both sexes, those with part Arab ancestry, the US born, those with strong English-language ability, and the highly educated were significantly more likely to out-marry, as were Arabs of Lebanese ancestry. It is concluded that the cultural and structural assimilation of Arab Americans is facilitating intermarriage, with indicators of acculturation being the strongest predictors, especially for women. This article further discusses ethnic options for children of intermarried couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Posted by Dienekes at July 29, 2003 12:38 AM | PermaLinkI think everybody has to consider that the arabs which immigrate in the US are not the nationalist-religious ones.
In fact if you speak about Lebanese people, the most are pro-west christians, to some extend in my opinion culturally more "European" than some modern Europeans.
lebanese are often francophile (france being a long time patron of the maronite christians, who are in communion with Rome additionally). there was once a debate in the lebanese community whether to identify with "Arab" (pan-Arabism) or "Mediterranean" (pan-Christendom). the former won.
Posted by: razib at July 29, 2003 10:19 AM"lebanese are often francophile (france being a long time patron of the maronite christians, who are in communion with Rome additionally). there was once a debate in the lebanese community whether to identify with 'Arab' (pan-Arabism) or 'Mediterranean' (pan-Christendom). the former won."
Culture (religion) lost out to language (Arabic) and, probably, blood.
Posted by: Unadorned at July 29, 2003 01:49 PMI've met some Lebanese who tried very hard to convince me that 1) they weren't Semitic; 2) they weren't Arab (they described themselves as "Phoenicians", weren't Phoenicians also Semites?). I nodded in polite agreement, not buying any of it...
Posted by: friedrich braun at July 29, 2003 02:08 PMPhoenicians are Semitic too, but there were other ethnic groups before and with the Semits.
But if you compare them with "real" Arabs, f.e. of Saudi Arabia, you see the difference even biologically.
They are as far as I know much more Mediterraneans than all other Arabs. (I differ between Mediterraneans with there different subgroups and Orientalid (Eickstedt, Baker etc., dont know what the equvalent is in English, but this are the core of the semitic people, in that sence Jews are Semitic just to a certain degree in terms of blood because they are more Armenid (Eickstedt)